Eliminating wind noise

Thrasher

Thrasher

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 13, 2005
Messages
520
Location
Vancouver, Washington
Car(s)
1976 BMW 2002
I made a little suction car mount for my video camera. When I tested it out and the video worked great but the only sound was the wind noise. My video doesn't support external microphone and I don't have one anyway.

Does anyone know how I can reduce the wind noise?

Some things I was thinking of was was maybe some sort of plastic part around the camera microphone holes. I was also thinking of putting some sort of foamy or some sort of fabric material in front of the microphone
 
Not easy I think. You have to put some kind of wind guide in front of mic, maybe half-sphere or something. But noise will still be there from where wind exits your "shield" and creates turbulence and stuff. If you isolate it too much, you're not gonna have engine noise and whatever sound you want to record there.
 
I'd say without an external microphone capability, you're out of luck. It really depends how far the camera is from the car itself, but as MXM has said, you're always going to get some wind noise drowning out the engine noise, no matter what you try.
In fact, if you look at professional rigs, they are pretty much just the camera itself too, with nothing else at all - even the recording device (such as tape) is mounted elsewhere and connected remotely to the camera...

As for the options you suggested, they won't remove the wind noise only, instead they'll probably only muffle all the sounds and make the engine noise even harder to hear. In that case you'd be better off removing the audio altogether and putting music on top...

Just out of interest - got any photos of your rig? :) I'd be interested in seeing how you built it...

Are you sure your camera doesn't support an external mic? Most modern ones do, and the external mics themselves aren't that pricey. Especially when you consider you don't need a top end one as you're not recording a symphony orchestra...


Edit: Sorry, just realised, that post isn't actually too helpful... :oops:


Edit 2:
jensked said:
Did you place the camera outside your car or inside? And are you planning a 2005 version of "c'?tait un rendez-vous"?

edit: i think i misunderstood your problem... that's because I don't know what you mean by "suction car mount"
Click to expand...

I think he's using something like this:
3289.jpg


However, it'd be slightly different as it's bound to be externally mounted seeing as wind noise is a problem. And I doubt this sucker (pun intended) is strong enough to withstand movement on the outside of the vehicle as it as (though it may just be...)
What I want to know is whether he's got it pointed forward or back... :)
 
monkeymax said:
Just out of interest - got any photos of your rig? :) I'd be interested in seeing how you built it...
Click to expand...
Yeah I have a few pictures
0.jpg

2.jpg

3.jpg


I got the suction thing at a hardware store. I think it is meant to be used when working with windows or glass. I drilled hole though handle. I found a little aluminum braket piece in my garage that fit around the handle for support. Then I put a 1/4 in. bolt through the handle and screwed on a tripod head. The aluminum piece also makes a flat surface for the tripod head to screw onto instead of the curved surface of the handle.

Total cost was about $15 for the suction thing


jensked said:
Did you place the camera outside your car or inside? And are you planning a 2005 version of "c'?tait un rendez-vous"?
Click to expand...

This time I mounted it outside the car but I can mount it pretty much anywhere on the car inside or out.

No I am not planning any wild and crazy video chases. As you can see from what car it is mounted on ( a corolla station wagon) that really isn't possible. I just thought it would be a fun to try and make a mount and make a little video of driving around


monkeymax said:
Are you sure your camera doesn't support an external mic? Most modern ones do, and the external mics themselves aren't that pricey. Especially when you consider you don't need a top end one as you're not recording a symphony orchestra...
Click to expand...

The camera has an A/V in but once I plug something in such as a microphone, it will only record from that A/V souce. In other words I will only have audio.


monkeymax said:
However, it'd be slightly different as it's bound to be externally mounted seeing as wind noise is a problem. And I doubt this sucker (pun intended) is strong enough to withstand movement on the outside of the vehicle as it as (though it may just be...)
What I want to know is whether he's got it pointed forward or back... :)
Click to expand...

It is actually quite strong. It has two suction cups which is good. It sticks on there very securely. I can't pull it off when it is attached properly. I wouldn't worry about it falling off. even with only one of the suction cups sticking on, it will easily hold up the camera. however, I did tie a strap to from camera to the car just incase ;)
 
Sorry, I haven't read the thread so don't shoot me if this was already suggested.
If your end goal is to capture it to a PC, then you could record the audio inside the car with a separate device (tape recorder / mp3 player, etc...) and then mix video and audio together on the PC.
 
I never thought of that, that is a good suggestion. But I don't really have anything to record extra sound. I will have to check around to se if my mp3 player can record sound or something.
 
I was going to suggest the same thing.
Record video and sound separate, then sychronise them later.

I think the audio recorded on the external camera would be useless anyways.
Perhaps you can also look into wind noise cancelling gadgets they may have.
Maybe putting a cotton cover over the camera's mic may muffle out some of the wind.
 
Yeah I just got some squishy foam stuff and ductaped it over the front of the caerma. I tested it out by riding my bike and holding th caemra out in the air. It worked pretty well and I could hear al the clanks squeek from the pedals and chain. There was alittle bit of wind noise but it was significantly less.

ifound out my mps player has a built in mic but I don't know how good it is. I also don't know how to get the from it to my computer once I record it
 
Thrasher said:
Yifound out my mps player has a built in mic but I don't know how good it is. I also don't know how to get the from it to my computer once I record it
Click to expand...

Just take a mini to mini cable (3.5mm, check your loacl radioshack) from the headphone jack into the line in on your PC's soundcard. Then record the audio into an audio program like CoolEdit Pro, or there's a good free one called Audacity:
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Then save it as a wav and bring it into a video editing program such as Window Movie Maker (free with XP) and synch it up with your video clip. At the same time you can mute the audio from the camera that has the wind noise, or atleaset drop the volume down. Or you could try to cut out the wind rumble (low frequencies) in audacity.
 
I acctually found the software that came with the mp3 player that can import the sound.

I don't know how good of quality the sound is from it. I will set it in the car next time I go driving and test it out to see what the sound is like.
 
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