HVX-300p- Audio distortion on lav mics

[David C jones]

Hi Megan,

Without seeing how you actually set up the gain structure with the camera, it’s hard to say what you might need to do differently.

Are you using wireless mics? Is the limiter set to “on” on the mixer? What’s the audio gain level set to (in the audio set-up menu)?

I hate to be “that guy” but this is why you need to monitor the audio in the field, using headphones plugged into the camera, or send a return to the mixer. Meters on these cameras can tell you the levels are correct when you’re actually recording distorted or clipped audio.

Sorry about your recording.

Dave

[Megan Evans]

Hi David,

Thanks for your help. I will check the gain settings in the camera (we’re new to this camera) and see. We monitored audio through headphones in the field, both on the camera and on the mixer. This distorted audio was caught in the field, albeit too late, but the rest of the shoot (2 days) went smooth with great audio. The guys shooting it say they did not change anything to correct the bad audio in the field, so it’s kind of a mystery…

Thanks again!
M

[Megan Evans]

Hi again David,

Some updated info on your questions:

The Rear Mic inputs (ch. 1 and 2) are set to -60Db in the camera audio settings menu. Those are the two channels we were using in the field.

I did notice that our firmware is 9.19 and I’ve seen that we need to upgrade to 9.28. Could this be a factor for our audio issues? Also, yes, the mixer limiter is ON.

Thanks again,
M

[Noah Kadner]

And this is why you hire a sound mixer and do what they say… 🙂

Noah

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[Ned Miller]

I too come from the betacam world and when I first moved to digital I learned that there is less head room, meaning hot audio breaks up. Or it could be the Mic/Line mistake a poster above alluded to.

So here is what you do from now on, and many of the TV shows I work on, like Dr. Phil, etc. demand:

Before the shoot even starts roll some bars and tone BUT then a little human voice and play back. Just takes a minute. INSIST the audio guy is listening off the camera, some only monitor their mixer. Especially if the audio guy is going wireless to the camera, they tend to not check the REAL camera audio.

So…lesson learned, we all learn by our mistakes. You should offer a reshoot at your expense and if the sound guy is ethical he will offer you many days of freebies to help make up for it.

Good luck,

Ned

[George Mcmorrow]

All previous posts are correct, you probably need to reshoot. I also do audio and had the same problem when the the cameraman switched from line to mic level when he moved his position. Lesson learned, ALWAYS have the mixer send 1k tone to camera to set levels and repeat this every time the camera moves and ALWAYS monitor audio from camera headphone jack. if it is sent back to mixer as a confidence line, do a quick pull and reinsert of cable from headphone jack to make sure that it is the camera audio that you are listening to, and not the audio from the mixer.
I worked a corporate job yesterday that had the mixer levels sends set one side to mic and other to line. I figured this out quickly when I sent the 1k tone.
The lessons learned under stress are never forgotten
George McMorrow
Cinecall Productions
cinecall.com