Anyone else encounter a hiss when using an external microphone (Vixia HF R800)?

[danielrosehill]

Recently whenever I record into the Vixia HF R800 using an external microphone there's a subtle but noticeable hiss in the audio track whenever the sound is quiet.

Does anybody know where this could be coming from / a way to troubleshoot the issue and identify the cause? It's with different microphones. 

[Nick2020 · Accepted solution]

Hi danielrosehill,

Thanks for checking in with us. It sounds like you're running into the camcorder's auto gain control for audio levels. That feature tries to adjust the audio based on the volume of sounds that are detected.

To get around this, you may wish to manually set your audio levels. You can do this by going into the menu and look for MIC. LEVEL - MANUAL. You want to set the levels so that most sounds you are capturing come in around -12 to -6 dB. You don't want the audio to go to zero because then the audio will clip and will sound distorted.

[danielrosehill]

@Nick2020:

Adjusting the levels manually fixed the issue with the wireless lav mic pair. Thanks again!

[em05184]

Hello fairly new here have not posted before but I have a vixia HF R800 and was wonders if the mic input jack on the camcorder will accept input from a line in; instead of a mike.  Have a Yamaha StagePAS 400i and using the monitor out jacks to the input mic but all I get is a loud buzz from my videos.  You can hardly hear the person talking.

[danielrosehill]

Thanks, Nick!

Indeed I have the mic pickup gain set on auto. I was actually playing around with it recently and had it on manual for a while but kept getting odd pickup in windy conditions - although that was using the built in mic.

FWIW, I experience this hiss primarily on a new (and budget) UHF wireless lav pair that I picked up. The audio it captures sounds fine. But there's an annoying static hiss between utterances that would be a pain to clean up in post, if it's even possible to do so.

Thanks for all your help - greatly appreciated!