Richard Crowley
1
COW Coin
Forum Replies Created
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The cost of the audio equipment and experienced crew for just ONE presidential appearance likely eclipses your entire audio budget. Of course there are ways of getting excellent audio quality on a tight budget, but not unless you have someone looking after audio who knows what they are doing. Low budget with low experience are a deadly combination.
There is no way we can tell from your verbal description whether the audio could be improved at all. It is quite possible that your editor already worked all the practical magic available to get where you are now. Did your editor tell you what was done to your audio tracks?
It also seems possible that your expectations may exceed the quality of the audio materials.
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Antennas are typically cut to a length proportional to their frequency (actually wavelength). 1/4 wavelength is a typical length for a whip antenna like that. Suggest researching the documentation and/or contacting the manufacturer. If you use an antenna that is very much different than the optimal length, it will significantly reduce the reliable operating range. I wouldn’t recommend just connecting any old random antenna.
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Audacity is likely capable of doing all the processing you asked about. It already has some automatic scheduling features, but it is open-source which means that it can be modified to do whatever is needed. That is where I would start looking.
https://audacity.sourceforge.net/about/features
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Check out MXlight as a solution to both live streaming AND recording the H.264 video from the USB output of the TVS. It is quite possible that it will run on one of your older PC systems.
I have successfully used the resistor-pad version of the balanced AES to BNC digital audio input on the TVS. Three 10-cent resistors. No transformer required. I made my own,but they can be purchased commercially, also. Of course, if you already have the transformer, might as well use it.
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Can we assume that you are plugging these mics DIRECTLY into the camera? No mixer, recorder, even XLR cable???
It seems like an EXTREME coincidence that two very different mics suddenly exhibit the SAME symptom!
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This is the kind of report that maintains Azden’s poor reputation.
There used to be “Aphex Aural Exciter” gadgets which purported to add even harmonics back into “flat” audio. Dunno if they are still around (or if there are software plug-in equivalents?)
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It sounds to me like the wireless receiver needs repair. It is almost like a “soft squelch” letting in receiver noise, but only during speech. It is tough to try to remove broadband noise like that after the fact.
This is why we never use wireless where a wired mic would work. A $15 cable is better than a $1500 wireless kit. It is also why we CAREFULLY monitor and meter the audio as we are recording it. This is general admonishment, clearly Mr. Brewer is only trying to clean up after the fact.
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If the camera has a mic input, you could use something like a Beachtek DXA-2 or even MCC-2 adapters for your camera, and eliminate the extra work and expense of a separate audio recorder.
https://www.beachtek.com/products/camcorders/dxa-2t/
https://www.beachtek.com/products/camcorders/mcc-2/All modern camcorders have “stereo” (read: “2-channel”) audio recording. It is simply a matter of plugging each separate microphone into a separate channel. That is one of the functions of the Beachtek adapters. They provide separate mic input jacks for each channel. You are NOT combining the audio into “one input”. You have TWO inputs.
If I had a camera with a mic input and your low audio budget, I would rather buy two halfway-decent clip-on mics and record them directly to the camera vs. using a separate audio recorder. Getting the mic closer to your subject(s) will make a MUCH bigger improvement than using a separate recorder.
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Does your camera have a microphone input connector? If not, then you will need to use a separate sound recorder.
I would use a “shaver” digital audio recorder and a couple of decent wired clip-on lav mics. You do not have the budget for even 1/2 of ONE decent wireless microphone kit.
Strong recommendation AGAINST recording audio to ANY compressed format (MP3, ATRAC, etc.) so that eliminates the MD recorder.
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“The settings in the transmitter were changed or tampered (and now no one remembers what).”
Then first you must go back through the setup procedure and adjust both the transmitter and the receiver for proper levels.“Zoom H4n recording level for Mic was 75 (out of 100)”
The setting of the control is not nearly as important as the indication of the RECORD LEVEL on the recorder.“And we were into 4 channel mode of Zoom H4n.”
I don’t know what that means? There is only one channel coming out of the wireless receiver. What is being recorded on the other three channels?“we record two layers of audio”
Sorry, I still don’t know what “layers of audio” means?“First from MIC layer and the other from INPUT layer”
Sorry, that doesn’t make any sense. The MIC is an INPUT.“We use the input layer in post-production, as that comes from the lapel mic receiver”
I don’t know what that means, either. If you are recording the wireless receiver to channel 4 of the recorder, then you should be using only channel 4 for post-production. We still don’t know what could be on the other three channels?“The microphones used are called “ME2 lavalier”…they come with my Sennheiser Lapel Mics (EW-112 P G3).”
That is the microphone that comes with the transmitter/receiver. It is not noted for being high quality. It is adequeate and it gets you up and running, but you can replace it with almost any lav for better performance.” this time we placed it on the neck tie (just below the knot)…Is that Chin Shading???”
Yes. “Chin shading” means that there is SOMETHING (usually the chin) between the mouth and the microphone. That significantly cuts down on high frequencies and makes the voice sound less distinct. Many lav microphones have rising high frequency response to compensate for chin-shading.“i repeat the same layer of audio three times in FCP”
WHY? That doesn’t make any sense. Your whole description of recording channels and editing “layers” is not the typical way we record and edit. You are doing many strange things and they may be contributing to your poor results.Unless you have good quality headphones which block ambient sounds, you really don’t know what you are recording. It would be like framing and focusing without looking at the viewfinder. However, DO NOT use “noise-cancelling” headphones because they will disguise the noise you are recording!
“selecting an area where i could clearly hear the noise (Setting this as NOISE POINT) and then reducing that in the entire audio”
That is only something you should use if nothing else works. It typically causes bad distortion to your audio and it should be avoided if at all possible. I would use that method only as a last resort.