Seller had loads of audio items on eBay and appears to be a legit filmmaker / audio guy. Just running by the pros here to double check. To me seems legit based on typical red flags. Got it for £520.

Anyone recently buy these? Despite Bubblebee Stickies being very good and sometimes better to stick on clothing so that it doesn't show through, I've really liked Rycote for bag work, you can for instance keep the ziplock package between your recorder and the sound bag divider for easy access for quick fixes. However recently I fished through my accessories for a package, and I'm not sure when I bought it actually but this time the stickers were darker than the usual grey, and to my annoyance found out that when removing the mic, the adhesive layer of the stickie tended to peel off to the Bubblebee concealers I'm using and in some cases to the actual wardrobe. Also they're more finicky to actually peel off the sheet for usage.

Anyone buy them recently, is this near-black stickie the new norm? Hoping it was just some unfortunate trial run that's since been reversed.

This looked a bit suspicious to me, but still not sure if it's a fake or not, any help?

Hey everyone, I’m seeing a consistent horizontal noise line in iZotope RX around 20kHz (and another weaker one around 21kHz) on a lot of recent recordings. It isn't really audible, but it shows up visually on the spectrogram and seems to be getting slightly louder over time.

Setup:

• Recorder: Zoom F8n Pro
• Powering: TalentCell 12V 3000mAh Li-ion pack & internal AA batteries
• Mics: Røde NTG-3, Sennheiser G4 wireless, plus other shotguns tested

Troubleshooting so far:

• Across channels: The lines appear equally across all active tracks (booms and lavs alike).
• Swapped gear: Tried different mics and cables; the issue persists.
• Power testing: I tried recreating and isolating the issue at home using just internal AA batteries as well as 2 different TalentCell batteries, but I still haven't been able to pinpoint the exact cause (seems to be happening only on set?).
• Frequency: Appears intermittently (roughly 7 out of 10 files aprox.).

Since it hits all channels simultaneously, I suspect it might be the TalentCell battery, environmental interference or RF bleed, but honestly I could be wrong.

Has anyone run into a similar problem? Any suggestions on how to track down or eliminate this?

Thanks!

Hello,

I wanted to recreate this wireless boom setup I found on Youtube for myself and got into some trouble with one of the cables. There is nothing wrong with the microphone, cable from microphone to phantom power supply or the phantom power supply. There's also nothing wrong with my transmitter, I tried this with both the rode wireless pro and a Saramonic UHF system. The only method that even transmitted any recorded audio was the Line input of the Saramonic system, but with extremely heavy buzz, as the signal obviously is still mic after only ever going into the phantom power supply and no real mic gain. The female xlr to stereo 3,5mm mini jack coming from the power supply is the issue, but I don't understand which cable I am supposed to buy instead. Gemini told me the 5V power of the transmitters, which is intended for lavs, short circuits the phantom power coming in. If this is the issue, how do I resolve this? What cable do I need to buy instead?

Hi everyone! My beloved 50 fell out of a car recently and resulted in a tiny piece of the casing in the back to fall off as seen in the pictures.

The resulting issue is that the XLRs I put in are not locking. It still works otherwise although a cable can slip out.

If I take this in for repairs, is there anything a place like Trew audio (LA) can do to fix it? Will it have to be sent to Sennheiser to repair do you think and should I do that myself? Is there something I could maybe do with epoxy to fix something like this?

Thank you for your thoughts!

Got these new G5 emeters/receiver, both are synced but there's no sound coming out of it.

I tried to fiddle in the settings, do a factory reset, change the microphone, nothing.

Any help ?

Hey folks. Has anyone had this issue? Channels 2, 4, 6, and 8 won't arm. We were shooting in rain last night, so that's my assumption, but the recorder didn't receive any direct rain. Possibly from the humidity. I'm just checking if anyone else has lost half their channels like this.

Edit: So, a bit of an update. Now that im home, I was able to arm the even channels by turning on stereo link and then turning it off. By doing this, I discovered it is the arm/disarm and plf buttons for the even channels that aren't working. I am able to receive and record audio on these channels as well as enable phantom power via other areas of the menu, but the buttons themselves don't work. The fader knobs for these channels do work, however.

