Audio Spikes/Clicks/Pops on Mini DV Tape

[cw4u]

I recently directed a piano concert at our church, and have had some problems with the mini dv tape we recorded to. The audio appears to spike and has some very short, but noticeable electric pops in the track. I've not had this happen to me before.

I did record the tape on a panasonic deck, then transfered it on a GL2 when I got home. Could that be part of the problem?

The output from our Ross switcher goes to the panasonic deck (along with audio from broadcast board) then is output to a dvd recorder. Should I just extract the audio from the dvd recorder and use it instead? Or try to recapture using the panasonic deck?

The only reason why I didn't capture from the deck was that we don't have Adobe Premiere or any other NLE that the deck is connected to. And Movie Maker can't record widescreen effectively, so I chose just to take the tape home and capture it there.

[mcbob]

Any chance you were using a previously-used tape to record, or heads haven't been cleaned recently? Audio seems to suffer most from dirty heads or overused tapes, exhibiting the aforementioned clicks, pops, and sometimes dropouts.

[cmchamp]

Recapture from the original deck. Gonna be a pain, however, the issue is, from my experience, the GL2 can't successfully track the tape.
You could try cleaning your heads on the GL2, however, even if it was a brand new tape, you may still have tracking issues.

[cw4u]

The tape was brand new, but I'm sure the heads need cleaning. We got the camera used four years ago. I'll recapture from the original deck, and get back with y'all.

Thanks.

[benwilhelm]

Yea, I'd suggest using the original deck to capture too.

But depending on how bad the pops, etc are, you may be able to clean them up in editing software. If you do extract the audio from the DVD, you'll need to make sure you convert the audio sample rate to the same as the video project otherwise it won't lineup.

Ben

[billmi]

Yep, if the head alignment on the deck or the GL2 has shifted at all, the first place it will show up is in audio drop-outs.

Capturing from the original tape in the deck on which it was recorded sounds an ideal approach.

Not sure what you mean by moviemaker can't capture widescreen. DV's anamorphic widescreen is identical in resolution to its 4x3. The only thing that might get dropped is if a capture utility doesn't identify the widescreen flag bit, then you just have to set the aspect ratio to widescreen manually in your editor - you won't lose any quality or resolution doing that.

There is always the possibility though that the pops are from levels getting too hot for the deck's gain settings in which case pulling the DVDs track (assuming it has an automatic gain control and its audio was OK) might be the best shot.

[cw4u]

Originally Posted by benwilhelm

...you may be able to clean them up...

I did try to clean them up in audacity and adobe soundbooth. Neither did a great job since the anomalies variated and were not consistent on the stereo track.

Originally Posted by billmi

Not sure what you mean by moviemaker can't capture widescreen. ...

I honestly haven't worked with moviemaker in some time. I just thought I had problems with that before. And, I'd rather capture the dv footage in either .dv or .mov.

[benwilhelm]

Originally Posted by cw4u

I did try to clean them up in audacity and adobe soundbooth. Neither did a great job since the anomalies variated and were not consistent on the stereo track.

In Premiere Pro, under Audio Effects there is both DeClicker and DeCrackler that have worked pretty well for me in the past.

Ben