Yet another audio problem...

[Wil Wong]

Hi Timothy,

I have the same issue. It does that with my Shure wireless lav mics but not my friend's Senheiser wireless lavs. Then after reading posts where people had sync issues, lost audio with odd noises or gaps, and other recording problems, I decided to hook up a Zoom h4n to my Scarlet.

My Shure mics connect to the Zoom and gives me a backup to the Scarlet and also allows my Shure mics to work. I'm not sure why the Zoom with my shure mics work fine and why it doesn't on their own. Something with the circuitry or signal or frequency...not a clue.

It's not the best solution portability wise but it's safer having the backup audio. Still, I agree with Mark. Wish Red could just get this working...or better yet, have a simple add-on module that has XLR inputs (and nothing else).

Wil

[Christopher Barrett]

I had the same results as Wil, using my Tascam. Direct Mic in produced hum (on my Epic). Ran the same mic through my little Tascam and then that into the Epic and got clean embedded sound.

[Mike Kushner]

i bought those $10 Hosa XLR to mini adapters and could not get a good sounding feed into camera. just a really low level with lots of noise even when the audio input level was up all the way. Got the adapter box from Wooden and now levels sound good and pretty clean. Still some random sync problems...tired of fielding those phone calls. A sound guru told me that the Hosa adapters were different than the Wooden box regarding their impedance which involves the amount of voltage carried/ transferred. I think the Wooden box is high impedance and the cheap adapters are low impedance. One works and the other won't...even though they are just adapters/ connectors.

Now, Timothy...please put the gun down, you're making me nervous. (and i like my guns)

[Brian Boyer]

Well maby but i doubt it since i can have nothing connected and still have that problem. Ilse i have tried 3.5mm mics, same result...

When you say you have nothing connected, do you mean the hum/buzz is present on the audio tracks when absolutely nothing is connected to the camera (cable nor mics)? If so, is there hum/buzz when the audio source setting is set to "NONE" as opposed to "CAM ANALOG"? How high is your input gain set?

Or, do you mean no mics attached to cables but the cables are still plugged into the camera? If so, you may want to look into whether you have properly wired cables for what the Scarlet is expecting at its inputs, given your audio settings (BALANCED, UNBALANCED, BAL/48V). I accidentally bought some Hosa cables that were XLR to 3.5mm but were wired as mono, unbalanced and with the wrong pin hot, if I remember correctly. My Scarlet didn't like these at all. Like Elsie, I bought the properly wired RED audio cables and haven't had a problem since.

Also, is the camera running off of AC power or battery power? AC lines are notorious for introducing noise into audio through dimmers, compressors, cooling units, etc.

[Serge Polevitzky]

Hello -- This may be premature, but I think I have solved my problem, which sounds very much like yours. So here goes:

I suspect it's the quality of the, or maybe the specs of the 3.5mm cables that you are plugging in to the Mic-1 and Mic-2 ports that's the root cause of your audio noise.

I had trouble with audio noise on Ch1 and Ch2 until I did two things. First, upgraded to 3.3.4 AND changed to very well-shielded, specially-made 3.5mm cables from x.

Can't say the 3.3.4 firmware was involved in making things better, but I upgraded as part of the shotgun approach to killing the blasted audio noise !

Anyway, to confirm current situation: Scarlet with 3.3.4 firmware. Audio level gain set up to as high as 50db, and no noise seen in the VU Meters with the "special" x 90º 3.5mm male cables plugged in to the Mic-1 and Mic-2 sockets. No mic connected at all. Same results with mics plugged in, but mics off. Quiet. Even with 50db gain. Before 3.3.4 and before the "special" cables, I'd see burbling noise at 37db of gain, and could hear the noise from the camera's audio track(s).

So it wasn't just a visual artifact with the VU meters showing some one- or two-segment VU meter activity at 37db of gain with just a Radio Shack 4" Aircraft stereo to mono (42-2495) or any of many other similar cables plugged in (no mics plugged in, just the Radio Shack or similar cables plugged in). The noise was really there -- somewhat attenuated (one or two VU meter segments against whatever level I was recording to achieve a good sound). But the noise with 'ordinary' 3.5mm cables was really there. And was really annoying !

Again: I can plug the specially-made x male-to-female mono cables in to Mic-1 and Mic-2 with the gain set to 50db (no mics plugged in) and see no VU meter activity. I plug in the Radio Shack or similar ... and I get VU meter activity. The noise floor is MUCH LOWER with the x cables. If you daisy-chain multiple cables, I suspect that all of them will have to be 'good,' not just the last ones that go into the Mic-1 and Mic-2 ports.

I've reset the audio gain to about 36db, tossed aside the Radio Shack and similar cables, hold the x cables in a death-grip, and I now have good in-camera audio (finally !)

