Rode videomic problem

H

H9_Danny

New member
Hi all

My first post so be gentle please ( I also have Aspergers and tend to over simplify in order to grasp an understanding)

I have a Rode videomic and have been using it in my home studio which is approx 5m x 4m x 3m high (and carpeted floor). Initially I had it camera mounted and all was fine but only recently I started getting handling noise which has been making editing impossible

I ran a series of tests and put it down to changing hands whilst filming and the cause was my touching the camcorder strap...it came
out as a echo-ee tapping noise and after testing all the different positions this was the culprit

I am fortunate enough to be able to now hang the videomic from the ceiling in the centre of the room and I bought a 5m AV cable extension from Maplins today and tested it.
sevveral of the tests gave good quality sound on vocals but a scratchy interference noice throughout.
I took the cam mic level off the auto setting and reduced it to -12 in order to get a decent result but it's not perfect

Am I missing something here?

Any help and advice would be welcomed

Thanks
 
Welcome to DVXUser, Danny!

First, you might want to poke around the yellow stickies at the top of the Audio forum, especially "Audio 101" which has some great information on mics and mic usage.

Second, which camera are you using? And is this actually the VideoMic, or is it the VideoMic Pro? You've given us some good information, but not quite enough. That said...

- Auto level for sound recording is typically a bad idea. Depending on the camera, and whether it is actually "Auto Gain Control" or it's simply an automated limiter, it can make the sound levels crunchy and very, very loud. This both squeezes the dynamic range and amplifies any background and extraneous noise, including handling noise and self-noise (hiss) from the mic and the camera.
- On-camera is the worst and last place to put the mic for decent sound. Get it off the camera and as close to the action as you can. Hanging it from the ceiling is one option, I reckon, but using a basic mic stand with boom arm will be much better (you'll need a thread adapter to mount the VideoMic).
- A shotgun mic is not the best choice indoors, generically speaking, so your results may not be up to par even under the best circumstances in your room.
- Are you listening (monitoring) with headphones while you record?
- Can you post a sample of the "scratchy interference noise" that you get with the extension cable"? Sound issues are hard to diagnose without actually hearing them.

Hope this at least gives you a starting place. The VideoMic isn't a bad mic for what it is. I have the VM Pro and it's pretty fantastic, again for what it is. But there are limitations, and a few missing pieces of information regarding your system.

Again, welcome, and I hope that this community can be of help to you!
 
Hi Alex
As it's my first cam, I bought a Panasonic HDC-SD800 to cut my teeth on and it it the videomic, not the pro. My intention is to learn and then use them as back-up/2nd units once I move up

I am on my own, so boom arm is not really an option and I am not using headphones but will start using them.

I have not published anything but you can hear the noise on this piece of audio. This is the noise I started getting when the Rode was on the cam it's like a finger tapping noise..crunch is the word you used and it's only just started doing this... I also should mention that I dont use the zoom in the space I have, I don't need to and the noise only comes when I start moving around
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNF1HjRMjfg

I did my tests on battery only and eliminated it down to my touching the strap on the cam, it is identical to what I am hearing but only a lot louder. So I read a few threads and decided to hang the mic from the ceiling.

I have put an elastic band around the shockmount to eliminate any movement and it is hanging nicely and I did 5 tests altering both the mic level and the switch postion on the videomic but cant seem to get it silent. The vocals are perfect everytime but the new problem is like an electrical humming

The tests I did today were as follows
SET UP:
ceiling mounted mic
5 metre AV extension cable plugged into the mic and clipped across the ceiling(no electrics anywhere near) and hanging down in a corner and plugged into the cam
test 1: cam volume @ 0....mic setting @ flat............very bad interference
test 2: " " @ 0... " " @ high..........loud hissing
test 3: " " @ auto " " @ high..........loud hissing
test 4: " " @ -12 " " @ high..........lots better but still there
test 5: " " @ -12 " " @ flat...........even better but not cured completely and a lower vocal volume

I use the "studio" for interviews/demos and all the lighting is ceiling mounted and in the corners, so no electrics near the extension cable. Could it be a cheap cable?, it came from Maplins but is marked AV sterio

This interference sound is close to what I am getting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=8M_fvmVAqWY&feature=endscreen

Thanks for your time Alex
 
While little camcorders like that certainly aren't the most pristine in the audio department, they aren't awful. I have the TM900 and the sound is passable.

Listening with headphones is a must-do. You don't shoot video blind, so why record audio without listening? That allows you to detect problems as they happen, rather than finding them in post when it's really too late to do anything.

Is the first video yours, or someone else's? Since at least the second video is not yours, I can only guess what's going on. The thumps in the first one sound like handling noise, and a little grind from the zoom servo. That's to be expected. The VideoMic doesn't have the most effective suspension and handling sounds and other vibrations can still creep in here an there. It may be helpful to pop open the bag of spare rubber bands and double them up on each end.

The second one, well... again, you've pointed to something like what you're experiencing, so there's no way to know for sure... you may have a cheap cable that's poorly-shielded. Not knowing exactly what brand it is, what you paid for it, whether it has molded connectors, what quality of leads it has running through it... I have no idea what Maplins is, and I assume that's a UK store. Remember also that you're using an unbalanced cable run, which basically means that the longer you run an extension, the more signal interference you can introduce.

As for a boom not being an option, I wasn't talking about a fish pole. I was talking about a mic stand with a boom arm: something like THIS. You can get a thread adapter to mount the mic to the arm, and place it overhead and just out of frame. Hands-free, and effective.
 
Last edited:
H9_Danny said:
Hi all

My first post so be gentle please ( I also have Aspergers and tend to over simplify in order to grasp an understanding)

I have a Rode videomic and have been using it in my home studio which is approx 5m x 4m x 3m high (and carpeted floor). Initially I had it camera mounted and all was fine but only recently I started getting handling noise which has been making editing impossible

I ran a series of tests and put it down to changing hands whilst filming and the cause was my touching the camcorder strap...it came
out as a echo-ee tapping noise and after testing all the different positions this was the culprit

I am fortunate enough to be able to now hang the videomic from the ceiling in the centre of the room and I bought a 5m AV cable extension from Maplins today and tested it.
sevveral of the tests gave good quality sound on vocals but a scratchy interference noice throughout.
I took the cam mic level off the auto setting and reduced it to -12 in order to get a decent result but it's not perfect

Am I missing something here?

Any help and advice would be welcomed

Thanks
Click to expand...

You should not use an extension cable with the Videomic.

It has an unbalanced output and an axtension cable just acts like an antenna to pick up radio interference.

I would remove the Røde shockmount and use a Rycote camera mount. This will improve the isolation - also, the cable clips into the shockmount and so decouples the cable from the mic. so that touching the camera or the plug-end part of the cable would not transmit handling noise along the cable to the mic.
 
In June 2004 Panasonic released their GS400 consumer vidcam, and it had the same audio interference buzz when the Rode Videomic was used on that camera in certain locations.

The cure was to run the GS400 on AC power, not its battery. Back then it was a well known problem with the Panasonic GS400, not Sony, Canon or any other makes.

Mid 2005 in a Qantas conference I saw that same AC setup with about 2x15 metres of unbalanced VM extension cables from a VM to a GS400 and this was with multiple wireless mics in use in the room.

The only problem was a very slight hiss due to the unbalanced cable length, but no one noticed and the speech was usable.

Cheers.
 
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