Good luck with the issues and hope they work out! Only the best of best quality suits your work!

Wow…the static is pretty bad.

The stand sounds weird too, towards the end. But the shotgun mic isn’t that bad.

The stand sounds weird too, towards the end. But the shotgun mic isn’t that bad.

I don’t have the money to donate to your cause right now, but I’ll see what I can do about sending over a used camera or sending over a similar mike as the one that has static for you. Probably nothing at all, which is really, really unfortunate.

The onboard mike isn’t all that bad for now, but send us an update when you can, all right? I wanna see more un-fuckin’-believable material from you again!

And why do I sound like the back of a DVD case?

Long time lurking fan here, havnt posted much though.

Apart from the accessory shoe, how else can you connect an external mic to your camera? Is it one of those standard phono-type connectors?
Maybe a little 2-4 channel mixer (not sure what the smallest you can buy commercially is) could solve the problem?(if its just the shoe problem and not something more annoying)The XLR from the mic would go into the mixer and then phono out and into the camera. You would only need to set the faders once, so it wouldnt take any extra hands to operate.
Using the inferior input jack may hurt the quality a tiny bit, but at least you would still be able to use your decent mic.

*Shrug* Just a suggestion, might not even be worth doing.

I hate to torture you, but I feel like I should point out that you could do FF8 and Ripper for awhile if you need to

Well this just being my opinion. Even though the onboard mic didn’t sound that bad. I would suggest at least taking the camera to a repair shop before commiting to it. Otherwise you could just do Ripper and Swat 4 until you figure out another solution.

P.s. I actually think it’d be cool if you could get your brother to help you out. I really liked him in the Transformers review. You guys seem to play off of each other very well and It’d be cool to give him some roles in future episodes.

Hope you figure something out soon spoony but no rush. Your fans will be waiting.
Best of luck!

Well this just being my opinion. Even though the onboard mic didn’t sound that bad. I would suggest at least taking the camera to a repair shop before commiting to it. Otherwise you could just do Ripper and Swat 4 until you figure out another solution.

P.s. I actually think it’d be cool if you could get your brother to help you out. I really liked him in the Transformers review. You guys seem to play off of each other very well and It’d be cool to give him some roles in future episodes.

Hope you figure something out soon spoony but no rush. Your fans will be waiting.
Best of luck!

Good luck getting eberything worked out, man.

I don’t know what camera you are currently using Spoony but if you are going to need a new camera I would recommend Panasonic’s HVX. It has two XLR jacks and the picture quality is fantastic.

Hope you can get it fixed if you do have to get a new camera definitely take a look at the HVX

I don’t know what camera you are currently using Spoony but if you are going to need a new camera I would recommend Panasonic’s HVX. It has two XLR jacks and the picture quality is fantastic.

Hope you can get it fixed if you do have to get a new camera definitely take a look at the HVX

I understand your hesitation to buy a new camera especially considering the price range you’d be looking at, but considering how old this one is … honestly, I think it would be a good investment. There may not be a lot you can do to improve lens quality but they’ve made great strides as far as the sensors are concerned (and I’m not just talking megapixels, I understand the problems involved there better than most), and sound quality has probably improved across the board. Hell you might even be able to get a high quality analog to optical converter plug for your microphone. Digital ftw, baby!

I’ve always appreciated the quality of your videos and I can tell this is frustrating for you. The camera mic does a decent enough job (obviously not the same quality as your properly working attached mic) if a new camera is impossible right now. I’m sure it was mostly due to the compression, but the video looked strange this time around.

As for recording the audio and video separately — I have faith that once you get a technique that works well for you, it wouldn’t be an issue; if you decide to go that route. I would think there would be extra benefits to two sources as well — like tweaking the compression of each separately. Regardless of what you decide though, know you have your fans behind you!

