Audio Clicks

[Mike Van Laanen]

Was out shooting some wind turbines yesterday and checked the files last night. There was a great deal of intermittent clicking then a quick nothing followed by a start up again. This made the audio useable. Wind was a steady 20mph with gusts to 35mph. Had a MKH 416 on an ENG rig w/sticks. Spent some time this evening trying to figure out the problem. After some trial and error I located the source of the issue. As it turns out the wind was blowing hard enough to move the Red XLR Microphone cable. Even the slightest bump or twitch of the cable results in the pin spinning and destroying the audio.
Would love to get some advice from others on how they lock down these two XLR cables in their ENG and EFP setups.
Thanks, Mike

[rick youck]

check out action products riser plater with audio adapter, and the 15mm LW Rod Mount. A little more expensive then some of the other solutions, but it locks those connections tight to the body.

works very well in ENG type situations where the camera is always moving around

[Marc Wielage]

My advice would be to record the audio separately, and feed only a scratch mix track to camera. This will also allow you to get the microphone closer to the talent, rather than right on top of the camera.

20-35MPH winds is tough for any situation. If I encounter something like this, usually what I try to do is to kindly ask the grips to throw up a 10X or a 20X as a shield to cut the wind in half, provided the crew is big enough to handle this. That, plus a Rycote windshield and a furry cover can do a world of good.

[Nikhil Kamkolkar]

Would love to get some advice from others on how they lock down these two XLR cables in their ENG and EFP setups.
Thanks, Mike

Would love to know this as well! Similar experience here on the EPIC-X/Rode w shock mount/plugged in via the RED minijack to XLR cable.

[Mike Van Laanen]

I've been working on it and found that if I lock down the cables with two velcro ties to a 12" CF rod on the lower right hand side it seems to stabilize the connection better. I've also learned to be careful of the audio cables while recording. Any small bump to the cables will put a scratch on the audio track. Not a big deal if it is just a scratch track, but a big issue if you are just recording two tracks on-camera.