Need urgent solution to fix sound

[Jimmy Tuffrey]

The Sony's are well known for breathy and noisy companding issues. They sound bad. I have a UTX system with an ECM77 and it lacks the top end clarity which this mic should exhibit. This is the wireless' fault. The actual mic is good but the radio and electronic circuits sound bad. Frankly I prefer the Sennheiser without diversity (EW100 MKE 2.4) system I have for sound quality.

I have gone off the Sony since listening to it's compander circuit even when fed with decent mic level. Having said that it does not tend to translate or come across when listening to it on a tv set due to the average crapness of tv set speakers which hide a multitude of sins.

Try playing with yours and others radio's a bit more and don't expect to get it right first time. I would recommend you got a bit more experience with your kit before doing paid work as you will forge the wrong reputation for yourself by not knowing your kit.

[Jose Milan]

Hello Jimmy and everyone else,

I think I'm going to start a new thread about the equipment we have to know if the are good for work, but here's the info:

The TX: AKG PT 40 Pro, the RX: UHF PR 40

Mic is C417

The RX only has one dial which is for volume.

Are they (tx's, rx's and mic's) up for professional sound and work? Is it strange what happend or this units are not too good?

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Jose Milan

Hello Jimmy and everyone else,

I think I'm going to start a new thread about the equipment we have to know if the are good for work, but here's the info:

The TX: AKG PT 40 Pro, the RX: UHF PR 40

Mic is C417

The RX only has one dial which is for volume.

Are they (tx's, rx's and mic's) up for professional sound and work? Is it strange what happend or this units are not too good?

The transmitter audio gain adjustment is a screwdriver-slotted pot inside the battery compartment. Did you remember to adjust it up to the point you got an occasional weak flicker of the transmitter's 'clip' indicator LED?

[Jose Milan]

Hello Steve,

I did not touch it up, I left it as it came, could you explain a little more the steps and how to do it, I did not understand completely the method you mention.

I did not touch the dial since the mic's were functioning fine inside the studio and in the test (outside test were fine too...was I lucky?) but then happened what I already told.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Jose Milan

Hello Steve,

I did not touch it up, I left it as it came, could you explain a little more the steps and how to do it, I did not understand completely the method you mention.

I did not touch the dial since the mic's were functioning fine inside the studio and in the test (outside test were fine too...was I lucky?) but then happened what I already told.

Mic your subject, open the transmitter's battery cover, and with a screwdriver turn up the level pot until the transmitter's clip LED just barely flickers on voice peaks. That gives you optimum levels at the transmitter. Then turn to the receiver and set its output level to match the camera or mixer inputs.

Some of the noise in the first examples you posted sounded to me like cell-phone bursts, perhaps from people in the audience, and there's no adjusting that'll prevent that. Phones "phone home" every few moments to let the system let them know where they are, even if their ringer is turned off and the phone on silent. The only prevention is to make sure everyone in the room has their phones completely powered off.

[Jose Milan]

Originally Posted by Steve House

Mic your subject, open the transmitter's battery cover, and with a screwdriver turn up the level pot until the transmitter's clip LED just barely flickers on voice peaks. That gives you optimum levels at the transmitter.

Okay got that.

Then turn to the receiver and set its output level to match the camera or mixer inputs.

You mean like in the TX with a screwdriver? and how to match it with the camera? you mean by ear or trying to put the same values as the ones in the camera? Sorry to sound stupid, but I want it to get this as clear as possible.

Some of the noise in the first examples you posted sounded to me like cell-phone bursts, perhaps from people in the audience, and there's no adjusting that'll prevent that. Phones "phone home" every few moments to let the system let them know where they are, even if their ringer is turned off and the phone on silent. The only prevention is to make sure everyone in the room has their phones completely powered off.

Yes I knew some were cause by cell phones, but the ones that worries me are the breathing type ones that weren't suppose to be there.

Thank you for giving me all these details!!!

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Jose Milan

...
You mean like in the TX with a screwdriver? and how to match it with the camera? you mean by ear or trying to put the same values as the ones in the camera? Sorry to sound stupid, but I want it to get this as clear as possible.

Yes I knew some were cause by cell phones, but the ones that worries me are the breathing type ones that weren't suppose to be there.

Thank you for giving me all these details!!!

Note - I'm just reading the online manuals here, I don't actually have one of these units.

I mis-typed - you adjust the level in the transmitter battery box until the red clip LED on the RECEIVER just flickers, I think I said before that it was on the xmtr. The receiver output is fixed - the volume control is only for its headphone monitoring. The specs say it's at -6dBm which kind of straddles the middle ground between consumer -10dBv line level and professional +4dBu line level. You could set your camera input to line or insert an inline pad and drop it to mic level. I'd first try setting the camera to line level and adjust the camera's input gain so that the camera meter hovers somewhere around the -12 dB mark during normal speech.

I know I'm a broken record but pre-shoot tests, although vital to do, are no substitute for monitoring the camera audio with a good set of cans during the actual shoot.

[Jose Milan]

Hello Steve,

This is worth gold for me! Very hard to find info on how to set up these types of mics.

Whats kind of shocking is that you are telling me to sep up the camera to LINE instead of MIC, I'll have to do some test another day, I'm leaving the studio.

But I'll check dvinfo at home for after post. Any more settings you have I'll take 'em and now that we are with it, what lav do you recomend for professional work that are good (but not so expensive that you have to be a network/tv studio to buy them)?

Many thanks.

[Steve House]

Originally Posted by Jose Milan

Hello Steve,

This is worth gold for me! Very hard to find info on how to set up these types of mics.

Whats kind of shocking is that you are telling me to sep up the camera to LINE instead of MIC, I'll have to do some test another day, I'm leaving the studio.

But I'll check dvinfo at home for after post. Any more settings you have I'll take 'em and now that we are with it, what lav do you recomend for professional work that are good (but not so expensive that you have to be a network/tv studio to buy them)?

Many thanks.

There are a number of good lavs to consider but I'd suggest making sure you've got everything set up and working right with your stock mic before investing. Switching mics before then will just introduce more variables into the matrix and it will be hard to evaluate just what's going on.