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In my last test I decided that the the dm-50 was a small step up over the internal mic in terms of motor noise, and a huge step up in audio quality. My goal now is to remove as much motor noise as possible without sacrificing the good audio quality.

Using vegas and the noise reduction 2 filter, I filmed in stereo 1 mode in a quiet room. Using that silence (the recorded motor noise) as my noiseprint, I then had the noise reduction plugin remove that sound. I played with the settings some and listened to what was being removed until I got something I liked. The recording of my voice sounds identical to me. I saved this as a preset, and if all goes according to plan, the plugin can just be turned on, choose the preset, and motornoise is gone.

My settings were as follows:

Mode 3, Reduce noise: 100db
Noise bias: -5.2
Attack speed: 90
Release speed: 90
Windowing: 512
Windowing overlap: 67
High-shelf not checked.

Credits

19 Likes

  • worldidol 2 years ago
    Well done. I want to test that noise reduction too. My tip is: don't install the mic so close to the camera. It's less convenient, but noise reduction would't have to be so radical, if necessarry, and sound will be much more clean after it.
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  • nathan118 2 years ago
    The dm-50 works with the hot shoe....there's not really any option for where you install the mic. I've updated the clip to include some guitar playing to help judge how well the noise reduction is working.
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  • worldidol 2 years ago
    I have the Rode Stereo Videomic. It works with hot shoe too, but the noise is too harmful for me there. I have my mic installed on a stick and one person holds it during recording. :) Less recorded noise means less noise to reduce. Did you work with Sony Noise Reduction or some other?
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  • nathan118 2 years ago
    Correct, the Sony Noise Correction 2.0 plugin.

    I got the dm-50 because I was trying to strike a balance between convenience and quality. I want a compact setup that the wife can use without a big instruction manual. The Dm-50 plus a little noise reduction is making me pretty happy so far!
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  • Angelo Alberico 2 years ago
    Much better... earlier I was going to suggest isolating some room noise but you beat me to it... this will be an effective solution in quite a few situations.

    I also agree with the previous poster in trying to move the mic as far away from the camera as possible. I've seen some tests with the same camera using different mics (some that were further) and it solved the much of the noise issues.

    It's still a bummer they can't solve such a basic problem that has existed for more than 30 years in home video cameras but I guess the video quality is so nice that the bummer audio trade-off is acceptable.

    I look forward to the other reviews that should drop shortly to further help me make my decision. I still think the HV20/30 are my front runners.

    Good work!
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  • johnbmx4christ 2 years ago
    .go outside and stand near a busy street and talk and play the guitar and THEN test it..thats a real test..i do peoples old home vids all the time and have to do tons of audio work.i also dont use any mics on the cam..i mean i have 1 wired mic that plugs in but i also have 1 wireless mic and 1 that i use with a voice recorder and sync up later.
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  • David McMurray 2 years ago
    Very impressive! A kind of "Audio White Balance" seems to be needed for cameras.
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  • RWSHELDON 2 years ago
    agreed "audio white balance" good way of stating it. I'm a Vegas user as well and just wanted to say I appreciate you posting this tidbit of working with noise reduction.
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  • nathan118 2 years ago
    You're welcome. I think if you can capture a really "clean" example of the motornoise, and keep all your settings the same from there on out (same microphone, recording mode, volume level, etc) you should be able to create a template noiseprint that can be used very easily on future projects.

    I hope to do more tests in a variety of environments to see how it works.
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  • Jeffery Patch 2 years ago
    Thanks for the tests. I have the DM50 as well but I haven't used it very much.

    Oh and by the way, nice hat. I go to CSULB :)
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  • nathan118 2 years ago
    Go Dirtbags!
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  • Patrik Sandberg 1 year ago
    Really nice... to bad I dont use Vegas for video.
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  • nathan118 1 year ago
    For the record I've given up on this. The noise correction plug-in works, but sound is too dynamic to simply use a clip recorded in a quiet room and then apply it to all future recordings. If you don't mind messing with the sound on EVERY clip, this will work, but it's really not a good solution. For the hv20/30 you really need to move the mic farther away from the camera. My hotshoe mounted DM-50 is just way too close. I've moved to a Sony HDR-SR11 to avoid the tape noise altogether. Best of luck to everyone.
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  • opsonic 1 year ago
    Thanks for that last update -- I'm struggling also with the HV20 and the goofy motor noise... arrrhh...
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  • Rodney Smith 1 year ago
    Clever and creative approach. Thanks for putting your results up (I've got a Luke too, by the way :) Kids are great!)
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  • Brad Shutack 7 months ago
    awesome.. how do you feel about putting db at 0 to record and than adjusting to -12 (or as needed) in FCP or Vegas. i just bought the mic myself and am getting ready to use it for a big documentary project and that noise was a huge deal to me. thanks for the tests!
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  • Brad Shutack 7 months ago
    ... with attenuate off
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  • nathan118 7 months ago
    I actually gave up on this Brad. It worked 90% of the way...but in certain situations it was really difficult to get rid of the motor noise. I found that the volume you recorded at didn't seem to matter much. If you put the volume at 0 or -12, it's still going to record the ambient noise and motor noise in the same "ratio," meaning if you make the recording volume lower it will lower everything the same.

    It definitely has some merit (the noise reduction), so good luck!

    I ended up going with a solid state cam (Sony HDR-Sr11) and sold all my HV20 stuff.
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  • Brad Shutack 7 months ago
    cool thanks!
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  • emmagination plus 3 months ago
    I've used Adobe Soundbooth before to capture a noise footprint and remove it. Quite easy actually with Adobe Soundbooth.
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