Disclaimer: You will still get 'noise' in the VU Meters as you change f-stops via the menu (at least with the Ti Canon mount), and the green lanterns that used to show red when no cable was plugged in, now always show green, and lastly, you can't select balanced, unbalanced or 48V balanced individually for Ch1 or Ch2. The two channels are locked together -- at present. All three 'problems' have been reported to RED. If anyone else would like to independently select unbal, bal, 48V val, for Ch1 and Ch2 -- please let RED know !

Hope this helps -
Serge
Scarlet #1534

[Martin Beek]

*Sigh* I have seen a lot of bad audio threads... I hoped id never have to open one up.
Anyway, i have recorded a few shots for my feature, but it has a hum/buzz in it. It seems to be somehow connected with the fan speed, the faster it spins, the higher the pitch. At the time the camera was about 3-4 meters away from the mic, and was outside. We used a good shielded cable (never had a problem before with any of my equipment, nothing has changed). Mic was a NTG-2, running off of its own power (1AA) Battery was full, and have tried phantom power. I was using a XLR to 3.5mm cable.
Oh also tried reflashing the firmware, but this seems to be doing nothing. I also thought it would fix the problem when i change res the screen glitches for a sec. But thats another story ;)
So anyway, any suggestions?

Hi Timothy. Same problem here. Both channels have this problem, channel two louder than channel one. I think the fan motor's (control-) frequency is not sufficiently damped (with a condensator or shielded of or... software?) and that the audio inputs and internal cables are close to the front fan motor (channel 2 closer to the fan).

That's just IMHO. I've posted this same problem on reduser.net before, without any avail. It really drives me crazy and makes audio on the Scarlet absolutely unusable.

Hope that it will be solved soon...




Martin

PS - EDIT: any combination/setting of levels, cam settings, mics, cables, convertors, a-box, phantom DOES NOT CHANGE THIS BEHAVIOR!

[Ruff]

My Scarlet and Epic has been fine for audio, but another Scarlet I used was bad. With all the reports of bad sound, I cannot trust the cameras for audio. I only suggest using a second system...

Why is this? Like Toia said, everyone else can get it right.... I even trust the audio on the 5D3 over the Red's, and that should not be the case.

[John Fairstein]

Mark T is correct, there have been a lot of audio challenges.

RED One
Bad audio cards. These were later replaced free of charge by RED, but I had to shoot a lot of footage with the original card.

EPIC-X
The puzzle of non-locking Ch 1/2 mini connectors.
Pre 3.2.8 - no phantom power, no in-camera audio playback. I heard rumors of problems with audio and HDrx.
Build 3.2.8 - phantom power but no playback. Loud hum in both channels. Major sync slip stuttering issue. I contacted Support and their recommendation was to upgrade to 3.2.13.
Build 3.3.3 - Phantom power disappeared. Then after connecting and disconnecting an external 48V phantom supply, the camera phantom power started working. No idea why.

When the EPIC is working properly I am getting good sound through my Oktavas connected to the Ch 1/2 inputs via Mogami mini-to-XLR cables. Cables can be wired as balanced or unbalanced, so that is something to check. After upgrading to 3.3.3, I have about another day of testing to make sure everything is OK. I realize these are EPIC alpha builds, but I am surprised by the audio issues. I hope they put a SWAT team on it with a full suite of QC tests.

What seems so easy for other camera manufactures to get right, clean audio capture is so hard for RED to get right. I wonder why this is so..

I really hope they have this sorted soon. Im in need of clean audio for an up incoming project and I want clean audio attached to my R3d files.

Good luck Tim, dig deep.

[jimhare]

The Epic/Scarlet require specific wiring for the cables so even good quality ones won't overcome it. Took me a while to get things right but now I get great clean sound.

[Timothy Carr]

When you say you have nothing connected, do you mean the hum/buzz is present on the audio tracks when absolutely nothing is connected to the camera (cable nor mics)? If so, is there hum/buzz when the audio source setting is set to "NONE" as opposed to "CAM ANALOG"? How high is your input gain set?

Or, do you mean no mics attached to cables but the cables are still plugged into the camera? If so, you may want to look into whether you have properly wired cables for what the Scarlet is expecting at its inputs, given your audio settings (BALANCED, UNBALANCED, BAL/48V). I accidentally bought some Hosa cables that were XLR to 3.5mm but were wired as mono, unbalanced and with the wrong pin hot, if I remember correctly. My Scarlet didn't like these at all. Like Elsie, I bought the properly wired RED audio cables and haven't had a problem since.

Also, is the camera running off of AC power or battery power? AC lines are notorious for introducing noise into audio through dimmers, compressors, cooling units, etc.

Yeah nothing at all, no lines, mics just the bear ports...
No noise unless i select CAM ANALOG.