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Sescom + Zoom H4n + T3i = loud hissing? How can I get rid of it?
Hi, I just bought some audio equipment after some researching. I was under the assumption that if I got this sescom cable, I would be able to plug it straight into my t3i and have pretty decent audio. I just did a test with new said hardware and that isnt the case!
When I pull my audio straight off my zoom h4n, the audio is beautiful! In the same recording session however the audio recorded using the sescom cable into the T3i has tons of background hissing noise!
My audio is set to manual with no clipping to be seen, is there some setting i’ve overlooked? Or is there something else in general that i’m just plain missing?
Also, not sure why it would matter, but my microphone I’m using is the rode ntg-1, I do have phantom power on within the zoom.
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2 Replies
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If the audio on the H4N with the same gear is fine, then the issue is either the cable or the 3Ti. If your audio levels in the 3Ti are showing ‘fine’ meaning -10 or greater, (meaning lower) then it’s likely the cable. I’d see about returning it and getting a second one to make sure it’s not the cable. You might want to read the reviews on it at B&H. There have been some negative ones. But it does work as advertised it seems. So my guess is it’s a faulty cable.
I had a T2i from Canon and eventually sold it because it was not very good at audio or video quality. Not sure what improvements they made, but it should be better than a hissy mess.
I have to say, that I was never impressed by the H4N and experienced harshness to it until I eventually had it fail. The H5 is much better though still a bit harsh to my ears.
Al
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[steven dileo] “My audio is set to manual with no clipping to be seen, is there some setting i’ve overlooked? Or is there something else in general that i’m just plain missing?”
Provided you are running the Canon audio in manual mode, meaning that the built in AGC (audio gain control) is off then what you’re experiencing is the glowing quality of DSLR audio. So even if AGC is off on a DSLR the components that make up the guts of a DSLR audio – A/D converters, preamps, etc – are very cheap quality and tend to produce noise even under ideal situations. Your best bet is to run second source audio, like to your H4N, and send a scratch track to you T3i to make it easier to sync up in post. You second source audio will be the high-quality, clean file. The DSLR audio is just for help syncing the footage to your second source.
DSLR’s were never intended to shoot video, and even less to record audio. While they do both of these things nowadays, they do them generally in very poor ways (pixel binning, line skipping, AGC, ergonomics, poor connectivity options, etc). In order to work around the limitations you have to supplement the DSLR with other gear. In the case of audio it’s always to bring in a second device that’s dedicated to that job – Zoom, TASCAM or whatever.
Ryan Holmes
http://www.ryanholmes.me
@CutColorPost
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