Static (6-27-09)

I don't know much about cameras but I know something about contacts and cleaning them.
I'd suggest you don't clean with alchol, it leaves a residue after it drys which makes the problem worse only ever use distilled water.
Also I don't know if you can buy them (or where) but there is such a thing as a glasfiber brush (looks like a pen) which scraps the smallest amount of the corrosion off of the contacts it does amazing things for electronics espesially at low voltage.
thats my 0.02$

Sounds like the ground broke somewhere on the communication cord.
usually that happens on the wire site rather than in the female jack.
you already tried another microphone/cable?

I looked around man, you can replace the XLR cable/accessory thing pretty cheap, but I couldn't find a good cheap xlr compatible camera.

Am I the only one that thought the sound was actually better with the onboard mic?

Hey Spoony, I don't know if you read these, but have you tried a different XLR cable? I am an audio engineer for a living and that sounds kinda like what we would call "One Legged." It basically means that one of the pins lost connection. When that happens the signal becomes unbalanced and it becomes more vulnerable to interference and typically also sounds weaker and tinny. I'm not sayin it's definitely it, but it's at least cheap to check.

God. How long is this review? I was going to watch but it's almost as long as the movie itself.

Well, if it helps any, myself and sure most of the rest of your fans will watch even if you were using one of those old reel-to-reel cameras. The sound doesn't matter to me, its nice if its good but I care more about just watching your stuff. Its awesome.

I believe the onboard mic is easily adequate with it you still sound better then most videos on the internet.

The ending of the video really made me sad with the geniune look of devistation and hopelessness.

I wish you the best of luck either getting your camera repair and/or accessories repaired for a decent price or finding a new quality camera for a good price.

Keep making videos, Noah :D The onboard sound mic is fine IMO and I really can't tell the difference.

I think one thing you need to realize Spoony is that I'd bet a lot of us come to your site and watch your videos not for your sound quality (not that its bad), but because we enjoy your sense of humor and reviews. Personally from what you demonstrated in the clip I'd watch your reviews/skits even if you were using the on camera mic, or with a little bit of static in the background. Your not making a multi million dollar movie somewhere, your on the net and the bar you set for yourself with regards to quality is far higher than what your average viewer expects. Create your work with pride, but I think your fans won't fault you for technical difficulties.

Spoony, a mid-90's camera is a major dinosaur, it's probably just the camera's time.

Ok. You can have my Panasonic HVX 200 for £20 (nice xlrs etc.). $1800 US p&p.

Oi whats up with the commercial btw?

"STOP STATIC", "buy a new camera", "need a new mic?"

honestly, its scary :P

hm, i think you should try asking a soundtechnician about that. been taking some courses in that myself but that was so long ago, and since i dont use that kind of knowledge regulary, ive forgotten most of it :p

but from the way a condensor mic works, it may be some kind of magneticfield that causes all that noise. or it might even have collapsed!

I might be wrong but the 'static' you hear while using the condensor mic could be your air conditioner/computer fans/etc....

any time I use a condensor mic I have to turn all those things off to achive silence to record. Something else you might want to try is some sort of XLR Noise gate (shuts the sound off until a certain volume is reached)

I hope this may help in some way...

For all the pack rats out there, who are fans of your work, Noah, please DO NOT destroy your old camera. In 10 years you can 'videotape' this old one and say "wow look at all the cool videos this thing got us started with".

I agree with Dylan (Comment #108)

You shouldn't feel bad about doing something like that, You're essentially giving us all a hell of a lot of entertainment for free, I think you'd be suprised how much your audience would be willing to give you.


Also, if you did manage enough for a new camera and mic set up I'd only demand we get to see a video of you absolutely trashing and destroying the old one lol.

Hey Noah, have you considered testing another mic on your cam? Like, it makes sense that bad contacts could produce cracking sounds but not static. It really looks like something your external mic is causing...

Or whatever.

For all we know, you spend all your donation money on takeout.

You really should consider a "Buy Spoony a New Camera" drive.

Your camera's insured right? Just let it break somehow, get the insurance money and buy a new one.

It might not be the camera. The static sounds a lot like a motor leaking into the power supply. (Think air conditioning on the same circuit, or a fridge...ceiling fan...) Does it go away if you run off of battery? Also, if you're using an unbalanced XLR you can get that kind of noise. It's almost certainly not dirty contacts.

That's a bummer man. Take out the Thor hammer and give it a proper send off.

Give it a bit of cytoplasm, that will fix it right up.

Have you considered running a low-pass sound filter over the video? It's not an ideal solution, but since you already have a bunch of video recorded with the hissing, it would help salvage it.

That's what I use to make my Canon basic camera not sound quite so shitty for youtube.

I think it's the surface mount electrolytic capacitor inside the camera need to be replaced. The Sega Game Gear has the same problem. The capacitors leaks or dry out over time. The camera repair place should be able to repair that camera hopefully.

its not that bad but it would be annoying after a while

Dude, I don't hear the sound of the camera recording. it sounds fine. don't trip spoony.

also what type of camera is it?

dude spoony...if you kept a camera going good for 10 years you did well. If I were you just use the onboard mic until you can get it fixed or buy a new one.