Setup for Capturing the Best Sound while Riding

Z

zonkiel

Wannabie Member
I have a very positive feeling that i just found the place for this. Guys Last week i made a week long trip with my Street Bike, and captured my first GoPro Footage using the Hero 10. I previously owned a crappy Chinese ActionCam that was just better than nothing. Anyway i shot lots of footage over the course of my trip, only to find out when i got back at home and started unloading the footage, that all i could hear has the huge Gasps of wind. I was so disappointed that i spend 500 euros and ended up only with appropriate video footage. If i had left the sound on mute, it would possibly be the same thing i Guess.

Since then i have scoured the internet seeing Youtube Videos, reading articles and asking on Reddit up until i found this forum. Anyway without babnliny any more and i would kindly request your help on recording the best sound possible so that i can minimise the wind noise and whats left is clear engine and exhaust sounds

Just want to note that i wont be talking over my trips so font care about clear sounding speech

From what ive gathered the possible solutions are

GoPro media mod or mic adapter.
Using external Voice recorder and synchronise the sound or use a wireless adapter to like roda product to wirelessly connect it to go pro.

Then you either put it under the Seat (my Bike doesnt have space there for a whole recorder, i can only jam a small lav mic there) or under the helmet or i have even heard of putting the recorder inside a Backpack

TLDR Gathering it all in one place.
Getting an Audio Recorder like a Zoom H1n/H4n Pro and putting it in a Backpack
Or using a Lav Mic with foam/Deadcat and placing it either under my Seat or inside my Helmet

What would you guys advise me to do? In case of a lav mic, whats my best option in the prices of 50 up to 100 euros including foam/Deadcat? I will be using my phone with this and synchronisint with video later.

On the Other hand if its the H4n Pro or any other recorder, will putting it inside my backapack yield good results, cause i aint got anywhere else to put it
 
Every bike is different, but I found that getting a nice exhaust or engine note, does not always work under the seat. For my bike, it works well for speeds up to 60km/h (~35mph in case you're on the other side of the big pond). Anything faster than that, it will pick up various wind sounds, in annoying level.
If you ride any bike with fairings, behind a fairing would be a good place to try the mic.
If you want on the body, I have found, in the middle of the back, preferably with some kind of cover, like deadcat, would be good. I know people have even done separate audio recorders in backpack. But it does not have to be a separate recorder, if you have a mic, that you can connect to the camera and the wire can reach the suitable spot.
If you have a quiet helmet, in helmet mic would be fine, but you can probably get better engine sound outside.
I am sure I not allowed to put a video here, but you can get an idea of what kind of wind levels are in the middle of my back, when you check out youtube -i6oL78Sp6o
 
Bike audio can be a fickle B. I think for what you are after an external audio recorder would yield the best result since most of them can be tuned to block out peaks and buffeting noises from wind along with mic gain etc.
The audio adaptors for the GoPro provide pretty decent sound with a good mic, but there is really no adjustment except in the editing process, by then it can be too late and result in scrapped videos (Been there, done that). that being said, some people do have pretty solid audio from them with specific mics.
With an external recorder the best strictly audio location I've found for my GSXR 600 was under the rear seat with the mic pointed to the rear. If you ever wanted to do any talking in your videos it'd be easy enough to swap the external recorder to inside your jacket with a mic in your helmet.
I can't stress enough, in either location, a dead cat over your mic will help a ton with wind noise. You can put dead cat material over the GoPro mics and it will help, but if you ride through a cloud of bugs, it will get pretty gross over time.
My setup is an in helmet mic, mounted on the chin bar, aimed toward the cheek pad an dead catted. It get's good bike audio, and wind noise is generally not a problem anymore. Sometimes a good cross wind will still give me a small crackle, but on calm days the audio is pretty good imo.
It's one of those things where there are a million ways to do what you want, but the best bet is to do some experimentation to lock in your specific sound the way you want it.
Hope that helps in some way. Cheers!
 
It all depends on your bike. I get all my engine noise from a session that is behind the wind screen. It does a great job of picking up the engine note for me. But every bike is different.
 
My two cents - Sony ECM mic in a full face helmet pad near the strap point and record in stereo with the mic adapter for the camera

I went from Sony ECM to the purple panda. The voice is great but the bike sounds have fallen off to the point where one video coming up has little difference between voiceover using a Snowball mic and actual voice at the time of recording.

Alternatively, you can set your video to music to set the mood if the ride views are spectacular.
 
