Audio Hiss
by Phil Beastall
on
Jul 7, 2008 at 3:08:52 pm
I am trying to capture audio straight onto mini dv using an Canon XL2, with an XLR mic plugged into audio 1 on the back. For some reason there seems to be a constant hiss running throughout. When I unplug the mic, there is still a hiss. Albeit the level has been turned up to 3 oclock, but thats because I am capturing some relatively quiet audio. Is there something that is causing this hiss or is this just because its going through a camera?
Re: Audio Hiss by Phil Beastall on Jul 8, 2008 at 8:22:05 am
Well the mic doesn't have anything to do with it because even with it unplugged you could hear a hiss when I turned the levels up. With the ATT turned on and off there is hiss. Albeit there is less when its on, but still surely there should be no hiss when nothing is plugged in?
Re: Audio Hiss by Matte Blume on Jul 8, 2008 at 12:18:58 pm
[Phil Beastall]"Well the mic doesn't have anything to do with it because even with it unplugged you could hear a hiss when I turned the levels up."
A condenser mic will usually have a much higher output (great "sensitivity" figures) and the signal will be high enough that the gain does not need to be increased so much, reducing the background hiss.
[Phil Beastall]"surely there should be no hiss when nothing is plugged in?"
No input can exhibit noise that can drop significantly when there is a proper amount of input "impedance" added, as when an input device (in this case, a mic) is connected.
This is especially true of high-gain mic inputs.
Most line-level inputs won't exhibit much noise with no connection.
All this is moot if your camcorder currently has some audio technical problems.
I can't tell that from this end.
