1 Reply Latest reply: May 31, 2011 1:02 AM by wonderspark RSS

    First time using wireless - problem!

    mikec82 Community Member

      I filmed a wedding Saturday. I have three cameras, 1 mp3 recorder connected to the church's sound system, one Zoom H2 recorder near the pastor's podium, and one Sennheiser 500 G3 wireless system. It was my first time using the wireless. I put the wireless system in auto scan mode, and it picked up a frequency right away (if I'm using the wrong terms please forgive me). The great thing about this system is that it has level monitors on both the transmitter and receiver. Plus Peak and RF lights which were a huge plus. I came home, not having heard the audio yet, feeling really good about how it was probably going to sound. Unfortunately when I put it on the computer, it came out sounding like this (http://clarkvideoproductions.com/bad_audio.mp3)

      .   The church sound guy messed up my mp3 recorder plugged into their sound board - it only ended up recording the music tracks from a CD player he had plugged in. It didn't record any of the church sound board's pastors microphone. So that back-up audio source is shot. I know there isn't a magic bullet when it comes to fixing bad audio, but is there anything that can take some of the hiss and/or waviness out of it? I have Soundbooth CS5 but have not used it much. ANY help would be appreciated.   Also, does anyone have any insight as to what may have happened? The sound guy (who apparently knew as little as I did!) promised they were on different channels and would not interfere with each other. I don't know WHAT happened.  Thanks!  Michael

        • 1. Re: First time using wireless - problem!
          wonderspark Community Member

          It sounds to me like AGC (automatic gain control) was activated, which is why it gets louder between pauses, then shoots back down when he speaks. That's problem #1. When that gain goes up in the pauses, the interference, hiss, room noise, and every other problem is amplified. My offhand guess is that high-pitched wavy squeeking could be the auto frequency scanning you mentioned... problem #2. When I use wireless mics, I set my own frequency manually, test it out, and verify these issues are not present. Info for next time. (:

           

          Now that your audio is what it is, I'd suggest a couple things to repair it.

          - You can try using the Process > Capture noise print, and then Process > Remove noise. Highlight sections that have noise you don't like, adjust how aggressive it is and how much it's reduced (attenuated) and see how it goes. Too much, and it will sound like a fishbowl, so experiment.

          - You can reduce hiss by adjusting the equalization, either parametric or dynamic. Again, too much and you lose parts of the speech / audio that you want to keep, and it can start to sound really muffled.

          - You can go in and replace the really bad segments with a piece of audio that has only "room tone" in it. This takes forever, and then some, but if you're really compelled to fix it, you can do it. I just finished editing a feature film with 90% messed up audio, shot by total beginners. It took me over a year in my spare time between sleep and a full-time job, and by far the worst part of it was fixing the audio. When I first heard it, I thought it would be hopeless. It was much worse than your wedding audio. Now, it sounds like there was never a problem, and I never want to do that again, hahaha! It CAN be done, if you have a lot of time and patience.

           

          My opinion is to go light on repairs, and live with it. It would take a lot of effort to make it sound really good, and the great news is that you can understand what is being said very clearly. That's a lot better than a lot of other problems that leave the audio unintelligible! The audience is usually very forgiving of those sorts of sounds as long as they don't have to ask, "What did he say?"