Welcome to Phinalize

Hello chaps!

I'm new to the biking scene, passed my CBT on the 27th of April then my Theory on the 1st of May and now I have my DAS booked for the 23rd, 24th and 26th of July (Training and Mod 1). I've been riding since the 10th of May (almost 5 weeks) when I picked up a unique looking bike; The F.B Mondial HPS 125 in Black (they offer some gorgeous colours like Emerald Green and Red).

PXL_20240604_191423397.RAW-01.COVER.jpg

I'm from Oxfordshire (Big up, Carterton! ;)) and I work for a Charity, my hobbies usually include gaming (PC, Xbox and Switch) but nothing is keeping my interest at the moment. I've always wanted to have a Motorcycle but my Partner was always against them, I've since been able to convince her to let me :)

I joined this site to see if I can start piecing together a set up to start Motovlogging, or at least attempt to. Every project I start I never seem to finish because I'm never happy with the layouts I come up with or the quality.

I see that most people tend to recommend the Purple Panda because it's only £21 (from Amazon) and is meant to have pretty good audio, however, whenever I've used it with a Laptop, Desktop or my GoPro Hero 3+ there's always a static noise recorded alongside my voice - I contact their Support and they gave me some instructions, but they didn't help. I've since sent it back to Amazon and requested a new one to see if the one I received was just faulty (one of the things you should know about me is that I have terrible luck with technology - 80% of the time, I always end up sending something back because of an issue... My friends would back me up).

So I'm here for guidance, inspiration and potentially, hopefully occasionally, some help from the pros :D
 
HippoDrone said:
Great to have you here @Phinalize

Your bike looks pretty cool for a 125cc, congrats on it and good luck with your DAS in July.
I personally DON'T recommend the Purple Panda mic.... I always recommend the short VOIP mics that Shadetree Surgeon uses, here is a link to a similar style, they are cheap and work just fine, why spend when you don't have to...
Click to expand...
It never really occurred to me to use a Mic arm with some extension, I may try this when the next Purple Panda arrives and is inevitably terrible :rolleyes: I don't know how some of these people are getting great audio from it raw when mine sounded awful xD
 
HippoDrone said:
I personally DON'T recommend the Purple Panda mic.... I always recommend the short VOIP mics that Shadetree Surgeon uses, here is a link to a similar style, they are cheap and work just fine, why spend when you don't have to...
Click to expand...
I had no idea such a thing existed. I recently posted that the long cable on the Purple Panda was something I just felt I had to deal with. This little thing opens up possibilities...
 
Phinalize said:
It never really occurred to me to use a Mic arm with some extension, I may try this when the next Purple Panda arrives and is inevitably terrible :rolleyes: I don't know how some of these people are getting great audio from it raw when mine sounded awful xD
Click to expand...
Helmet and bike type all play a part in audio, bikes with fairings often generate turbulence or wind blast up into the chin piece on a helmet, naked bikes generally have cleaner air.
 
I get this issue when just testing inside, so no wind turbulence or anything like that - I even watched some people on YouTube testing out the mic. Of course, they could have post-processing on the Audio, but then I wouldn't call it a fair review o_O

I've attached 2 of my tests, one directly to a Laptop and the other using the TRRS to TRS adapter to a Desktop PC's Mic port. On both recordings, you can hear the hiss/static noise. I just wondered if anyone else has seen this. I think I'll go down your route of buying a TRS Gooseneck Mic to see if it's any different :P
 

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  • No Adapters using a Laptop.mp4
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  • Purple Panda TRRS to TRS Adapter.mp4
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I listened to both clips just over the speaker on my phone and did not hear any background noise. Maybe someone else here might.

I will check with headphones later. I am sure other folks will give their input too.

As far as mics - I belive the appeal of the Purple Pandas for our style of videos is not because the quality. It is the lack of sensitivity. Yesterday @scooterwuf was interviewing @Kuribe out in the wild. The Purple Panda had too low of input on his Tascam even with adjustments so I whipped out my Sony ECM and all was good. However the Sony ECM is too good for the Hero 4 Silver, Hero 5 Session, and Hero 8 Black - the cameras all end up clipping.
 
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R-Rated said:
I listened to both clips just over the speaker on my phone and did not hear any background noise. Maybe someone else here might.

I will check with headphones later. I am sure other folks will give their input too.

