[Chris Dolan]

How do you address the issue of sound being recorded through direct contact with the unit, ie; clothing? I noticed when the unit is clipped to my belt, it picks up every little bit of contact with it’s surface. This is with the external lav mic plugged in.

[Chris Dolan]

One other question that came to mind after I replied earlier;

Is it possible to remove echo from audio using Audition? I know it has filters to add reverb and echo…so I wonder if the reverse is possible.

[Chris Dolan]

Thanks very much for taking the time to research and respond.

I’ve used the Azden lav on my wireless setup and it works surprisingly well for a low-end system. The iRiver unit has an input jack that can be switched via menus between a stereo line-in or microphone input. That feature is not readily evident in the website’s product information.

I tested the setup again and found that the audio isn’t that bad if the lav is pretty close to the mouth. However, the problem seems to be that it is too sensitive. It picks up echos from the room and a fair amount of background noise. The unit has an automatic gain control that can be turned off, but it doesn’t seem to help. I think this is why I felt the audio sounded very ‘canned.’ It also picks up the sound of clothes rubbing against the unit itself (not the lav.)

When I import mono audio to Adobe Audition, I convert it to stereo using Audition’s conversion feature. Sorry for calling it ‘doubling-up,’ that does sound confusing.

I’ve found that sometimes all I need might be a second or two from the backup unit because the subject hit his mic while speaking. I’m no audio expert, so I’m not great at fixing that kind of problem. If I have something like the iRiver unit as a backup, I can grab that brief clip of audio and insert it to cover the mistake. For such a short duration, the level of quality is imperceptible. I guess I was searching to find out if I could improve the quality enough to use it for longer clips, should my primary microphone fail.

Thanks again for the input.

[Chris Dolan]

Thanks so much for your insightful and thoughtful response.

Based on what was said by David C-G in the Event Videographers forum, this combination reportedly recorded audio with quality on par with a wireless mic. The Azden lavalier, despite it’s price point, captures pretty darn good audio for a cheap unit.

What I expected was just basic voice recording that I could use as a backup if the wireless failed. I wasn’t expecting to perfectly reproduce symphonic sound.

Anyone else have something constructive to add?

[Chris Dolan]

I read somewhere on the ‘cow’ that it’s better not to pre-transcode avi files before the burn. Someone said to let it transcode right before it burns to disc.

Speaking of transcoding… I’ve found that if I leave it set on ‘Automatic,’ the disc has a higher tendency to skip on my client’s players. I usually select the VBR two pass, max 7 rate for NTSC and it plays better. Any thoughts on that?

[Chris Dolan]

I have the iRiver 895 and I’m not thrilled with the audio. I recorded to it using an Azden EX-503 lavalier and found the audio to sound very ‘canned’ if you know what I mean. Doen’t sound very good to me. I couldn’t even adjust it in Audition to the point that it was good enough to put in the video.

Has anyone else had this problem?

[Chris Dolan]

I found a ton of sample contracts online just by Googling ‘Photography Contract’ which is very similar in many respects. You’ll have to find one that fits your needs, but it really depends entirely on what language you want to include.

Here’s an example I found in the above Google search; https://www.dannysteyn.com/wedding-photography-contract-print.htm

Good luck.

[Chris Dolan]

Well, as it turns out, the mini-cable on this unit is a stereo-to-mono cable. If the jacks are reversed, the sound is barely audible according to the Azden technician. I’m sure this is what happened, so apparently there’s nothing wrong with the transmitter or receiver. This was entirely user error. In my own defense, I’ll say that I had no idea the cable’s jacks couldn’t be reversed. I assumed it was irrelevent which way the jacks were plugged in.

Oh well. Problem solved…but I thought I’d point this out for anyone else who might make the same mistake.

Chris

[Chris Dolan]

Are you saying it is known for having problems? I’m only going to buy something else if it has a history of issues.

[Chris Dolan]

There’s a thread in the Event Videographers forum that discusses minidisc recorders, as well as MP3 recorders; https://www.creativecow.net/forum/read_post.php?postid=111269760486520&forumid=11

I bought a couple of the iRiver iFP-895 units for backup during wedding ceremonies. So far, I’m not pleased with the audio quality. It is rather tinny and sounds canned. There’s also a discernable buzz. I’m no audio pro and certainly haven’t been able to successfully adjust the recording quality in Audition to make it sound more natural, like my wireless mic.

I’d like to hear opinions and advice on using the iFP 895 from people who have used them successfully, such as a way to adjust for the lower-quality sound.