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Sound recording issue with EX1
Hi – thanks in advance for reading this.
I did a shoot yesterday with a Sony EX1 recording the audio on both external xlr inputs
Ch 1 – radio mic
Ch 2 – shotgun micI was shooting one person indoors.
I monitored the audio through headphones and all sounded fine until I transferred the footage to my computer.
Then the audio from the radio mic on Ch1 was just a very loud static hiss – like bad TV interference.
The Ch2 audio from the shotgun mic is fine.When I went back and listened to the clips on the camera they again sound fine – no hiss at all.
I suppose I’m wondering if there’s any chance that the problem on Ch1 has come with the transfer, and also, if there is (as I suspect) a problem with the radio mic why I couldn’t hear it through the headphones during recording.
Really appreciate any advice or comments
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12 Replies
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Just as video monitor accuracy is important so is audio monitor accuracy.
“listening” assumes there’s a device between camera and ears and if that device can’t handle the upper frequencies where the noise is then you’re not going to hear it. -
Could it be that you are hearing only one track? I find that the menu to choose which tracks you monitor quite confusing. The radio mic track could be suffering from interference from something like a mobile phone in the pocket of your subject. I’ve had a shoot completely disrupted by the wearer of a radio mic leaving their mobile phone switched on.
Michael Slowe
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[Michael Slowe] “The radio mic track could be suffering from interference from something like a mobile phone in the pocket of your subject. I’ve had a shoot completely disrupted by the wearer of a radio mic leaving their mobile phone switched on.”
I’ve experienced that as well. You would then stop the shoot and tell the person to turn off their mobile phone. Often when you tell people that, they just put in silence/vibrate so you have to tell them OFF means power off.
This is why one monitors sound during a shoot. If it’s a “surprise” in post, then there’s an issue with monitoring during the shoot. Headphones have to be able to present the upper (and lower) frequencies. You not only have to know that there is sound but you have to know if it’s usable sound.
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I can’t imagine anything that could happen in the transfer that would affect the audio. If you are doing clip browser or transfer to a back-up hard drive and then importing your files to your NLE that should not be causing the problem.
I would say that Craig and Michael are correct that you were not monitoring the radio mic with the headphones. There is a selectable menu option for audio output which I find confusing.
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What does the audio look like on the meters on the LCD screen? You should be able to tell the difference between good audio and static just by looking at it. They should look exactly the same.
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No Bob, they won’t necessarily look the same if there are different settings for each channel or if the signal strengths differ. But you are right that it will still be obvious if an audio signal is there or not.
Michael Slowe
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Try a test capture through firewire, hdmi, or composite and see if there is a difference. Not ideal, but just another way to problem solve the issue at hand.
Brent Dunn
Owner / Director / Editor
DunnRight Films
DunnRight Video.com
Video Marketing Toolbox.netSony EX-1,
Canon 5D Mark II
Canon 7D
Mac Pro Tower, Quad Core,
with Final Cut StudioHP i7 Quad laptop
Adobe CS-5 Production Suite -
Thanks so much for all your answers. I think the camera only monitors one channel as it turns out. Must have been interference from somewhere – I really should have checked for mobile phones – schoolboy error.
Thanks again for taking the time to reply -
The camera monitors what you set it to monitor. You can and should monitor both channels. I always do. In the majority of my shoots I’m used wireless on one channel and shotgun on the other and they are separate in my headphones so I can hear issues on either channel.
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Thanks Craig – I’ll make sure I look out for that in future, hadn’t realised that you could control the monitoring of the channels
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