As far as mics - I belive the appeal of the Purple Pandas for our style of videos is not because the quality. It is the lack of sensitivity. Yesterday @scooterwuf was interviewing @Kuribe out in the wild. The Purple Panda had too low of input on his Tascam even with adjustments so I whipped out my Sony ECM and all was good. However the Sony ECM is too good for the Hero 4 Silver, Hero 5 Session, and Hero 8 Black - the cameras all end up clipping.
Click to expand...
Thank you for checking the audio clips! I've tested 2 headsets so far and I can hear the noise, these headsets don't give this sort of feedback in other audio clips so I'm certain it's not caused by them.

I did contact Purple Panda Support but their suggestions haven't helped, I think they may be offering me a replacement so I may check with that.
 
Phinalize said:
I get this issue when just testing inside, so no wind turbulence or anything like that - I even watched some people on YouTube testing out the mic. Of course, they could have post-processing on the Audio, but then I wouldn't call it a fair review o_O

I've attached 2 of my tests, one directly to a Laptop and the other using the TRRS to TRS adapter to a Desktop PC's Mic port. On both recordings, you can hear the hiss/static noise. I just wondered if anyone else has seen this. I think I'll go down your route of buying a TRS Gooseneck Mic to see if it's any different :p
Click to expand...
The test without the adapter has a lot of hiss at the start, just before you speak, and then it drops significantly. I wonder if your laptop is doing some kind of auto-gain.

I suspect you won't completely get rid of it using a laptop 3.5mm jack input. It is possible the tests you saw on YT were done with the mic plugged into a USB audio interface.
 
R-Rated said:
As far as mics - I belive the appeal of the Purple Pandas for our style of videos is not because the quality. It is the lack of sensitivity. Yesterday @scooterwuf was interviewing @Kuribe out in the wild. The Purple Panda had too low of input on his Tascam even with adjustments so I whipped out my Sony ECM and all was good. However the Sony ECM is too good for the Hero 4 Silver, Hero 5 Session, and Hero 8 Black - the cameras all end up clipping.
Click to expand...
I use a Purple Panda plugged into a Tascam DR-07X, and I need to turn the gain down quite significantly.

Perhaps there has been a change in the components they use? I bought mine about three years ago.

The Tascam has a plethora of recording settings, not all of which I understand.
 
This is pretty much what Purple Panda told me, they've recommended I use a USB adapter but I'm not sure that'll be helpful for me - I'd need to find one that goes from 3.5mm TRRS (or even TRS as PP provide a TRRS to TRS cable) to Micro USB.

I was going to see if I could get you an example from my GoPro, but it seems my Purple Panda has decided to break - the cable going into the Mic component is too loose and only records sound when I push it in. I've requested a refund.

I'll most likely try HippoDrone's suggestion of getting a Gooseneck Mic with an adapter to see if that works, otherwise, I may splash a little more and get the Rode Smartlav+ to see if that's any better :D
 
I've had to re-do the setup in the last couple of days. I had to switch on the Tascam option that sends power to the mic to get the Purple Panda to work.

The PP definitely needs a TRRS->TRS adapter to fit into the Tascam. The one I use is one that I _believe_ was shipped with the mic.

I also got hold of that boom mic, but bought the wrong cable. I'm away from home for a week now, so the (hopefully) correct cable will be waiting for me when I get back.
 
throttleup said:
I've had to re-do the setup in the last couple of days. I had to switch on the Tascam option that sends power to the mic to get the Purple Panda to work.

The PP definitely needs a TRRS->TRS adapter to fit into the Tascam. The one I use is one that I _believe_ was shipped with the mic.

I also got hold of that boom mic, but bought the wrong cable. I'm away from home for a week now, so the (hopefully) correct cable will be waiting for me when I get back.
Click to expand...
I'd love to hear what you think about that boom mic as I'll order one soon. I sent my first PP back to Amazon for a refund, then bought another (hoping that maybe I had a faulty unit) and when the second one arrived it was already broken o_O the cable was loose between the boot and the mic component, I could only get it to work by pushing the cable in with some force, so clearly something was already broken. Contacted PP support and they offered me a replacement, when I confirmed that I'd like the replacement they processed a refund instead...

I am the unluckiest person when it comes to technology
 
throttleup said:
I also got hold of that boom mic, but bought the wrong cable. I'm away from home for a week now, so the (hopefully) correct cable will be waiting for me when I get back.
Click to expand...
So the new cable arrived, and it all works with my Tascam, although I had to increase the gain a bit.

I've not had time to test it on a ride yet because I've just got back from a week-long tour "oop norf", and my bottom hurts.

I found some cable clips with 3M stickies which look ideal for fitting the boom to the lid, so I should be able to do a test soon.
 
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