Another update:

So I got some electrical contact cleaner and sprayed the faceplate down, pressing the offending buttons repeatedly to hopefully work the cleaner under them (though they may be membrane buttons) and then left the unit alone for a week. All functionality has seemingly returned after booting up yesterday.

I was wrong. I'm seeing intermittent response from the offending buttons and some cross triggering of others from them. Like when I arm/disarm channel 4 channel 2, 4, and 6 arm/disarm

Final update!

So, maybe the contact cleaner just need more days to fully evaporate or something but now the unit has full operation. No weird cross triggering of buttons or anything.

I have recently posted about this mic in this sub. I went to the seller, tested the mic and it worked well, unfortunately I wasn't paying attention to the levels. When I went back home I compared it to my rode NTG 3 and the level of the MKH 416 were about 12 db lower than the NTG 3.

At the same distance, -12db on NTG3 is like -24db in the mkh 416 using a zoom h4n pro setting the levels to 50. Not sure if it's even worth the hassle and keep the mkh 416 to fix it or just return it to the seller. The seller is quite friendly and I can return it if I wanted to, just wanted to make sure if it's worth it first, and if there is a possibility to be fixed for cheap before deciding anything.

The capsule gold pin is wobbly, do you guys think that's the issue? do the capsule needs to be replaced, and do you think it is a good idea to send it to sennheiser for repair?

Hey guys! I'm using 2 cameras for my shoots and the deity tc1's and have been wanting to use the iphone 17 pro max as c cam or a backup cam, problem is i cant figure out how to connect my tc1 to it, i've tried a 3.5mm to usb c adapter and no luck. Has anyone tried to do something similar?

I'm on a set right now and realized I didn't pack my boom holder. What I'm going to do? Is there a crappy DIY version of boom holder or something else to act as a boom holder?

Hey everyone,

I’m dealing with a frustrating issue with my audio setup and could really use some help figuring out what’s broken before I start sending gear in for warranty/repair.

My setup is a Tascam DR-40X and a Rode NTG3. The problem is that the microphone signal is incredibly weak—almost non-existent. To hear absolutely anything, I have to crank the Tascam's input gain nearly to the max.

When I do that, the audio becomes completely unusable; it introduces massive noise floor hiss and clips/distorts like crazy the second I open my mouth.

To save everyone some time, I’ve already done a lot of the basic troubleshooting:

Phantom Power switch: It is physically switched to the MIC+PHANTOM position on the side of the unit.

Menu Settings: Checked the internal menu under system settings, and the phantom voltage is definitely set to 48V (not 24V).

Power issue: I know the DR-40X is notorious for eating AA batteries when pushing phantom power, so I bypassed batteries entirely. I plugged the recorder directly into wall power via USB (Bus Power) to eliminate any battery voltage drop issues. The problem persists.

Inputs: Tested switching from Input 1 to Input 2 on the bottom of the recorder. Same exact behavior on both channels.

What I HAVEN'T been able to test yet (due to lack of extra gear right now):

I haven't swapped out the XLR cable (using a standard XLR-to-XLR cable, no 1/4" adapters).

I haven't been able to test the NTG3 on another interface/mixer, nor have I tested a different condenser mic on my Tascam to isolate the culprit.

Does this sound like the internal 48V voltage inverter circuit in the Tascam just died and isn't outputting juice? Or is it possible for a faulty XLR cable to have an internal break that passes a weak analog signal but completely blocks the phantom power current?

If anyone has experienced this specific issue with the DR-40X or NTG3, please let me know. Thanks in advance!

So the front handle of my Small X bag tore from the seam today whilst literally just loading out to my car after wrap. Don’t have a sewing kit to stitch this as I’m working out of state right now but I contacted K Tek. Anybody ever have this happen to them before? If so, did KTek replace your bag? It’s definitely something that has probably happened over time, an 888 + nexus and two smart batts with a distro isn’t light. But still, feels very silly for this to have happened as K Teks products always feel bulletproof.

