Benjamin Hilton Posted December 19, 2022 Share Posted December 19, 2022 Hi all, I'm needing some expert audio advice. Just for reference, I've been doing documentary and reality shoots for over 10 years now, so am fairly familiar with wireless mics and such. Although I'd have to say, in all my years of work in this industry, I've never run into a problem like this and it's baffling me. I recently had to put together some new kit for a doc shoot, but was on a bit of a tight budget. I picked up a Tentacle Track E since I could record internally and monitor via bluetooth on my phone. I was hoping to test it for larger film workflows on reality shoots where we run into RF interference all the time. When testing, I ran into this crazy electrical interference noise that seemed to be coming from the mic port. I figured it was a faulty unit and returned it. I ended up picking up a Rode wireless go kit, since I was just doing close interviews and had had good success with it in the past. Again, I had this similar electrical interference kind of sound in the background, although it was quite a bit quieter. I figured it was something weird with the Rodes, so I returned it and picked up a set of Deity BP-TRXs. I was really excited to try these, as you can record to and SD card internally while monitoring through the 2.4ghz connection to the receiver. You can even start and stop recording from the receiver, and change settings on the transmitter from the receiver. Well after using it in a couple of shoots, I really love the workflow! The problem is, I'm still getting that same electrical interference kind of sound. I can't figure out what's going on. I have tested it in a variety of conditions, States, phones turned off etc and can't figure it out. I've never come across a sound like this before other than maybe a loose wire or something. Although I don't have a lot of experience with 2.4ghz systems. It's just really weird that I've had similar issues with several different units recently. Any ideas? I'm attaching a sample file for reference. https://www.dropbox.com/s/b6lu5bgm11y9tq5/Deity Sample.m4a?dl=0 Oh and also, if I turn off the receiver and record internally on the transmitter, the sound goes away. But if I keep the receiver on and record internally on the transmitter, the sound is still there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scotchtape Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 The BP-TRXs are pretty noisy in general, what mic are you using? The one with the BP-TRX timecode kits are trash (W lav) and I get a similar noise out of them. When I used the mics in the full duo rx kit (w lav pro) I didn't have the same problem. I can't use my MKE-2 with them unless I make an adapter which I'm not going to bother doing. If it's anything like the experience I had, it's the lavs that were picking up interference, try another lav that is compatible. I had the same thing with the BP-TRX where in record only mode the w lavs were ok, but turn on the transmit mode and it went to poop. Even the Sennheiser AVX units I have get weird popping noises (not from plosives) and those cost a fair chunk more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davide DB Posted December 20, 2022 Share Posted December 20, 2022 As i understand, you changed several recording devices but the mic is always the same? That noise seems to me like a bad electrical ground or impedance problem. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Hilton Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 8 hours ago, scotchtape said: The BP-TRXs are pretty noisy in general, what mic are you using? The one with the BP-TRX timecode kits are trash (W lav) and I get a similar noise out of them. When I used the mics in the full duo rx kit (w lav pro) I didn't have the same problem. I can't use my MKE-2 with them unless I make an adapter which I'm not going to bother doing. If it's anything like the experience I had, it's the lavs that were picking up interference, try another lav that is compatible. I had the same thing with the BP-TRX where in record only mode the w lavs were ok, but turn on the transmit mode and it went to poop. Even the Sennheiser AVX units I have get weird popping noises (not from plosives) and those cost a fair chunk more. Gotcha. I'm using the stock lav that came included with the packs. Yeah it's the timecode kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Benjamin Hilton Posted December 20, 2022 Author Share Posted December 20, 2022 53 minutes ago, Davide DB said: As i understand, you changed several recording devices but the mic is always the same? That noise seems to me like a bad electrical ground or impedance problem. It's different lavs each time, just the stock lavs that come with the kits. Same kind of problem each time though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kisaha Posted December 27, 2022 Share Posted December 27, 2022 Try some Sony kit if you can and report back! I am not familiar with those frequencies as I am not consider them professional equipment. My equipment is around 500MHz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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