How come there is a booming sound from Zoom H4n ?

[RyanKhoo]

Hi there,

I am doing a video of someone giving some speech.

In order to get a better audio/speech quality, I use a Zoom H4n to record the sound separately hoping to sync it later in post-production to get better sound quality.

However, the recorded sound/speech from the Zoom H4n has some booming sound ... Can I know why ? And how to prevent this ?

This is the first time I have encountered this !

Thanks

 

[Bamboopictures]

Where did you place the recorder?

 

[RyanKhoo]

Where did you place the recorder?

Sometimes on a table.

Sometimes, if no table is available, one person is assigned to hold the Zoon H4n

 

[kandinsky]

Able to share audio sample of the problem?

 

[RyanKhoo]

Able to share audio sample of the problem?

Hi kandinsky & Bamboo,

Can PM me your email address, please ?

I will send you the link to the video & hope you can help me point out where I did went wrong with the Zoom H4n.

Thanks

 

[Bamboopictures]

Mostly likely, the booming noise is caused by vibration on the surface where the recorder is placed. Use a separate stand or isolate the recorder with a shock mount.
Handling noise is another common source.

 

[takuya]

Sometimes on a table.

Sometimes, if no table is available, one person is assigned to hold the Zoon H4n

Not to be crass, but I wonder if you monitor the recorder at all. You wouldn't set up a camera without looking at the viewfinder and constantly checking the frame after, so why aren't you monitoring the recorder as well?

I'm guessing you don't understand what you have to do with your H4N to achieve good sound. You mentioned placing it on a table but you didn't mention where. A poorly placed mic will always yield less than satisfactory results. Always try to get your mic as close to the sound source as possible. The further you are from it, the more reflections and reverb you will incur in your recording. The further you are from the sound source, the more directional a microphone you will need.

 

[JacePhoto]

Not to be crass, but I wonder if you monitor the recorder at all. You wouldn't set up a camera without looking at the viewfinder and constantly checking the frame after, so why aren't you monitoring the recorder as well? I'm guessing you don't understand what you have to do with your H4N to achieve good sound. You mentioned placing it on a table but you didn't mention where. A poorly placed mic will always yield less than satisfactory results. Always try to get your mic as close to the sound source as possible. The further you are from it, the more reflections and reverb you will incur in your recording. The further you are from the sound source, the more directional a microphone you will need.

I am sure with all your experience, you know that sometimes it's hard to monitor everything at one go.
Thank you and happy holidays

 

[takuya]

I am sure with all your experience, you know that sometimes it's hard to monitor everything at one go.
Thank you and happy holidays

Yup, that's why I chose to only monitor sound and let the camera guy worry bout the image. You can throw a stone in a crowd and there's a high chance you will hit a cameraman or photographer. A soundie? Highly unlikely.

Apologies if that was offending. I do reckon all shooters should really pay more attention to sound and try to understand how it works at the least.

 

[daredevil123]

Yup, that's why I chose to only monitor sound and let the camera guy worry bout the image. You can throw a stone in a crowd and there's a high chance you will hit a cameraman or photographer. A soundie? Highly unlikely.

Apologies if that was offending. I do reckon all shooters should really pay more attention to sound and try to understand how it works at the least.

+1 when doing video production in the old days, we used to have dedicated sound man, and dedicated video man. Even with direct patch recording from the soundboard we assign someone to monitor the sound. When we really run low on hands, we will have at least someone to first test the sound and make sure levels and sound quality is ok before the event starts.

 

[RyanKhoo]

Thanks to all who posted ... points noted with thanks

 

[hamanoshun]

I am sure with all your experience, you know that sometimes it's hard to monitor everything at one go.
Thank you and happy holidays

It is difficult but it's not impossible. If tracking wasn't needed he could have just monitored the audio.



Not many clients have high budgets, so they have to understand that they get what they paid for.

 

[ronniegogs]

Its always better to use the H4N as a recorder with external mics with someone monitoring the audio to prevent mishaps like this. Of course depending on situation or budget it may not be possible. I started using shotgun NTG2 with my H4N and I have no complaints. Sound is great for recording and the shotgun cuts out a lot of a unwanted ambient noise.

 

[RyanKhoo]

Its always better to use the H4N as a recorder with external mics with someone monitoring the audio to prevent mishaps like this. Of course depending on situation or budget it may not be possible. I started using shotgun NTG2 with my H4N and I have no complaints. Sound is great for recording and the shotgun cuts out a lot of a unwanted ambient noise.

