On Sat, 24 Nov 2001 08:43:07 GMT, "Sam Sundaram" wrote:

>OK, the trv900's picture quality has to be commended before I bitch and
>whine.. I've had it for years but only have recently gotten a good light
>set.. With the light set used, the picture quality is simply awesome - very
>professional.. But the audio.. Man, does the audio with an external mic
>SUCK.. I can't get rid of a pesky buzz - I've tried using a beachtek xlr
>adapter or a little mixer, but both of them create a buzz (Actually, the
>TRV900 creates the buzz with both of the mics). I simply can't get rid of it
>and had to go as far as using my minidisc player to dub all the audio and
>then overlay the video in premiere- a major pain if you ask me! Any one
>know if this buzz problem is serviceable? I know the PD150 has a buzz/hiss
>issue as well - what sony camera doesn't? (I'm assuming that the VX2000 does
>because it's so similar to the pd150).. If the buzz isn't fixable, is there
>an easy way to sync audio from md? Any old school hints to get lip sync
>perfect? Thanks again!

If the "buzz" does not happen with the internal mic, or with
an external mic directly connected with the mini-plug (and
not through an adapter), I would blame anything but the
camera. I do find that some mics attached directly to the
TRV900 and VX2000 mechanically pick up LF vibration that
sounds like hum, but physically separating the mic and
camera, even by a fraction of an inch, removes the "hum",
indicating it is not electrical in origin. If the "buz"
is electrical in origin, it is usually due either to a
"ground loop" (from poor design of the ground path[s]),
or to inadequate shielding, both of which could easily
be true with the XLR adapters (or even the mics themselves).
Sometimes removing one of the ground connections will
remove the hum (ideally, there should be only one ground
path, as short as possible, with as low an impedence as
possible, and connected as close as possible to the
ground side of the amplifier input stage - all hard to
properly implement in an XLR adapter, which is also
unfortunately placed just before a high-gain amplifier
stage...).
If all else fails, the noise-reduction module in Cool Edit
does a good job of removing hum and other noises.
As for synching a MD recorder, I use a cheap "clicker"
snapped at the beginning of each clip...