Vixia G50 getting an audio artifact noise with movement

[Murrtallica]

I picked up a G50 a few weeks ago and noticed last night while watching footage back that the audio starts to get an artifact noise when the camera and external mic shakes around or catches wind. . Here's an example of what the audio sounds like when I move the camera around. I played around with pretty much every audio setting on the camera, and the only one that made a noticable difference was the low cut setting. Am I missing a setting or is something else going on here? Audio sounds fine through headphones while recording, but the playback file always has this issue. I never had this issue with my r600 this replaced, so hopefully this can be resolved.

Thanks!

[Mark35mmF2]

Hi there,

It's not unusual that you will hear more on a computer with speakers rather than from the camcorder's preamp and I imagine the Lo-cut filter is going to be the solution, I imagine the R600 may have been implementing the lo-cut filter automatically to resolve this. I believe what you are hearing is either due simply to the jostling of the external mic when moved, either the mic itself or the movement of air around it, or it may be an improper connection to the MIC port although this would likely cause sound degradation more frequently. Aside from leaving the lo-cut filter on, you can try making sure there is no debris in the mic port and wipe down the metal contats of the MIC connection with a soft cloth.

If you have access to another microphone it may also be a good idea to see if the issue persists across multiple mics.

[Murrtallica]

I tested it with my shotgun mic and the issue is still there, though not as prominent as the stereo mic I tested with initially. I’ll give the connections a cleaning just to be sure, but i’m guessing it’s on the camera’s end and i’ll have to run the low cut as you suggested while shooting on the go.

There wasn’t much in terms of manual audio adjustments on the R600, so an automatic low pass is definitely possible. Hadn’t considered that myself. 

[IamintheUK]

That thumping is mechanical noise. Possibly the mic cable banging around, or handling noise when holding the camera. The digital artifacts in the audio are from the noisy signal affecting its encoding.

[Murrtallica]

Definitely no stranger to that mic making mechanical noise, that's for sure . Interesting that it effects the encoding, can't say i've had a camera do that before. I suppose there's not much I can do to combat that aside from running that low pass.

[IamintheUK]

I don't mean the mechanical noise causing the artifacts, it's the electrical noise from either the mic or mic amps.

[Murrtallica]

I spent the day off and on playing with various mic and audio settings. I played with handheld, on a solid surface, you name it. It seems like no matter what combination of settings I try, the G50 always has the artifact sound at some level in the recording. 

I also set up a test to compare the audio from the G50 and my R600. I hand held the G50 while sitting to keep it stable and recorded a clip of myself talking, and then hooked the R600 to the mic while keeping it attached to the G50 so the audio would be as similar as possible. All mic settings on auto so they would be as closely matched as possible too. (Apologies for the echotastic room haha)

Here’s the recording from the G50 

Here’s the recording from the R600 

There’s definitely a difference in audio quality. It’s almost like the audio isn’t encoding to the video correctly or something, because it shouldn’t have artifacts in the recording this bad compared to the R600 i’d imagine.

I’m definitely stumped.

[Murrtallica]

This thread has been long dead, but I figured i'd throw an update in here so this doesn't become one of those threads that dead ends for anyone stumbling upon it in the future (we've all been there).

I ended up sending the camera in to Canon under warranty just to humor myself and see if something was at fault with the camera. The camera tested fine and back in my hands sat a camera I couldn't use my mics with.

After that I sort of just gave up and picked up a DM-100, which completely solved the audio issue. At the expense of my cold shoe, I finally had a usable camera and was as happy as whatever a grubby individual like myself could be. I off and on played with the camera's microphone input, but always got the "low bitrate MP3" sound under movement.

Fast forward to tonight, and I ended up grabbing a DM-E1 for my 90D since I liked the "swiss army knife" shotgun/stereo style the DM-100 had. This also sparked my curiousity with this camera again. I thought, "Well, if this Canon branded one doesn't work with it, then something is definitely screwey with it." I slapped it on this camera and what do you know, perfect uneffected audio. 

It completely stumps me why my other mics work fine with every camera but this one, but at least I now have a mic that plays nice with it if I ever want to use my cold shoe handles or accessories.

[Inapickle]

Out of interest, what was the external microphone that gave you problems with the HF-G50 ?

Listening to the audio sample in your first post, I agree with IamintheUK, it sounds like the microphone cable was knocking or rubbing against something.

Yes, the DM100 is less susceptible to handling noise. Bear in mind though that the frequency spectrum is 100 Hz to 10 KHz, so it's not picking up low frequency rumble. I have one that I use with my HF-G40. My only frustration with it is that you have to be careful not to bump the rear section of the microphone with your forehead when using the EVF tilted upwards.

[Murrtallica]

The mic that was the biggest offender was the Audio Technica PRO 24-CM. It's the one I used in those examples (though looking back those examples weren't great since the mic was being shaken around pretty heavily. I had some better clips where just me walking around in a park brought out that issue). 

Also had the issue (though not as severe) with a Rode VideoMic (the one with the 9v battery).