[Ty Ford]

Lisa,

Yay!!!!!!

Glad you got it worked out.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Lisa,

It’s not so much the recorder as it is the microphone.

The distance varies a LOT. It depends on the cell phone and the mic. Off hand I don’t know any mics that are immune.

I’ve had clients wear a wireless lav and have a cell phone clipped to their belt and my range has gone from a hundred feet and through walls to ZERO.

One client who comes to my studio has an iPhone that needs to be 6 feet or further. Another client’s phone needs to be ten feet or more.

Do some experimentation with your rig and see. The sound of the interference won’t always be the same.

Regards,

Ty Ford

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[Ty Ford]

Hello Lisa and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

That sound is typical of interference caused by a nearby cell phone. Turn them dead off and move them away from talent and the set. See what happens. Report back.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Tom and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Big answer: Don’t do it.

Little answer: Get a DNS-2 instead.

https://tyfordaudiovideo.blogspot.com/2016/08/the-cedar-dns-2-portable-dialog-noise.html

With the noise coming from a nearby generator, I’d say you don’t have a noise problem. You have a location problem.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Brandon,

Sorry, I’ll try to be more stupider in the future.

I have a friend who prepared mixes for displays at the Smithsonian.

He told me that you can do all you want for a great mix in the studio, but when you take it to the Smithsonian and play it back over the system it’s expected to be played over, you may well hear some differences. In some cases, they went to the “Smith” and did a mix over the specific system to solve problems.

In your case……………………………..hmmmmm……………did you mix a lot of bands in live venues during the 80s when vocals were typically buried? If your client says the music is too loud in the big rooms and over the big systems and my suggestions haven’t worked, then you need to re-examine your audio brain for its prevalence to bury the vocal. Your solution to separate the vocals and music and then (hope to) compress may or may not work.

NOTE: I have a client for whom I mix radio spots and music. When we are using ambient beds and/or music, I’m aware that he likes voices higher than i would normally mix. I just mix the voices higher. done.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hi Jack,

Do you have another device you can try the AVX with?

Does the AVX offer line or mic level out?

I THOUGHT that Line level on what was a ‘pro” camera should have been. I have seen situations in which the line input of a device (camera) is called line level, but it’s -10 line level and not 0 or + 4. The PD150 and PD 170 video cameras were like this. My mixer has mic, -10 and line output switching.

When I switched to calibrating mic level out and went mic level in to the camera, the problem disappeared. After I figured that out, I also tried switching the mixer to -10 level out and calibrating to the camera. It worked just fine.

Do you have that capability?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Brandon and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Sure. There’s this thing called the Fletcher-Munson Curve. It describes how NON-linear our hearing is.

You see “loudness” switches on old receiver amps. Sometimes the circuitry is just built in. When playback volumes are low, our ears don’t hear so much of the low end and high end. As the volume increases we hear more linearly. The loudness switch increases the low and high ends at low volumes so we hear more linearly.

The playback system has EVERYTHING to do with this. A big PA probably has big bass cabinets and/or subwoofers. They will accentuate the low end of the music, creeping up on the voice. You may also have PA operators using equalizers. For Live PA, graphic equalizers are very common. Each frequency band gets its own fader. For some reason, some people automatically go for what’s called “a smiley face EQ” with a graphic equalizer.

That’s a boost to the lows and highs, otherwise known as “bump and sizzle.” The voice frequencies are in the middle, so “Smiley Face EQ” pushes the voice down in the mix. It could be something as simple as asking for a flat EQ in the PA, or even if the equalizer is set flat, tuning the graphic equalizer to pump the voice up slightly. Those voice frequencies are typically 1 kHz to 5 kHz, with frequencies around 3 kHz being the main ones.

You might want to check the calibration of your studio monitors. Could be they are accentuating the voice frequencies and they don’t “translate” well to some other systems. More likely, I’d bet on the PA being pumped up.

How’s that?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader.

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hi Jack,

What I’m hearing is peak clipping. Could be that whatever you’re metering with is measuring RMS instead of Peak.

Possible?

When you bring it up on the time line, can you zoom in enough to see the peaks?

If it’s clipping well below peak, then perhaps some gain staging issue, e.g. between the mic and the transmitter…a sensitivity adjustment or between the transmitter and receiver.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hi Tom,

Thanks for the detailed report. No hard explanations here. Yes, phantom on wireless receivers is generally not a good idea. Having transmitters sitting next to receivers and other transmitters can cause problems. And then there’s what other RF might have been happening.

I think the part where the problem followed your receiver is telling.

Perhaps something nearby interfering with it.

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog

[Ty Ford]

Hello Jack and welcome to the Cow Audio Forum.

Hmm. AVX. that’s a 1.9 GHz system.

Yes, can you please post a sample?

Regards,

Ty Ford
Cow Audio Forum Leader

Want better production audio?: Ty Ford\’s Audio Bootcamp Field Guide
Ty Ford Blog: Ty Ford\’s Blog