U mean you plug the NTG2 into the H4n ?

Ok, will try that combination ...

Thanks

 

[Bamboopictures]

Hi Ryan, thanks for sending me your clip. For seated camera interviews, the easiest way to get good audio is with a clipped on lavalier mic. For GH3, you will need a electret condenser lavalier with its own battery supply. Audio Technica has some very inexpensive ones you can buy for under $70. If you think the audio circuit of the GH3 is too noisy, consider plugging a phantom powered lavalier into the H4ninstead. Countryman and Rode make very good lavs. You will need some XLR cables to connect the lav to your H4n. If you have a bigger budget for mics, consider the Sneheisser G3 wireless UHF lavalier set. Many GH3 users have gotten very good results by plugging the Senny receiver directly into their camera. No preamp is required. In fact, you are advised to keep the senny output and the camera mic input low for best results. For on the fly volume adjustment, add a beachtek MCC-2. It is the perfect audio accessory for GH3.

 

[RyanKhoo]

Hi Ryan, thanks for sending me your clip. For seated camera interviews, the easiest way to get good audio is with a clipped on lavalier mic. For GH3, you will need a electret condenser lavalier with its own battery supply. Audio Technica has some very inexpensive ones you can buy for under $70. If you think the audio circuit of the GH3 is too noisy, consider plugging a phantom powered lavalier into the H4ninstead. Countryman and Rode make very good lavs. You will need some XLR cables to connect the lav to your H4n. If you have a bigger budget for mics, consider the Sneheisser G3 wireless UHF lavalier set. Many GH3 users have gotten very good results by plugging the Senny receiver directly into their camera. No preamp is required. In fact, you are advised to keep the senny output and the camera mic input low for best results. For on the fly volume adjustment, add a beachtek MCC-2. It is the perfect audio accessory for GH3.

Thanks bamboo, I did a search but this is connected to iPhone. How to extract the recorded file from iPhone ?

Anyway, it doesn't look like this can be connected to H4n, right ?

Thanks

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/922914-REG/rode_smartlav_smart_lav_lav_mic_for.html

 

[Bamboopictures]

I think you are refering to the Rode Smartlav. But Rode's range is wider than that
Rode lapel mics can be adapted to many different connectors
http://www.rodemic.com/mics/lavalier
Buy one lapel mic and add the Rode Micon1 XLR male adapter for the H4N.
But try the Audio Technica first because you can plug this directly into the GH3/VG30 and it's dirt cheap
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/produ...R3350_Omnidirectional_Condenser_Lavalier.html

I owned several of these before and they sounded great if you don't further extend the given cable (6m).
Loved them all until I stupidly fried them one by one with 48V phantom power from my camcorder. (funny story)
So be careful to switch off phantom power if you are using the ATs with H4N. It takes only two seconds to kill these darlings.

 

[ronniegogs]

Lav is great and I recent got 2 inexpensive lavs to try out. One is a Olympus normal mono lav and the other the Rode smart lav. Now I regret buying the smart lav as it was 60 dollars and double the price of the Olympus mic but performs same of not less.

I recently found that using phone and lav combination works great. Use the phone as the recorder. If you wanna use normal lav with phone u need a Y cable splitter... Then use the inbuilt app or the rode app to record. Rode app which has both paid and free versions used for the Rode smart lav is great for even this combination. Then you have a nice portable recording solution. Rather than putting the heavy H4N in side or pocket connect the lav and smart phone and you are set. You can have the shotgun pointed at the subject too to keep dual backup audio in case the lav didnt work that well.

This video illustrates what I am saying

[video=youtube;lOSGXsVo-tA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOSGXsVo-tA[/video]

 

[Bamboopictures]

Any difficulty monitoriong the audio when you use the Smartlav?

 

[ronniegogs]

Any difficulty monitoriong the audio when you use the Smartlav?

Yup you cant monitor the audio when using smartlav. As its only designed for phone it cannot be plugged to a recorder like H4N without some conversion with an adapter. Dont get me wrong its a very convenient mic to have but I would suggest to just buy other lavs and use the splitter to connect to a smartphone for the same convenience.

The lav is 60 dollars plus around 7 for the app makes it 67 for the package.