Sound Pros...This Video Test Has Raw Audio...What Adjustments Are Needed?

There's a very high noise floor in the audio. It could be from improper gain staging, though "mid-point" and "10:00" don't say much... without a solid frame of reference on the wireless receiver, there's no way to know for folks watching the video). You aren't pushing the pre-amps of the DVX100a, though, so the camera likely isn't adding the noise. My guess is that it's because you bought a really cheap wireless system.

Is THIS the one you're using? The customer reviews are very, very telling. Notice that they're all from "home" users, and not a one of the reviews is from a professional... this is very clear by the language used in the reviews that give it 4 and 5 stars. One reviewer keeps calling it a PA system. Another says that it's connected using a "1/4" headphone cable (the large type)". Several reviews talk about parts breaking quickly, or not working out of the box and having to be replaced. Some mention signal problems that develop after a couple uses. Most say they're using this system for small worship services and for classroom lectures.

Not sure if you read the sticky (CLICK HERE), but there are many reasons not to cheap out on wireless. Plus, you have a receiver unit that isn't portable. It has to have a wall outlet. It's also on set frequencies, so you can't change channels if you hit interference.
 
Alex H. said:
There's a very high noise floor in the audio. It could be from improper gain staging, though "mid-point" and "10:00" don't say much... without a solid frame of reference on the wireless receiver, there's no way to know for folks watching the video). You aren't pushing the pre-amps of the DVX100a, though, so the camera likely isn't adding the noise. My guess is that it's because you bought a really cheap wireless system.

Is THIS the one you're using? The customer reviews are very, very telling. Notice that they're all from "home" users, and not a one of the reviews is from a professional... this is very clear by the language used in the reviews that give it 4 and 5 stars. One reviewer keeps calling it a PA system. Another says that it's connected using a "1/4" headphone cable (the large type)". Several reviews talk about parts breaking quickly, or not working out of the box and having to be replaced. Some mention signal problems that develop after a couple uses. Most say they're using this system for small worship services and for classroom lectures.

Not sure if you read the sticky (CLICK HERE), but there are many reasons not to cheap out on wireless. Plus, you have a receiver unit that isn't portable. It has to have a wall outlet. It's also on set frequencies, so you can't change channels if you hit interference.
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Hey thanx Alex. Yes that is the unit that I am using. Anyway... well for some scenes that I will be shooting they will be inside a room,I don't need it to be portable for now. Anyway I am saving up for a unit that I really want. But I had to get this unit to film a documentary that has elderly people and relatives to record community history this month. Never know when their time is coming. But I still want the production quality to be close to as professional as budget allows. I am not a sound pro but I always read and be open to critique for those who have been in the biz for a while. Well on DVX..the audio ajustment knob is on the third dot on the left..The audio level meters reading on the DVX they were not going over in the red. It might be on my tranmitter and the reciever because I did not make any adjustments on those two. I'm a still work with it. Thanx for your input.
 
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Northainan said:
Well on DVX..the audio ajustment knob is on the third dot on the left..The audio level meters reading on the DVX they were not going over in the red. It might be on my tranmitter and the reciever because I did not make any adjustments on those two. I'm a still work with it. Thanx for your input.
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Again, that doesn't tell me much except that you aren't adding a whole lot of gain in-camera. The noise floor might be minimized by fiddling with levels on the transmitter and receiver, but bargain-basement units like this often have lots of self noise that can't be tamed.

If you can't afford what you want now, it's often much better to rent what you need until you can buy what you need. Buying cheap now until you can buy better later is just throwing money away for results that aren't up to par. You'd be amazed at how inexpensive it is to rent a wireless lav system (much less than $50/day, and a week is usually billed as dayx4). Places like trewaudio.com will also ship rentals anywhere in the country.

If it's not too late, I'd suggest returning the Audio2000s and renting a Sennheiser G3.
 
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Alex H. said:
Again, that doesn't tell me much except that you aren't adding a whole lot of gain in-camera. The noise floor might be minimized by fiddling with levels on the transmitter and receiver, but bargain-basement units like this often have lots of self noise that can't be tamed.

If you can't afford what you want now, it's often much better to rent what you need until you can buy what you need. Buying cheap now until you can buy better later is just throwing money away for results that aren't up to par. You'd be amazed at how inexpensive it is to rent a wireless lav system (much less than $50/day, and a week is usually billed as dayx4). Places like trewaudio.com will also ship rentals anywhere in the country.