I was wondering, was it having these audio issues before you went to Chicago? Perhaps there was a bit of a BUMP with the baggage handlers, or even just in the overhead if you carried it on. Not sure how big the thing is, I’m guessing between News Camera and Home Video? I’ve always loved the audio fidelity in your reviews, as far as I know you have better audio quality than the illustrious Mr. Rolfe, course maybe I just like your voice more? Dunno about that one, if I weren’t myself strapped for cash I’d send you a couple of bucks towards fixing this issue.

Hope all comes out well.

I’m sure you already know this but you can use audacity to filter out any static/noise that crops into your videos. I noticed in your street fighter review, there was a lot of static. Just run it through audacity and it’ll clean it all up. Plus it’s free!

THIS IS GOD PUNISHING YOU FOR YOUR DR INSANO SHIT, SPOONY

In personal computers you can get rid of background static noise if you touch your mic wire shield with your left hand (well, at lest I can). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shielded_cable

I know what’s wrong–whatever was possessing nostalgia critic’s computer, making it play the audio to ghostbuster’s movie, is now affecting your camera! Get an exorcist~

I know what’s wrong–whatever was possessing nostalgia critic’s computer, making it play the audio to ghostbuster’s movie, is now affecting your camera! Get an exorcist~

I know nothing about cameras, but if the problem is with the accessory shoe, then maybe you could just replace that?
If your camera is as old as you say it is, I wouldn’t imagine it would cost that much to get a replacement one.

SELECT * FROM comments

Did you try testing the external mic to see if that was the source of the hiss?

What a heartbreaking thing it would be if your trusty, doughty camera was indeed on its last legs, especially since it’s been there from the beginning. I feel a little sad when upgrading computers and TVs, it’s like I’m betraying them. Or perhaps I’m just overly sentimental…

Is the sound level of the hiss dependent on the microphones input level. If so you could decrease the the microphone’s input level and record with the mic closer to your mouth.

Honestly, I didn’t hear any serious issues with the microphone you used in this one. The other one had static, yes, but this one sounded fine.

And I know that compared to your voice-over mic, this mic sounds worse, but frankly I’ve always been able to hear that difference between the voice-overs and the live spoken lines anyway. Which is only natural of course: you use two mics of different quality, you get two soundclips of different quality. I would recommend just picking one mic and sticking with it– that way all audio in any given broadcast will sound uniform, and it should save you some work that way as well.

how about an old fashioned auction yeehaw just check the microphones teeth before purchasing

I too am haunted by audio problems when filming. I can’t afford a separate mic, so I just use the built in one – which sucks because all I hear is the motor and the gears for the zoom lens. For some reason, the audio for my camera sounds best when the speaker is directly behind it (as in the camera guy) sometimes I try to over-dub using the built in mic on my computer – which is even worse than the one on my camera because it pics up the computer’s motor plus the ambient static that our ears can’t hear. Although I can’t offer any helpful advice on the situation – sorry – I am sympathetic and understand your plight. I hope you don’t have to get a new camera. Tried-and-true equipment will always be better (figuratively) than a new-fangled machine. Good luck on solving the problem, Spoony.

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665737599

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665737599

If the problem is the accessory shoe, then why not replacing it?

If it weren’t for the power issues you talked about, I’d have to agree with a previous comment that said you were likely just in need of a quick check of the contacts to make sure they were still well seated and all the wires were still in place.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you when you visit the repair shop.

The onboard mike sounded fine, if a bit “harsh,” if that makes sense. I didn’t hear any background noise.

you’ve tried another known working xlr cable? you gotta narrow down to what the problem is. plug the cable and the mic into a mixer or digital multitracker with phantom power and see if you still get that static. if its fine you should buy another shoe, try it, send it back if it doesnt fix it. then you will know if its ur cam or not

2 Things

Do you have any microwaves or microwave emmiting stuff in your room?

you might have the connector in the camera itself thats dirty

Sorry to echo what everyone else has been saying, but the on-camera mic sounded fine. My computer speakers are a bit shoddy but honestly I couldn’t tell much of a difference between the sound quality on your reviews where your camera was just fine. But maybe because you’re really close and not moving so much it seemed pretty good. I dunno, I’m pretty technology-dumb to be honest. I’d say go with the on-camera mic but you know what you’re talking about. I’d rather see more SWAT and Ripper anyway.

