Ticking in audio? Bummer
 

Has anyone experienced this? I set up to do an interview with a Tram lav mic plugged into a 15' well shielded XLR cable into the back of the XL-2.
It sounded fine in the headset but when I played it back in a DVC-Pro50 AJ-SD930 deck with a tape adapter, it had an annoying ticking sound that appeared when the subject began to speak. Not rythmic like a clock, but increased with the volume of the subjects voice.

So later I thought it must have been the battery getting low in the mic, but I put in a tape that had recorded shotgun audio and I heard the same thing.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot.

Tim

Possibly your audio cables on top of electrical cables? Can cause the ticking type of sound you mentioned. Keep them away from each other...if they have to cross, do so at a 90 degree angle.

Kevin

No, definitely not it. But thanks.

Tim,
I use 3 different XLR mics in various configs with my XL2 and have never experienced a problem with a ticking sound. So sorry that I can't offer any particular ideas. About all I can suggest is to methodically test various simple configurations of your setup to see if you can isolate where the problem is coming from...and of course let us know what you discover.

So how does it sound when playing the original tape back from inside the camera? The adapter could cause an issue. Play the tape in the camera first, to eliminate the camera. Can you connect the camera to the DVCPRO deck via a/v connection? That would be the next step after verifying that the audio is okay coming out of the camera. If an a/v connection to the deck is clean, then you should try another adapter.

=gb=

A couple other times I've heard the ticking you describe:

-I once was using my Promax Prosumer Dolly and track (the kind with PVC pipe as track) and experienced ticking upon every revolution of the wheels due to some sort of static electricity buildup.

-I have a LitePanels light and when it gets too close to the on-camera mic, it has more of a screeching, zipper type of sound.

Hope you figure it out so it doesn't happen again.

Thx.

Kevin

could it be clipping? is the audio level set fairly high? digital distortion is often a ticking sound, unlike the warm over revving of an analog recording digital will just sorta clip and tick when it peaks, try recording with a lower audio level

heat can also be a culprit, if the mike is over about 104 degrees from lighting or having the sun beat on it or whatever the diaphram will expand and not work properly, i've heard that sound like a clicking before

-Jon

We have a winner! It was the SD-930 deck, or rather, playing these MiniDV tapes back on the SD-930. I hooked up my camera to the monitor and popped the tapes in, played them back... clean as a whistle.

I read in "Digital Cinematography" by Paul Wheeler that it's best to use the originating camera as capture device but he didn't know why it worked best nor could anyone with whom he spoke explain it to him. Here's one more notch on that bedpost. Yeah, I know it puts wear on the heads and yada yada.

Thanks everybody.

PS: Greg, You think it's the adapter that causes that? Have you heard of that happening before?

It very well could be the adapter. I would try another adapter if you can. It's all just a process of elimination at various parts of the signal chain. I've been a technician for many more years than I've been a videographer.

=gb=

p.s. What do I win? Cash is always good. :-)

I'd guess that the problem is sample rate related i.e. a fancy deck like that may assume that audio is locked when it isn't or something of the sort. Fiddling around in the depths of the configuration menus may turn up a fix.

The reason a tape always plays back best on the machine on which it was recorded is that the heads and tape are aligned the same way they were recorded, the track pitch is exactly the same etc. Crossplay has always been a difficult area for the recording industry and while much progress has been made it's still true that playing back on the same machine makes the job of being in close alignment easiest.

Thank you very much.