AT835ST, DXA-8, VX2100 - static?
 

Thanks to the fine crew here, I now have most my upgrades in.

With my headphones on when it is quiet, I am hearing a slight static that sounds much like the static they used in the HBO ads for the Sopranos. If I use the onboard mike, it is not so pronounced. I can dial it out if I turn the preamps up to about 8 on the beachtek and cut the onboard to about 25%. It is not the PD issue as it does not matter where the screen is.

Is that normal? I would not know as this is my first experiments with more expensive audio.

I am set to manual mic adj on the camera, with mic on. I have the dxa-8 set to stereo, G1 or G2, 48v on on both, Lmt on on both. The mike is set for Stereo Narrow (and man is the side rejection cool!) and the roll-off is set to the straight line (the directions mention it, but don't indicate which position is which - duh).

Sounds like a normal, noisy pre, or else you've got some kind of RF leaking in due to a broken or bad cable. Most of these cams use unbalanced cables from the mic to the pre internally, perhaps you've got some weird waves happening there? A noisy potentiometer could be responsible, how old and where has the camera been?
this isn't normal, although I'll admit I don't know the 2100 very well. Never shot with one, just played with one for a while.

You could go for the BBC sound mod done by Greg Winter or BBC for good sound my friend.

The camera is new. So are the Beachtek and A-T. Cables are the A-T 5pin XLR split to 2 3-pin XLRs. The Beachtek then has a mini out to the camera mic in (mini).

I recorded to tape and tried it. I can hear it a little at max my HK speakers (wish I had the Yamahas on that machine.) I may try that again. Maybe I have a noisy headphone out, but that would not explain why the internal is a little quieter.

Richard, this is a 2100, not a 2000. The BBC fix is for the 2000 last I heard. Thanks.

The phones jack on the original VX2k is full of noise when monitoring but does not get recorded to tape.May be the same on the new 2100. Always keep internal cam gain down as much as possible and gain up on the Beachtek.

I have been messing with what I did during lunch. It appears that if I do move the internal to 25% and almost max the DXA-8, I am actually cleaner than original on tape. I dumped some footage in Windows Media Player 2 and listened with my 5 cent headphones (repaired with lock-tights ;) ). I think I may be better that way than stock. I do have to watch it though.

This may be one of those cases where it has always been like that, I just started noticing because I spent some real money on it. ;)

Matt is right, it may just be the lousy headphone amp.

The VX2100 pre should be set at 20-25% as well.

The straight line is no roll off

The beach is a nicely built unit, isn't it.

Yes, I like this beach. Cool. 20% sounds good, just too new to it. Playing with the birds and the 767 at 5000 ft, I had to go to 11, err 10 on the preamps. I will get to live-fire it tomorrow in a gym in Jacksonville. But, I can hear a hiss if I do take the mic setting onboard to 50% and above on tape.

I was guessing that the straight line was no rolloff. The instructions need a revision.

Thanks again Bryan and crew for the newbie help.

You can also get static from weak batteries that supply the phantom power. I first had this happen to me using a field mixer. Thinking that the cable was the problem, I realized after a few cable switches that the main batteries tested fine. After replacing the battery for the phantom power, all was well.