The onboard mic doesn’t sound bad at all.
But still, test all the equipment until you’ve pinpointed to problem . Use different equipment to test everything before you go spending money you don’t have to. Try different cameras, mics and cables (Whatever you’ve got to work with) and see what happens.

I have to say The Village is the worst movie I’ve ever seen. I don’t think anything can beat it, and I’d rather watch anything else, even Transformers 2.

When you take the computer to the shop I would recommend bringing the XLR adapter with you as well. Maybe they can try it with a camera in the shop to help you determine if it is the camera or the adapter.

Another thing you could look into is that some Video editing software that supports recording allows you to record off a camera onto the computer. If you had a long enough cable for the camera and microphone you could record using your mic and the camera through the PC. Of course the downside with that would be the possible problems with cables getting in the way and limited filming area.

The inbuilt mic sounds like an air conditioner in the background.

The external mic sounds like someone vacuuming the mic.

The clapboard might be the best solution for you if you can’t fix it.

IDK, street fighter review sounded just fine for me. Hope you can fix it though :) This video was still kinda entertaining, dun know why ;D

you might have a horrific monster close by that you need to kill (perhaps in your closet?). once you kill that monster the static should go away.

If it makes you feel any better, the older electronics are generally easier to work on, because of the lack of machine precision soldering that you will often see in many current electronic devices and generally most simplistic components & layout. The main issues that could happen would be needing a component that is no longer made. However, there often is a good substitute you can use instead.

Then again, I got my Electronics degree from community college in Mississippi & was top of my class(of 4 people), so that pretty much kills my credibility right there.

Maybe this is the time to start your own production company, Spoony. I think you have the talent and the knowledge and a throng of people on the site eager to help. Perhaps you can scrape together your own studio and really get things going. I totally think this is possible.

Mid 90′s Yea its a Dino alright spoony good luck, hope you fine a Really good new one

Ah, yeah, I saw this and went back to watch the SF review, there was really bad static in the background, and then your quality made a sudden LEAP when you went into the game footage, I couldn’t hear static no matter how high I turned up my speakers. Hopefully, you can find some better way to record sound on the computer and roll with it, and hopefully, your cam doesn’t give out for good. I can’t really help in any way, but I wish I could, this is my favorite website. I appreciate that you try to make all of your reviews top quality for us, and your hard work really does show. Your effort is definitely not wasted here.

The “hissing” sounded like your mic volume was down and camera vol was at max, trying to compensate that.

the onboard mic actually sounds decent for what you’re doing. imo in a lot of your reviews there already is a noticeable difference between the sound of parts when you’re on camera and parts when you’re doing voice over (on camera there is more reverb, for VO the audio usually sounds more ‘dry’) so i would say it wouldn’t really be that bad to go with the camera mic when you’re on camera and then just use your condenser plugged into the computer for recording VO. however, on your computer, if you don’t have an audio interface (soundcard) with an XLR or combo/XLR input, then you’re just wasting the XLR, so i’d suggest getting a cheap but decent interface like an m-audio fast track or a behringer fca202 (if you’re really on a budget).
btw, i am a music producer by profession, just sayin, so you don’t think i’m talking out my ass. haha

oops, not the fca202, no XLR input… which would make it useless for you.

The on-board mic seems like it’s fine to me, at least for these sort of Vlogs (though I admit I’m not that much of an audiophile). I imagine a side-by-side comparison to better audio might reveal a difference, but I’ve also always been able to hear a bit of a difference between the voiceover and the live segments, presumably even with the XLR mic.

