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Sound distortion with Sennheiser EW 100 G3
We were recording a presentation in which speakers were also using a wireless headset to project sound. It was in a hotel and the audience was about 100 or so (each with a cell phone, I am sure). We scanned for open frequencies after running into terrible interference. The after selecting a new channel, etc. we moved forward. The camera person who was wearing headphones gave the thumbs up to move forward. After dumping the footage into my NLE, I found there were still issues with interference…or at least that’s what I am assuming it is. I have never run into this issue until then, and ran into it AGAIN the following weekend at a wedding. I am now using Audition to clean up the audio manually.
Can anyone tell what caused this issue by looking at the attached images?
Is there an easier way to clean the audio rather than removing spikes manually?
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11 Replies
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HI
Can you upload a short sample of the problem were looking at?
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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Thank you Peter. Hopefully I did those right on the second try!
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i see / hear nothing
Post Production Dubbing Mixer
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Hi Peter, I pasted a ZIP file link below the photos in my original post. When I click on that it takes me to a download page where I can click on the file seen below and download the file. I am obviously not understanding how this works
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It sounds like front end distortion to me – ie the audios higher transients are clipping on front end electronics such as the input to a mixer or recorder. That wont necessarily result in a loud recording as the electronics are being overloaded, but the recording level can be waay down.
I would say that Id expect headphone monitoring at the time of recording to have showed it up. Were you monitoring ?
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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NB Izotopes de clicker might have a decent go at removing the cracks as theyre very short.
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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I will have to ask. I hired someone to use my camera and I don’t know if he was monitoring the audio the entire time (40 minutes). I was one of the speakers, so was very distracted. I imagine if he was listening he would have heard it. I was wearing using another lav (cheaper one…basically unusable audio) on channel 2 but I noticed when editing the footage, that he turned off that channel after I was done speaking. So if he had been wearing the headphones at that time, he would have heard the issue. So are you saying the audio level in was too high? Or it was some other setting that was not right? This was such a huge bummer for me. But a valuable learning experience.
When we were testing it he said the audio was perfect after I scanned and found a clear bank/frequency.
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It doesnt sound like a frequencies / rf issue.
To my ear it sounds like clipping the input electronics (too high)
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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Yes, I am sure you are correct. And thus the value of headphones. I was cleaning up every spike manually but then after carpel tunnel started to set in, I gave up. Don’t think there is an easy way to fix this kind of problem without creating other problems. Glad I wasn’t being paid for this one.
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Like i said, izotopes de click function is designed to remove short spikes. Also, are you trying to do it in say Pro Tools or in a video NLE (as they only offer a very crude 1 25th sec edit whereas a sound nle like pt goes much tighter.
You could try setting up a ducker to be triggered off the high ampolitude audio spike that goes right down to zero, but whose attack and releaase are very fast, hence autotriggering the duck?
If its not in your skillset , Im sure theres a local post studio who will have the neccessary skillset in house?
PeterPost Production Dubbing Mixer
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