I just arrived to day 1/16 on a feature and my F8N Pro is completely on the fritz. I boot up and tracks are arming/disarming themselves and diving into the PFL menu wildly and at random without me even touching the device. Powered up and down like 5 times, still happening. I used it yesterday 2 days ago just fine and just finished a 14 day feature earlier last week without any issues. Have had this thing 3 years with no problems.

Thank God my boom op had a spare in her kit, otherwise I'd look like a real asshole right now.

I've been thinking how recent technology (especially iPhones but including Android phones) can improve location sound. The first of my ideas I'll call the "iMic". Think of the basic AirPods. These use Bluetooth to send high quality stereo audio from an iPhone to tiny battery powered earbuds and simultaneously send low-fi voice-grade audio from a tiny mic back to the iPhone. What if we could reverse this? Send mono high quality (even 32 bit float) audio from a tiny but high quality mic back to the phone. On the phone itself the audio could be recorded and simultaneously be archived in the cloud. And, of course, since iPhones have access to frame-accurate time-of-day through NTP, timecode becomes redundant--it could be completely implemented in software.

The iMic is based on the idea that for radio frequencies the inverse square law is the enemy. Moving a transmitter-receiver pair closer together is the equivalent of vastly increasing the transmitter power and the receiver sensitivity. Because the iMic (transmitter) is so close to the iPhone (receiver) power can be extremely low but still have high reliability. (How often do your AirPods stop working or sound bad?) Looking at the physical dimensions, the mic itself could be somewhat larger than the AirPods, the electronics about the same, perhaps a slightly larger battery. The elephant in the room here is the size and weight of lav mic cables--the mic itself is much, much lighter and smaller than the combined bulk of the cable and its connector. Because of the much lower required transmission distance and power requirements, the whole device could be tiny compared to other self-contained wireless mic systems.

The big thing here is getting rid of the cable and connectors. By removing the earphone (the largest part) and the audio power amplifier (the most power-consuming part) from a single AirPod, you could create a short-range wireless mic with super quality that is the same size as the smallest wired lav mics but without the cable. Imagine a mic about the size of a COS-11D, weighing under an ounce, that didn't need a cord! It could fit on the collar hem of a T-shirt. Double-stick it to the off camera side of an actor's face. Transparent tape it to the inside of her glasses earpiece. Hide it in her hairline. Even put it between an actor's fingers or inside a surgical mask. The problem of micing-up an actor becomes trivial.

By creating one small product--the iMic itself--using existing hardware and some software, a company like Apple could revolutionize field recording and the workflow surround it. Personally, I wish somebody would do it.

What does the Reddit community think of the idea? I'd love to hear your comments.

Wave Agent is an older program from SoundDevices that is compiled for Intel Macs which won't work on the new macOS later this year. I contacted support and they said they will not update it to aarch64.

I still need a subset of its functionality, so I wrote a small program for combining wav files. I'm wondering if I should bother expanding its capabilities and open sourcing it, or maybe nobody uses it.

Today we had this problem that we brought audio to an Alexa 35 and it was distributing also while recording. After a set change though the camera stopped passing audio ONLY when recording. It still records and it still plays audio on playback. We've already checked what the internet suggests (for instance verify project and sensor frame rate) and everything seems set correctly, also because settings were not changed during scene change.

Any idea is welcome.

I've been using my Deity Theos kit (Global, I'm in Canada) for quite a while now, maybe a couple of years. I had to replace one of the transmitters because the mic input got messed up (tried getting it fixed twice by a local electronics store but problems persisted). They ended up giving me 35% off because it took forever to get support for them. Anyway, I've been noticing lately that I'm getting more dropouts, even when the rx is close by. (I feel like I had better performance when the original tx was operational, I used to remark how well it held the signal even behind closed doors).