most likely it could be a bad connector, the problem with adapters is they often go bad, I’ve worked with different sound equipment for years now and most of the time its simply the connections. especially in something as big as a xlr. It could also be a bad cable, have you tried different xlr cables? Your shoe or your cable may have some loose soder joints that is causing the sound to have static and not as loud, I’ve run into that issue more than once myself and it was usually a bad connector, or bad amp. Most likely a repair place will tell you to just buy a new one. Depending on how good of repair shop it is. But simply going by the sound it definitely sounds like one of the connectors has a soder joint that went bad, it usually happens when cables get tugged, tripped on, or simply wear and tear. Good luck getting it fixed. With respects to filming one solution I have found that works great is I have a small sound board that I have my xlr mic hooked up too and I simply plug in either the laptop or the 1/8 mic-in jack on my camera directly to the headphone out of the sound board. Theres a lot of other ways you could do it but, its really easy and pain free.

you could use the onboard mic for recording video because it’s quality is fine right now, and then get a mic for voice overs. I would recommend a Blue Snowball condenser mic. It’s USB so it works on any computer and the sound quality is Freaking Sweet. Best off, usually only about $100.
Save your other condenser mic for if / when you get decide to mabey get a sound board or multiple mics.

That is some pretty bad hissing, far worse than I usually hear from a microphone mounted camera. I’m not exactly a technological guru, so I’m not sure what to tell you to do to fix it. An external mic may be the best route to go. Aside from that, and I know you said you don’t want to buy a new camera but… you may need to buy a new camera. Yeah, sorry! The newer digital cameras look pretty impressive. I’ve been wanting to get one myself, but I’m going to get the most out of my old cam for the time being. I will say this much though, and it kind of goes against your desire to be a perfectionist… but if you talk enough during your videos, the static in the background is barely noticeable. Still, don’t let my opinion discourage you from fixing the problem. Do what you can to keep your vids coming!

It appears you don’t trust electronics fixers as I don’t trust doctors. They’ll both say what already is known that something is wrong but in the end it’s still you who has to deal with it. I have a recommendation and I think will sound really stupid for a video recording device but you could use a web-cam. There are some really professional web-cams out there that have a good quality image capturing and I saw even your room was heavy lighted to record. Oh and for sound you could use the lavalier microphone. I apologize again if I made a preposterous suggestion.

Personally, I think this is the perfect opportunity for you to finish up your Let’s Play of SWAT 4, and get Ripper into full swing. I would say continue FFVIII, but you like to do live segments in those, so that’ll be put on hold. Really like your work, and I hope things work out for ya.

My first question would be, how are you getting sound in to your computer for voice overs, is there a RCA out on that to tie to the RCA in for the camera to bypass the camera’s preamp. Secondly, perhaps something like this http://www.topdjgear.com/gemc5chcomib.html for 30 bucks would help if whatever you use for your computer does not have the output.

Spoony,

I commented on a previous blog about your audio problems, but just incase, I’d like to reiterate. I have the same camera as yours, a Sony PD-100 manufactured in 1998, which came with the same accessory shoe. Eventually, after several years of heavy use, I encountered the same hisses and pops whenever I used the XLR shoe. I took it to a repair shop and they told me the problem was a loose internal connection on the camera shoe itself. After a couple months of it working, the problem resurfaced even worse than before. So I had to make the same decision: re-repair, or buy a new cam. I found an alternate solution that let me keep my camera and only cost about $250. I bought an XLR to 1/8″ converter from Beachtek, a small box that mounts under the camera using tripod screws and uses an internal 9 volt battery to power its own preamp circuitry. The quality was amazing when using my high quality shotgun, and there is virtually no hiss. If your mic requires phantom power, there’s a Beachtek adapter for that but it costs about $50 more. If you eventually decide on a new camera, the Sony PD-150 can go for as low as $1500 in some online stores. It was released in the early 2000s still used today by pros, and it has XLR and accepts your L-series batteries. Incidentally, how do you capture audio into your computer using your XLR mic? Surely you must have some sort of audio interface that accepts XLR and feeds to your computer. Perhaps, if you really want to go cheap, you can try a cable coming out of the interface and into your cam’s 1/8″ mic input that’s on the side.

YOU ARE RUINING THE MAGIC FOR ME! Never explain how things are done, or else DEATH!

Noah, even though trying to be a perfectionist is good, but us fans really not mind a lot. As long as your review is still top notch awesome we will support you. New Camera guys! Gotta get him one

Did you do a Curtis and Trevor “eeeeeee” near the end of this video…?

