Fan Noise A Problem?

[Scott Brown]

How does Scarlet compare to Epic in terms of heat/fan noise when recording interviews?

Scott

[Peter Moretti]

... I have never met a post production sound mixer in my life; I work on-set, not in post. ...

Sorry, no offense, but I had to LOL at this one. Spoken like a true director or DP.

[Christopher Mills]

Marc, I do understand that.. and will propose it on the next project I work.. I have given "fan tone" without the notch and roll off, and "fan tone" with them... I so rarely am given an opportunity to interface with audio post, which I find impedes my ability to deliver most useful tracks...
Many of my clients perceive the notched and rolled off frequency audio as "better sounding" in the field, without considering what they might have done later...
and some of them barely want to pay their picture editor, let alone book a sound post session...
sigh...

[Les C.]

I just love when people tell me about fixing it in post. It's about the last thing I ever hear them say.

In certain situations the fan is to loud, even at 25% it makes enough noise. Hopefully we will have a firmware to disable the fan completely when needed.

If you disable the fan, the temperature will rise and invalidate your black shade leading to more noise.

The only hope is a fan speed that keeps it under the threshold of turning on full blast, and maybe that fan speed will go down once power management gets implemented.

BTW - I've used Izotope's RX2 for fan noise with some degree of success.

[Brian Hughes]

I had noticed the hum of the fan on the Epic X when viewing one that someone had for sale. My only hope was that sound were to disappear when the recording started. Otherwise, major design flaw, with a tedious task ahead in audio post.

[Les C.]

I had noticed the hum of the fan on the Epic X when viewing one that someone had for sale. My only hope was that sound were to disappear when the recording started. Otherwise, major design flaw, with a tedious task ahead in audio post.

I think power management (when implemented) will only be really noticeable when not recording.

While it's recording, the internal chips are eating a lot of power and generating heat. My best guess is that the fan is going to need to be on to some degree.

So, zero fan noise is probably not going to be an option.

I'm hoping that the Scarlet/Epic will have the ability to keep the internal temperature constant, while running the slowest speed.

It seems like the only way to get low noise is to black shade at the temperature you're going to be recording, and if it fluctuates very much from that (that would be an interesting test to see -differences in noise level at different deviations from black shade temperature!!!), the noise level is going to increase.

I'm planning on making some kind of rig with acoustic sound deadening foam, to try to muffle the noise and keep the camera as far away from the boom as possible as I'm not shooting a movie with ADR.

[Marc Wielage]

I'm planning on making some kind of rig with acoustic sound deadening foam, to try to muffle the noise and keep the camera as far away from the boom as possible as I'm not shooting a movie with ADR.

In the old "film days," people would often take very noisy film cameras -- like an Arriflex IIC -- and put it in a barney, which was a large plastic box filled with foam in order to deaden the noise. But you can't do this with a digital camera, because it needs air flow to cool it. The air flow is what's making the noise; if you put more stuff on the camera, it's going to tend to overheat. I'm not sure there's an easy solution to this.

I think choice of fan, number of blades, and the vents on the outside edge all contribute to mechanical noise. I'm curious to see how people shooting multiple cameras in interiors are dealing with this problem.

[Les C.]

In the old "film days," people would often take very noisy film cameras -- like an Arriflex IIC -- and put it in a barney, which was a large plastic box filled with foam in order to deaden the noise. But you can't do this with a digital camera, because it needs air flow to cool it. The air flow is what's making the noise; if you put more stuff on the camera, it's going to tend to overheat. I'm not sure there's an easy solution to this.

I think choice of fan, number of blades, and the vents on the outside edge all contribute to mechanical noise. I'm curious to see how people shooting multiple cameras in interiors are dealing with this problem.

I was thinking something more like 'flags' made of foam. Instead of blocking light to the camera they would block some noise to the mic?

Probably hopeless, as I've got hard wood floors, would have to stop all the reflections by putting a tarp down (which I do around the 'talent' anyway to block light and sound reflections) - but ... it might lessen the sound a bit?

[Christopher Mills]

Dyson fan to the rescue???
Anyone?

[Scott Brown]

So, with my plan to record long interviews at 33% fan setting with a steady rise in temperature from around 45 degrees to upwards of 70, I'm going to also see a rise in video "noise" along with the camera temperature rise? Is this going to be a big problem? Constant black shading when we're shooting is not a realistic option for us due to time constraints.

Best wishes

Scott