I've mostly been only needing one tx lately so I've just been using one antenna on the rx. On my last project the last two days I had to mic two people so was using both antennas on the rx...I left both on even when only one tx was being used and there didn't seem to be any dropouts at all. So this had me wondering, is it possible that by having both antennas on even when only one tx was being used improved the performance? I wouldn't think that would make sense because they're different frequencies, so what does it matter? I'll do some testing on this but wanted to see what others thought.

Hey guys, I work in radio production and we’ve just transitioned into filming some shows, we do a weekly show where we use Lav mics, we have Sanken COS-11D mics and they sound great, only issue is, we keep having issues with clothing noise, wherever we put it, be it the middle of the chest between buttons, or on the suit jacket lapel we get clothing noise when the presenter moves. We have tried loads of things, such as Rycote lav concealers and still getting rustle. Putting the microphone to the presenters chest is not an option unfortunately. Any one have any advice? I have spent the last 4 months watching TV shows and being baffled how they have lav mics on guests who move an outrageous amount and not a single unwanted sound, it’s driving me crazy!! Any help will be appreciated.

Hi everyone, I'm here to report a very strange issue that happened with my Deity TC-1. I work on audiovisual sets as well as theater and live music productions.

I've had my TC-1 for exactly 3 years, while I was working, it stopped outputting a timecode signal. Upon check, it simply turned off, but when I tried to turn it back on, it remained off. I simply swapped it for the other one I had and moved on with my work

When I got home to troubleshoot further, I opened the TC-1 and checked the battery, it was measuring 4.1v, basically full.

Afterward, I left it charging for a while and noticed that no LED or charging animation appeared. When I touched the USB-C port area, I felt it was extremely hot—hot enough to burn my finger.

Unfortunately, my technical knowledge stops there; I don't know exactly which chip inside burned out. When I contacted Deity support, they told me it was out of warranty (of course) and offered me a 15% discount coupon. It’s a shame not to know the actual cause of the problem.

Recently worked on a shoot where one of the subjects was wearing a very tight fitting dress suit. Because I knew trying to place the lav underneath his shirt would not get me good results (synthetic blend, Starchy), I ran the lav through the knot in his tie. For the most part the audio was clean but occasionally I would get some clothing noise/rustle when he moved. Because one of the shots was really wide I was unable to hang a boom as backup. Was wondering if the rustle is an issue, is it something that can be cleaned up in post? Does anyone have another method of lav placement that would have been better than what I did?

Normally LTC is limited to 30fps, as that limit exists in the bits allocated in the packet format.

Recently I discovered this online analyzer which mentioned two different methods of encoding 50&60fps, namely 'Wide_LTC' and 'Frame-Pair'.

https://github.com/macswg/timecode_greenalyzer/issues/75

I have coded up these schemes in my own project, the output decodes in the analyzer but I have not found 'commercial' tools which can read the resultant audio LTC...

Does anyone here have experience in this, and can they validate the audio files which I posted to ticket?

Thanks,

Simon.

So I bought an instamic because it's waterproof and I was capturing footage on the water (efoil) and now it's a couple days later, I plug it into my laptop and nothing. Nada. Zero. I plug it into charge it, nothing. It's the USB C model and it's about 1 week old. I did use it one time, and the audio was decent (better than 360 cam) and now I need the audio off it except it is acting 100% dead, will not mount, will not blink when plugged into a charger, nothing. WTF. Tried updating the firmware, the indstructions say to hold the button down til the LEDs turn off. Mine don't even turn on. WTF do I do?

Hello, is anybody using 14.4v/14.8v V-mount batteries with d-tap to DC barrel jack cable to power up Zoom F8N pro? I know hirose connector on the side is meant for that but those connectors or cables are not available in my country, so I would make my own d-tap to DC jack cable.
Only thing I am concerned about is that on the back of F8n it is written ˝USE ZOOM AD-19 ONLY˝ which is a 12v power adapter.

I need to hard wire a few lavs and all of my lavs have TA5F output and I need TA5M to 3-pin XLR adapter. I know the Ambient Recording one but if there's more affordable adapter I'd rather go with that. If it's something I can do by myself that's an option too but I need some resources for that to how to wire etc.