sound problem dvx

N

NOA

Active member
Hi, I am a weddingvideographer from Belgium and have worked the past 3 years with a Sony vx2100 to film wedding events, recently I have added a new dvx102b to my collection (It's called grey import here in Belgium but is technically identical to a dvx100b)

I discovered a problem with the dvx's sound last week, I was doing some testshooting in a church and noticed during editing that there was a constant kind of "trrrr" sound in the background.

To be sure I put my sony and the dvx side by side and recorded some testfootage at home. The cameras were placed in my livingroom and I first recorded "silence", then a recording with quite backgroundmusic, then the last recording was with the musicvolume turned much higher.

I used settings F1 and f5 on the dvx because in progressive mode the camerasound was less noticable. The audio controls on the side of the dvx were also turned wide open because only then it matched up with my sony. (I tried to have the audio controls halfway but then I had to use audiogain in premiere to get it to the same level as my Sony)
The sound was recorder with the build in mic

The clips are seperated with a very short moment of no sound.

The test clip (13mb) can be found here

First 3 clips recorded in a quite environment
Clip 1 - Dvx with setting f5
Clip 2 - Dvx with setting F1
Clip 3 - Sony at default settings

Next 3 clips with quite backgroundmusic
Clip 4 - Dvx with setting f5
Clip 5 - Dvx with setting F1
Clip 6 - Sony at default settings

Last 3 clips with loud background music
Clip 7 - Dvx with setting f5
Clip 8 - Dvx with setting F1
Clip 9 - Sony at default settings

It looks like the dvx has problems receiving high tones as well, especially listening at the first 3 clips you can hear a big difference between the first 2 and the 3th, can anyone pls tell me if this is normal for a dvx?? Thanks in advance for any feedback.
 
I haven't listened to the clips, but the dvx usually has excellent sound circuitry. The built in mics are not great, though. I have noticed strange artifacts from them. When I put an Oktava MK012 mic on the camera the sound was much better. (Mounting any mic on the camera is going to get you less than optimal sound, but sometimes you just have to live with that.)
 
iain.bason said:
I haven't listened to the clips, but the dvx usually has excellent sound circuitry. The built in mics are not great, though. I have noticed strange artifacts from them. When I put an Oktava MK012 mic on the camera the sound was much better. (Mounting any mic on the camera is going to get you less than optimal sound, but sometimes you just have to live with that.)
Click to expand...
There is no question about the quality of the sound ciruitry but the built in mic must be one of the worst I have ever worked with, when looking a bit further on the internet I noticed some reports on users complaining about the noisy zoom or autofocus as well and how the internal mic pics it up.
Now you can say ofcourse to turn of all the automatic functions which I'm sure works fine in controlled circumstances but if your are capturing weddings I rather depend partially on automatic functions swithing to manual whenever possible or necessary.
My Sony f.i. does not pick up any camera sound at all (In fact, the camera itself is very quite when recording) and the audio it records has allways been excellent.
In that way I am quite dissapointed in the dvx as I would have expect better from a camera which receives so many good reviews on the audio part but appearantly that doesn not go for the onboard mic. Or maybe the onboard mic is realy good but the camera produces way too much noise during operation that it picks up everything.
Today I'm meeting with the person who sold it to me and he would bring another dvx to compare so then I know if this is something I have to live with or not, probably I will have to buy an external mic to reduce the problem.
 
NOA, categorically forget using the inbuilt microphone for anything. You're a wedding videographer and regardless of camera, because you're offering a sevice you should be using an external mic for higher quality sound.
 
ncje said:
NOA, categorically forget using the inbuilt microphone for anything. You're a wedding videographer and regardless of camera, because you're offering a sevice you should be using an external mic for higher quality sound.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the advise, but I do use an external source for voice recording. I was just surprised that the dvx inbuild mic performed so bad compared to my Sony.
Did you listen to the sound samples though? and do you think this is normal? I just need to be sure so I can get an external mic to minimize the problem or have the camera fixed if something should be wrong.
 
I just listened to the sound samples, and then to my dvx with the internal mics. Yes, your samples sound normal to me. I also hear noise when I move the focus or zoom rings.
 
iain.bason said:
I just listened to the sound samples, and then to my dvx with the internal mics. Yes, your samples sound normal to me. I also hear noise when I move the focus or zoom rings.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for this info, I just returned from the salesperson were I got my dvx and we compared it with a new dvx and I picked up the same rattling sound through the onboard mic. Now I know for sure that this is "normal" and that I have to provide an external xlr shotgun.

Is there beside the "Oktava MK012" (Which is from a Belgian supplier by the way :)) which was mentioned earlier, a good quality shotgun mic that can be attached to the dvx? I"m not sure about the above mic, is that type not more for interviews?
 
Noa, I love the octava boomed. I use a light stand with a boom buddy, which is a special clamp to hold a boom pole over my talents head and run a long cable back to cam. Albiet its not as portable as an on-camera shotgun, you'll find most on-camera mics pick up camera noise as well...be they built in or built on. Best recording with any mic is 2-4 ft. from your talents chest. Vowels and Consonants are your criteria for good recording. Can the dialog be understood easily. If your video is not top shelf, and we all know how hard that is, your audio better be, or nobodys gonna watch. Check out the audio section here for some top notch advise...and read their stickies.
 
The Oktava is Russian, by the way. Apparently there has been a counterfeit (Chinese, if I remember correctly). It is a hypercardioid rather than a shotgun.

I second the recommendation to check out the audio forum.
 
iain.bason said:
The Oktava is Russian, by the way
Click to expand...

You are right, I thought it was Belgian because they have a website with a ".be" extension which made me think it was from here. Oktava started producing mics in Russia in 1947
Thanks for the tip for the audio section, will check that out.
 
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