Too bad it’s not working… Your reviews are usually top quality in video and sound, but I don’t mind if it isn’t that good. Your videos are still funny and top notch. So keep on going, spoony!
And I’m sure there’s people ready to donate some money to you. Not only us fans, but maybe even TGWTG? Who knows.A

I seriously don’t notice the camera mic’s machinery sounds….

Are you sure it isn’t the microphone?
Do you have to run audio through the camera?
If you mentioned the name of the camera/mic/accessory manufacturer/model, perhaps you can get more positive feedback about it.

Make an model, Spoony?

As it was turning away at the end… To the screen’s direction… Almost as if it would have tried to make one final review.

@ TheBlunderbuss: I taught that first too but since both mics he used had the static, its probably something with the camera. If you’re lucky its just a little scratch in the audio input, they will probably be able to fix it/replace it.

Best of luck!

-Ictiv

The static may be caused by some external device that produces a strong magnetic field when it is turned on.

Example#1: you mom’s vacuum cleaner.
Example #2: someone in of your neighbours is a readio amateur.
Example #3: some domestic anti-burglar alarm systems based on sensors (i.e. sensors attached to windows and doors that detect their opening) also produce string magnetic fields in some cases. This once happened in Italy when ONE SINGLE SENSOR caused all radio devices to tilt in a range of 100ft.

The static may be caused by some external device that produces a strong magnetic field when it is turned on.

Example#1: you mom’s vacuum cleaner.
Example #2: someone in of your neighbours is a readio amateur.
Example #3: some domestic anti-burglar alarm systems based on sensors (i.e. sensors attached to windows and doors that detect their opening) also produce string magnetic fields in some cases. This once happened in Italy when ONE SINGLE SENSOR caused all radio devices to tilt in a range of 100ft.

i think the onboard mic sounds ok. its not ideal but it works rather nicely. and i dont think most of your viewers are extreme sound enthusiasts so that shouldnt be an issue^^ the change from voiceover to onboard mic will probably be very audible but i dont think people will care too much about that. its better than the annoying hissing sound, right?
recording the sound externally and having to sync it to the video afterwards can be pretty bad, especially if you are doing it alone… i can see why you dont want to do that^^
anywho, good luck with finding a solution, i hope you can get everything fixed! especially because you seem to have some very neat equipment there!

It sounds rather good.

Spoony!!!! You have to be one of those perfectionists. I couldn’t here a damn thing in terms of background noise. Maybe if I cranked the volume up I could, but it’s not needed to hear you perfectly fine. Your kinda making a mountain out of a mole hill. Remember, your doing this stuff in your bedroom. It doesn’t have to be Hollywood quality. I just wanna watch and listen to your videos. Quality is the last thing on my mind really.

I’m not an expert but that sounds like amplifier noise. Like when you turn your radio on and crank up the volume to the max.

well but, you could record seperately onto pc and DONT do takes
in fact you do takes, but you never stop recorder, audio or video
so you just have to sync one time, everything

it sounds like phase shifting between the microphones, the xlr-microphone is taking up other mic and recording it at the same sound channel and I’d bet that is that’s causing the static, if you have a separate soundport for both microphone you could mute the camera-mic and probably clean the sound
I think a mixerboard or a soundprogram could salve the problem, I could consult some friends I know with more experience then me Spoony and see what they think might help

i wanna add a thing, you should go to where they sell electronic hardware or sound hardware like a instrument shop with the boom-mic and the camera, they could probably help you out with the problem

Holy shit that is indeed a bad signal.

Theo i got curius of to know what model of the camera it is you are using?
Allso one tthing that made me think of is eroding (is it spelled that?) buildupp on the internal component on the adapter you are using or inside the cameras connector cable.

For cleaning, maybe you should try one of those canisters of compressed air, the kind that come with a thin plastic tube to get in to tight places, like between keyboard keys and headphone jacks.