If it's not too late, I'd suggest returning the Audio2000s and renting a Sennheiser G3.
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OK....I bought the Sanken CS1 from Trewaudio a while back. I did not know they rent nation wide.
 
One other thought... is it absolutely necessary to use a wireless system for this project? If you're shooting for seated interviews, you have two other options that are both viable and within the same budget neighborhood as the wireless system you bought (maybe just slightly more).

On one hand, you could get something like the Countryman EMW lav, wired for XLR and phantom power, and run it straight into the camera. Even better, look at something like the RØDE lav, which would allow you to get the XLR connector now and buy a connector later for a wireless system when you get to that point. If you aren't moving around, there's no reason it has to be wireless.

On the other hand, you could go ahead and invest in a hypercardioid, and just use it on a mic stand with a boom arm. This will give you the opportunity for very clean dialog during your interviews. One of the best "hidden gems" in the low-cost hypercardioid range is the Audio Technica U873r. It doesn't get much attention around here, but I think that's because folks don't really know about it. And just like the lav, if you're talking about seated interviews then there's no reason you can just put a mic on a stand, just out of frame. And icing on the cake? You don't have to worry about burying the mic in clothing.
 
Alex H. said:
One other thought... is it absolutely necessary to use a wireless system for this project? If you're shooting for seated interviews, you have two other options that are both viable and within the same budget neighborhood as the wireless system you bought (maybe just slightly more).

On one hand, you could get something like the Countryman EMW lav, wired for XLR and phantom power, and run it straight into the camera. Even better, look at something like the RØDE lav, which would allow you to get the XLR connector now and buy a connector later for a wireless system when you get to that point. If you aren't moving around, there's no reason it has to be wireless.

On the other hand, you could go ahead and invest in a hypercardioid, and just use it on a mic stand with a boom arm. This will give you the opportunity for very clean dialog during your interviews. One of the best "hidden gems" in the low-cost hypercardioid range is the Audio Technica U873r. It doesn't get much attention around here, but I think that's because folks don't really know about it. And just like the lav, if you're talking about seated interviews then there's no reason you can just put a mic on a stand, just out of frame. And icing on the cake? You don't have to worry about burying the mic in clothing.
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Hey great..that Audio Techica U873r sounds like a winner. I will be purchasing this one. Ok...in my community renting is not an option because...people in their late 70's and 80's....you work on THEIR time...lol. I remember I scheduled to take some photos of this lady and later had to re-schedule because her pastor wanted her for church business that day and the next day she had to do something. It was a week later when finally took her photo. LOL.
 
Just remember that it's all in the placement. Set the mic overhead, just in front of the interview subject, and aimed at the sternum. The closer, the better... and if you can get within 12" if the person's mouth, you're golden. This will require phantom power from your camera. A suspension mount, such as the Rycote INV-6, is also a great investment.
 
Alex H. said:
Just remember that it's all in the placement. Set the mic overhead, just in front of the interview subject, and aimed at the sternum. The closer, the better... and if you can get within 12" if the person's mouth, you're golden. This will require phantom power from your camera. A suspension mount, such as the Rycote INV-6, is also a great investment.
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Fantastic.. Thanx again guy.
 
Interesting reviews. I like the one where the guys big problem is that the balanced outs were XLR and not something "simple".


What I do get out of them is that none were by folks who knew what they were doing. So it might be possible to get good results IF you really knew what you were doing. But QA seems very weak and if you know what you are doing are you going to buy cheap sh%t?

But it was interesting since most of the non QA issues seemed like bad set up. Of course on the flip side what many users at that level consider acceptable sound is far short of what most people on this list would accept.
 
Noiz2 said:
Interesting reviews. I like the one where the guys big problem is that the balanced outs were XLR and not something "simple".


What I do get out of them is that none were by folks who knew what they were doing. So it might be possible to get good results IF you really knew what you were doing. But QA seems very weak and if you know what you are doing are you going to buy cheap sh%t?

But it was interesting since most of the non QA issues seemed like bad set up. Of course on the flip side what many users at that level consider acceptable sound is far short of what most people on this list would accept.
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So true. There are many pages of interviews on this product on Amazon because they do have different prices. But one that sold me was a guy that sounded like a pro when he commented he used this unit on filming interviews of some politician I think. LOL. Anyway now that I made this clip. People can hear this sample on how it sounds. Anyway those who are serious are members of DVXuser and if they are really serious about production quality they would definitely visit this forum and they can get some great info.
 
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