Can you hear me now? Gopro 4 Audio issues

[Skyd]

Alright, I'm about to become the Teller of motovlogging because I've had nothing but audio issues. I did actually seemingly fix the sync issue with my Akaso, but I tried out my GoPro Hero 4 Silver last night and I like the video better, mostly for the wider angle shot. So I thought, this is great I'll use the Gopro on my chin mount, and the Akaso on the handlebars facing back, or on the rear, or whatever I feel like at the time.

But when I got home and excitedly took my SD card out and transferred files, No audio, zero....as silent as a mime in a library.

I've got the Purple Panda mic kit, using their adapter, it's all plugged in firmly. I didn't have time to fart around with it so I'll play with it tonight but what are my possible issues?

The internal mic on the GoPro works fine. I have not flashed any new Firmware, would that be a decent place to start? Never done it on an action cam but can't be that hard.

What else? A friend of mine has lots of audio issues with his newer gopro cams but it's usually that it drops out after some time. Too bad there wasn't some type of warning it would give you.

Anyway, when I get home tonight, where should I start troubleshooting?

 

[HippoDrone]

I assume you have the correct mic adaptor and are using the correct type of microphone jack? The purple panda has a couple of mic adaptors to convert from TRRS to TRS I believe, make sure you have the right one fitted.

 

[Skyd]

Hmm, I picked the one that plugged in, HAHA. I guess I better take another look at that. Boy that would be an easy fix but I'd feel pretty silly. LOL

 

[Dewey316]

It's been a while since I used a PP with the gopro, but I recall, it had a USB adaptor, and then a short female to male adaptor that goes from 3.5mm TRRS to 3.5mm TRs, this adaptor plug should have 2 rings on it, where the PP mic has 3. You need to make sure you run both adaptors for it to work correctly.

As hippo said, but my recollection is that it was a 2 part thing and you have to run both.

 

[Skyd]

It's been a while since I used a PP with the gopro, but I recall, it had a USB adaptor, and then a short female to male adaptor that goes from 3.5mm TRRS to 3.5mm TRs, this adaptor plug should have 2 rings on it, where the PP mic has 3. You need to make sure you run both adaptors for it to work correctly.

As hippo said, but my recollection is that it was a 2 part thing and you have to run both.

OOOOOH, this might be it right here because I went straight into the adapter (I just checked a picture, I'm using the right one) but THAT would make sense. Man this thing's gonna be a mile long. Ok I'm gonna check that out when I get home for sure.

 

[Dewey316]

OOOOOH, this might be it right here because I went straight into the adapter (I just checked a picture, I'm using the right one) but THAT would make sense. Man this thing's gonna be a mile long. Ok I'm gonna check that out when I get home for sure.

You don't want the long 6ft extension. You want the short one that looks like this.

Sorry, it is female to male, I miss typed in the first reply.

 

[R-Rated]

I discovered once that if the mic comes unplugged just a tad from the adapter or the adapter from the camera - the audio goes blank. Also, be sure that you power on the camera AFTER you have everything connected.

GoPro Gremlins are free with every GoPro purchase for life!

 

[Skyd]

Ok so sounds like I could have 1 of any issues or even multiple issues here, I'm not sure if I plugged it in first or not. And I'm for sure not using that 2nd adapter.

Ya I didn't mean the long one but with 2 adapters plus the mic cord it's gonna be fairly long. I'll find a place to tuck it in my cheek pad or something otherwise maybe a stick on thing to clip it to....anyway that's secondary at this point.

I will say, despite my synching issues, the Akaso was super easy...plug the mic in, turn external mic option on in the menu and away we go.

 

[Drakhen99]

Late to the party, as usual, but here's 2 things I think may be the cause of your audio issues:

1. The others are right, you need the short female-to-male TRRS to TRS adapter on the PP mic.
2. Once it's inserted firmly, rotate it in the mic port on the GP. I have found that if I don't do this, every once in a while I'll get the GP's internal mic audio instead of the PP mic audio. I can instantly tell when I look at the waveform in Resolve, and I go "oh crap".

As for the long cord, I run a half helmet, so no cheek pads to hide the wiring. It may be a bit ugly, but I've looped the mic cord and then wrapped it in gaffer's tape. That stuff is sticky but leaves no residue when you remove it. I then used gaffer's tape to stick the loom to the side of my helmet, so I don't have dangling wires.

I tried digging up a pic of my wiring, but alas, twas not to be... so you can go to my channel and in the Moto Vlog Gear Setup playlist, there's a 3-minute video where I show my helmet wiring.

-John

 

[SighBored]

I have a very bad opinion about the silver models. Try getting the black model. I used Hero4 and no issues with audio. Make sure the adapter is original GoPro, but I think GoPro already stopped producing it. I was lucky to find a China one that works well, because the China ones are usually 99% fail to work.

I know links aren't allowed but if you want to have a look at the setup, you can see below (remove spaces). Also for that test the microphone didn't work well with the Hero7 adapter but with the Hero4 was great.

https :// youtu.be / 0GrC_U1UX_4?t=127

 

[Skyd]

I have a very bad opinion about the silver models. Try getting the black model. I used Hero4 and no issues with audio. Make sure the adapter is original GoPro, but I think GoPro already stopped producing it. I was lucky to find a China one that works well, because the China ones are usually 99% fail to work.

I know links aren't allowed but if you want to have a look at the setup, you can see below (remove spaces). Also for that test the microphone didn't work well with the Hero7 adapter but with the Hero4 was great.

https :// youtu.be / 0GrC_U1UX_4?t=127

Yes they stopped producing it as near as I can tell. The missing adapter was 100% the issue, so that's resolved. I gave it a test and it works. I've yet to go out and do a longer video with it though so that's still TBD.