View Full Version : strange noise again...


Piotr Wozniacki
July 6th, 2007, 03:09 PM
Call me paranoid, but I can hear a strange noise in my V1 recordings again. I haven't done a full investigation yet, but from what I have established, it's there when I'm using my hot, stereo shotgun (Edirol CS-50) and the DR60 drive, without tape. It's like a musical beat, very regular. Here is the link to a sample:

http://rapidshare.com/files/41424359/booms.WAV

When you listen to it, use good speakers, as it is only audible when full bass is reproduced. Also, in an audio editor, stretch it vertically - you will see the peaks very distinctly, evenly spaced. Sorry the recording is not perfect (there are additional sounds in it), but even though some distant music can be heard, don't get mislead - the booms are not the beat!

I've put my ear to the camera and to the DR60 drive while recording - couldn't hear anything like it. It's only audible in the recording!

What on earth can it be?

Marcus Marchesseault
July 6th, 2007, 06:46 PM
To me, it sounds like the cadence of a hard drive seeking. Perhaps the drive in the DR60 is seeking and the quick movement of the heads is causing a thump?

Piotr Wozniacki
July 7th, 2007, 04:38 AM
As I said, I almost glued the DR60 to my ear while recording, and couldn't hear anything that regular and continuous...

Marcus Marchesseault
July 7th, 2007, 06:40 PM
Yes, but the V1 has the DR60 bolted directly to it. There may be some minor shock transmitted to the mic. It may even ultimately be the fault of the mic or it's shockmount. Whatever link in the chain that is causing the problem, I'm fairly sure the source is the hard drive. The good news is that it is such a low frequency that it can probably be eliminated with EQ.

Piotr Wozniacki
July 8th, 2007, 03:46 AM
Markus, thanks for you replies. It so happens I cannot do test shootings right now, but when I do have time, I'm gonna use different configurations (including the DR60 in my pocket) to try and isolate the offending link. I'll keep you posted.

Anyway, I'd be gratefull to those using DR60 for their opinion, as well (DSE?). The fact is that before I actually bought the drive, I was suspecting it could cause some noise problems, being bolted right next to the mic. However, I was more afraid of constant whinning; this is not the case fortunately.

PS. Marcus, when you say EQ, do you mean pin-pointing the freq and cutting it away, or simply using a high-pass filter to get rid of anything below, say, 80 Hz? My mic has a switch to engage such a roll-off filter, but I stayed away from it as I like a lot of bass in a sound...

Marcus Marchesseault
July 8th, 2007, 05:19 AM
Either way should work. I like lots of bass, but you would be surprised how little is in human speech. If you are recording music you might need that bass, but voices are much higher than the errant sound you are getting.

Piotr Wozniacki
July 8th, 2007, 05:24 AM
I quess it's OT, but I cannot agree - voices (particularly men's) suffer A LOT when the frequency response of a recording is not flat at BOTH ends...

Bob Grant
July 8th, 2007, 02:30 PM
I quess it's OT, but I cannot agree - voices (particularly men's) suffer A LOT when the frequency response of a recording is not flat at BOTH ends...

Except that using a hypercardiod mic on camera in a room is quite likely recording unnaturally enhanced LFs from the voice anyway. Some degree of low end roll off would get rid of the sound and might go someway to getting the sound of the voice back where it should be.