Audio Interference? (With pics and audio!)

[Richard Crowley]

I listened to all of your samples.
In one of them I heard no artifacts at all, so it is not clear what is the issue?
In the other samples, I heard “rustling” noise from clothing.
The microphone is far enough away from his mouth that it would be extraordinary to hear plosives.

If there were a problem with plosives, then popular solutions include windscreens (foam or fur)..
And if you look carefully at most TV newsreaders (“anchors”) on local and national news,
you will see that they often have the microphone clipped on “upside-down”
Since the microphones are typically omnidirectional the still pick up the sound properly,.
But if they are upside down, they are more protected from the stream of air coming out of the mouth.

However, I do NOT hear plosive or related artifacts your examples.
If you just casually clip a microphone in a random place without checking, you are vulnerable to those artifacts.
You must be more intentional about WHERE you clip the mic, and how the cord is supported along its length.
I usually monitor the sound from the recorder with headphones and have the subject move his arms and body around vigorously to listen for those kind of noises from clothing.
Remember that the cord itself picks up noise and mechanically conducts it back to the microphone head.

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Recording audio without metering and monitoring is exactly like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder.

[Ty Ford]

Hello Mary and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum,

After listening (and thanks for braving the challenging upload rigamarole here) I agree with Richard.

Plosives are pops caused by breaths. I don’t hear any on any of these recordings.

What I do hear is cable and or mic clip wiggles. It’s pretty standard to use gaffers tape on the cable to hold the cable in place after placing the mic. I also use the tried and true method of making a small 1″ to 1.5″ loop in the cable and taping it to the inside of the shirt to eliminate or lessen this noise caused by the cable moving on the fabric as the person speaks.

Here’s a video that should give you some new ideas.

https://www.google.com/search?q=using+gafers+tape+on+a+lav&oq=using+gafers+tape+on+a+lav&aqs=chrome..69i57.8627j0j1&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#kpvalbx=1

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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