Adding to all the great advice already given, I would do this before your next big ride: Pick a 10-20 minute route you can ride, with several stops along the way.

Before you set out, pick up to 5 places to mount a mic. Use either a long-cabled mic like a Purple Panda, with dead cat, and find a way to mount it in several places. Some of the suggestions [repeating what others said] would be: behind a fairing, behind a body panel, under your seat, in a backpack, on the frame somewhere near the exhaust, on the frame somewhere near the engine.

Start recording, ride to the first stop, stop recording, move the mic. Start recording and ride to the next stop.

When you get home, you should have 5 files [or however many mic placements you wanted to test] and a good idea of what will and won't work.

I've done this for audio tests myself [vids on my YouTube channel if you care to see how I get my audio] and the results were interesting, to say the least.

-John
 
This guy is trying some things. He even mounted a recorder on the back of his bike. Well im definitely not going to try something that extreme, but possibly if i can have it somewhere clamped on the outside of a backpack. I know you guys are saying its not going to be muffled inside but i doubt its going to be close compared to having it somewhere on the clear. Can I mount it somewhere on the backpack with some clamp, where it could be secure on the same time


Recorder Questions
Wll a more expensive option matter that much? I mean you can get an H1N with less than 100 Euros where the more expensive H4N option goes for 250. Is it worth investing this heavy?
-Is the Windscreen product specific, or can i throw anything on top of its stereo mics? Ive been hearing Deadcat recommendations for the H4N that gofro 50 Euros. This could be crazy for a ball of hair.
-Can i Run a cable from the gopro to the voice recorder so that i dont have to sync it afterwards?

Got more videos to show with creative things ive seen on Youtube. Let me gather these up first
 
Everybike and setup is different for sure. My bikes are so loud that the mic picks up just enough sound that I don't need a secondary mic. But if you want more control you could throw a mic in a side pouch in an backpack or come up with some sort of mount near the rear fairing and use a little sony recorder for secondary sound. I have used a ICD-PX470 with a Rode micophone in the past but it picked up too much sound and it would clip out from time to time.

My current go to setup is below:

2004 Honda CBR1000RR
GoPro Hero4 (Last GoPro to Allow Direct Micro USB Mic Input)
Full Face Chin Mount compatible with Bilt Blaze Helmet
Bilt Blaze Helmet
Purple Panda Microphone with Bestshoot lavalier microphone furry wind screen

Check out my YouTube channel if you are curious for what this sounds like. Most my latest QuickEdit videos are with this setup.

Last Note: Unless GoPro goes old school someday to allow for direct mic input I will probably go with a different brand of action camera in the future once my GoPro Hero 4 stops working.
 
Been watching some Recorder reviews yesterday, and ive noticed some drawbacks for H4n Pro

-Takes half a mnute and more to boot up
-Doesnt support evey lav mic, compatibility is hit or miss
-You gotta press rec twice. one for monitoring second to actually record. But sadly other brands do this as well
-UI is Archaic
-So Bulky and Chunky

I was really considered getting it but hearing all these, now theres only a small chance i think. I'm either getting the H1N, which 60% the price, much more compact, hit record once, and supporting every lav mic, (or even using my phone, if i can find a good usbc lav mic, or an adapter that can make use of every ts lav mic).

Alternative i can get the Tascam DR-40X for some thing with onboard mics close to the H4n pro quality. They even change from the XY position to the opposite direction.

It may look like im overthinking it, but spending that much money for something that is purely for hobby (not a youtuber, not mkaking money off of it, just purely for my and my friends) is a big deal for me.

As for lavalier mics, can we please make a list of everything that is good quality for 50 euros more or less.

So far ive heard about the
Shrue MVLs
Purple Panda
Rode Smart LAV+
FTF gear lav mic
Sennheiser XS Lav
Boya BY M1 or M3
Movo GM100
Deity V.Lav
Clippy Em272
SONY ECM-CS3
 
Good on you for doing your due diligence! No shame in researching your options before spending money!

As for the lav mics, I only have experience with the Purple Panda, but I have 2 of them and they're great [I bought a 2nd one because I didn't want to mess with my helmet setup - it took a ton of time to dial in].

I know you're not looking at wireless options, but I have a Rode Wireless Go, and I love it! Quick to boot up, 3 gain settings, on-board or external mic, and it plugs into my GoPro Media Mod for recording. If you're running more than 1 camera, it may be something to look into.

Best of luck with your recorder purchase!

-John
 
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