Sound Quality Over 65 Mph (105 Km/h)

[Clint Love]

I was just curious about others on here and the quality of sound at highway speed and above. My current setup is a cheap lav mic, direct into my Drift HD cam. I have acoustic foam and some home made dead cat.

My sound quality is good up to about 65 mph and goes to Hell shortly thereafter. The main problem is the wind buffeting against my helmet, so loud helmet could be an issue.

How fast can you go without wind noise wrecking your audio and what is your audio setup?

 

[MunkehsMotors]

I have the Drift External mic and the foam fell off ages ago, but I can get away with up to around 80 mph without the wind noise being too bad. I have the mic sensitivity on its lowest with the mic about an inch away to the side of my mouth. My helmet may help, Shoei GT Air.

 

[kuhlka]

My problem isn't so much the wind noise as the exhaust noise on the Diavel at 80+mph. I just got a Sena 20s to co-vlog with a friend so I'll probably experiment with merging my ActionCam and Sena audio tracks so I can have my exhaust noise AND crystal clear voice at all times. Hope it's not too much work.

 

[SwissMotard]

Mine seems to vary wildly. It can be great up to 160Km/h plus, but then on other days even 80 creates a lot of noise.

I haven't been able to spot the pattern yet.

I have a Shoei GT Air and it's about average for wind noise.

 

[THvlogs]

I've used the drift mic and a cheap neewer mic and both have no issues at speed. I recently did a vlog at around 70-80mph and it sounds fine. I have a loud exhaust but I actually put my mic down inside the cheek pad closest to my mouth and it keeps wind noise out very well. I also have the mic sensitivity set to the lowest setting.

I also use two different helmets a modular harley davidson helmet and a scorpion exo and both have the same results.

 

[Clint Love]

My problem isn't so much the wind noise as the exhaust noise on the Diavel at 80+mph. I just got a Sena 20s to co-vlog with a friend so I'll probably experiment with merging my ActionCam and Sena audio tracks so I can have my exhaust noise AND crystal clear voice at all times. Hope it's not too much work.

I've got full Termis, unrestricted, but my exhaust is under the tail so all the noise is in back of me. Do you use an audio recorder or go straight into the camera?

 

[Clint Love]

I've used the drift mic and a cheap neewer mic and both have no issues at speed. I recently did a vlog at around 70-80mph and it sounds fine. I have a loud exhaust but I actually put my mic down inside the cheek pad closest to my mouth and it keeps wind noise out very well. I also have the mic sensitivity set to the lowest setting.

I also use two different helmets a modular harley davidson helmet and a scorpion exo and both have the same results.

I may give the stock Drift mic a shot and see how well it does. Oddly, I've never tried the mic that came with the camera. I did buy a more expensive lav mic once but it was too sensitive and the audio would cut out.

 

[Arctic Pride]

All in all you have to play with it, add sound deadening, move the mic, try different angles e/t/c. Every helmet is different as is every one's face.

 

[Clint Love]

All in all you have to play with it, add sound deadening, move the mic, try different angles e/t/c. Every helmet is different as is every one's face.

I'm going to try moving the mic next. My last vid came out a little better after I adjusted the camera sensitivity. It seems any time something jars my helmet a little bit, being hitting a bump in the road or even wind buffeting the helmet it interferes with the mic. I think the mic needs to be isolated from the shell of the helmet a little more. I'm going to add a piece of foam between the encapsulated mic and the helmet. I may also try using the drift mic if I'm not satisfied.

 

[THvlogs]

I may give the stock Drift mic a shot and see how well it does. Oddly, I've never tried the mic that came with the camera. I did buy a more expensive lav mic once but it was too sensitive and the audio would cut out.

I hope it works out for you. I've found that sometimes simple is the best way. It took me forever to find a good setup. I'd say turning the mic sensitivity on the camera all the way down is probably the most important part though.

 

[lupin]

Low sensitivity on the camera is a must. I learned the hard way.

I've found the drift mic fine after changing that, but I guess some of it will come down to how quiet your helmet is in the wind anyway.

 

[SwissMotard]

Right, I figured out the GoPro!

Start it recording once you're already rolling and the auto sensitivity works perfectly. If you start before it gets noisy you will always have more wind noise.

 

[Clint Love]

Right, I figured out the GoPro!

Start it recording once you're already rolling and the auto sensitivity works perfectly. If you start before it gets noisy you will always have more wind noise.

I don't know if drift is that sophisticated, but it couldn't hurt to try.

 

[SighBored]

Riding above 100 km/h, the sound is alright (to me), of course you can't be expecting crystal clear sound, but it's still audible.

 

[Clint Love]

Riding above 100 km/h, the sound is alright (to me), of course you can't be expecting crystal clear sound, but it's still audible.

Yeah, you gotta figure, that's like recording in a Hurricane with an engine running next to you. Plus you want to get some of the engine for character, so it's complicated.

 

[SighBored]

Yeah, you gotta figure, that's like recording in a Hurricane with an engine running next to you. Plus you want to get some of the engine for character, so it's complicated.

That's where you have to start playing around with audio levels during edit, tone down the background noise/humming/etc.

 

[Clint Love]

That's where you have to start playing around with audio levels during edit, tone down the background noise/humming/etc.

I do that, too. I have a "motovlog compression" and "motovlog EQ" setting that helps quite a bit. I posted a vid on here Wednesday where I changed the editing. I used advice from some people on here when editing and I think it sounds better. I had some complaints that my vids were too quiet so I fixed some levels and didn't compress as much.

 

[RollngCole]

I think my helmet lets a bunch of wind in, or i have my mic positioned too low maybe and it's catching wind from below. Mine can get pretty glichy and gittery sounding much slower than that even, like 70km which is like 45 miles probably. But like said above sometimes it's not an issue, must depend how windy of a day it is too.

 

[Clint Love]

I think my helmet lets a bunch of wind in, or i have my mic positioned too low maybe and it's catching wind from below.

You might try imbedding the mic in some acoustic foam and adding some dead cat material. That works pretty well for wind. Relocating the mic to different spots may help too.

My issue is my helmet thumps, I guess you can say, when the wind beats against it or I hit a rough spot. The effect is like tapping on the mic and it will cause the sound to clip. I think it's just the design of the helmet. Motovlogging wasn't a thing in 2006 when I bought it, so the acoustics probably weren't thought of very well when it was designed. I've read reviews of it from when it came out and most remarked it was somewhat noisy.

 

[SwissMotard]

Buffeting noise can't be stopped with any amount of deadcat material. Only cleaner air can stop that, which often means smaller/no wind screens.

You need a new helmet if it's twice the recommended age for renewal!