Also, aren’t there programs that you can install on your computer that would enable you to control and manage you camera through the computer? So if you have to record sound directly into the computer you could automatically start and synchronize your video capture with the audio feed.

Damn you looked and sounded devastated near the end when you said “it might still be dirty” . You could sell your camera you are recording on now on ebay or something for extra cash, who wouldnt want to buy a camera owned by Mister MaximumSpoon :D especially as the onboard mic still works.

Hey, Spoony I’m in the Army and we have very similar connectors for our commo equipment on our tanks. One thing I’ve learned when we have a bad connection and get alot of static is the best way to clean both male and female ends with a pencil. I know sounds stupid but really scrub the shit out it with the eraser the blow it out with canned air so the eraser shavings arent caught in there. Really cheap way to get your shit operational. Unless of course its not just a bad connection.

I think you should buy a cheap harddrive camcorder. A used JVC on the eBay for 150. Greetings!

Donations will come from me soon your Spooniness. I know you weren’t begging, but your reviews make me laugh and we all need laughter. I couldn’t hear the motor of your camera over the fan of my laptop… something I might want to get checked out.

Is that a castlevania shirt?

To be honest Spoony, your static problem reminds me of my old headset in terms of static. Mine had some sort of defect at some point in the wiring around the mic that caused massive static or it wouldn’t record the microphone’s input. I had to get a new one when that one fried, and while I’m no tech expert, the resemblance of your problem to my problem is somewhat uncanny.

Well, I’m no sound expert but honestly I think the sound in this video was just fine. The fuzz with the mic was nasty but the sound from the camera mic seems just fine. In fact, the sound in this video from the camera mic is a lot better than a lot, and I mean a lot, of videos on the net.

Anyway, I don’t know about anyone else but hearing that tiny wer in the background wouldn’t bother me at all.

Ok, now that i’ve SEEN the equipment i can see what’s happening. I have stage mics that do the same thing. It turns out to be the actual cable between the mic and the input, NOT the connections themselves about 90% of the time.

Where the hell did you get that Castlevania shirt? I love it.

What the hell is that big, black, deathcock next to your bookcase?

Spoony, don’t you play SILENT HILL? You’re catching up static. STATIC! They are here! Finally! Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun.

How egotistical are you to think that people care enough about your opinion to listen to you piss and moan for 40 minutes about a movie you didn’t like.
One could argue that you are doing it because it means more comments, which means, more hits. Of course, this would make you a huge hypocrite since you are bitching about the changes to this movie, which also caused it to sell more tickets.
Either way, you might want to stick to your usually wittier approach to reviewing things. Just pissing and moaning is really not that appealing.

I thought of that Paul (#17) said too. Have you tried to use some kind of noise reduction filter on the static or did that just screw it all up even more? I’d say it’s worth a shot if you haven’t as Audcity is freeware and is a very good audio editing program for being that. =)

I’m no technical expert, and at the moment, I have no cash, so all I can offer you is best of luck in getting this resolved. For what it’s worth, I’d watch your show regardless, fuzz or no fuzz…

Having the same problem with my lavalier mic, I hope if you fix it you tell us what was wrong.

Best of luck to you Spoony, camera problems can be a total bitch to fix.

Cool Wave or other audio editor capable of noise reduction?

I’ve had that type of problem at my job before. I was filming one of the many high profile lectures we have on my campus and then my audio crapped out. NOT a fun time, so I can sympathies to some degree.

Operator is pleased with how you name weapons, and use them as refernce…VERY pleased!

If you do decide (because of this or otherwise) to get a new camera- I would second what Shawn (#59) said about getting a Sony PD-150.
They are excellent pro-sumer/low-end pro cameras with great connection options and controls. They are a tiny bit pricy still, but well worth it if you do decide to get a new camera.

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.

also what type of camera is it?

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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

You really should consider a “Buy Spoony a New Camera” drive.

Or whatever.

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

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…

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.

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 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…

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!

Oi whats up with the commercial btw?

“STOP STATIC”, “buy a new camera”, “need a new mic?”

honestly, its scary :P

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

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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.

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 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$