BrokeAss

I like to run around the track at DE's with my camcorder bolted onto the rollbar. My video always comes out great. Unfortunately the audio sucks. If I use the built-in microphone on the camcorder all I get is wind noise.

I went to radio shack and got a cheap lapel microphone and experimented with taping it in different locations around the cabin. That turned out be a joke. Occaisionaly I'd forget to put batteries in the mic or forget to switch it on. When I did manage to do it right, I'd hit the cable with my elbow or something and wind up unplugging the microphone. And to add insult to injury, the audio is mono only. Nothing like watching a DVD of your track time and only getting sound from the left speaker.

Anyone got a good suggestion for capturing the vroom-vroom, screech, scream, crash in stereo?

JackOlsen

A windscreen is a piece of foam that goes over a microphone to reduce the sound of the wind. They sell them at Radio Shack. The mic on your camera is probably just a set of holes in the housing, but you might want to try taping a piece of windscreen-type foam over it and see if that helps.

Radio Shack also sells stereo mics, which have two separate microphone heads wired to a single stereo plug. You can also get mono to stereo adapter plugs so that the same audio is on both channels.

BrokeAss

Thanks for the tip Jack. I went to the Shack last night and picked up a couple of foam microphone condoms and a 1/8" mono:stereo adapter. Total cost $5! I'll give it a try this weekend at Sebring.

Dave in Chicago

That should work. My old camcorder was one of the first Sony Hi8 units (picture a HUGE camera) that had the windscreen fuzzy thing on it. Much less wind noise on that one.

John H

I tried the foam and other things over the mic on my camcorder and the sound was still awful. What I finally did was buy an external mic and ran the wire so that I could stuff the mic back through where the rear seat belt comes out near the back shelf. I thinkg the mic is right above the airbox now and sounds pretty damn good (and very loud). Of course it helps having no mufflers, but at least there is no more wind noise (that you can hear over the motor).

Wreck Me Otter

Put a mic in Jack's car....

Dave in Chicago

I'm tempted to put a loud exhaust on my car so I can actually hear it over all of the decibel-advantaged race cars around me ;-)

Then again, it's kinda nice to have a stealth racer...

APKhaos

Radio Shack is your friend....but....their lapel mics can't handle the dynamic range of in-car work. They distort even if you solve the wind noise problem. The battery/switch problem just makes it worse.

Buy two of their largish hand held dynamic mics [under $10 a piece] and pop shields for each.
Mount them under the sunvisors - one each side. Run the leads back to a Radio Shack 2 into 1 stereo plug. Great sound, and no wind noise.

BrokeAss

I'd be afraid they'd come loose at speed and fly around the cabin.

That would be "vroom-vroom, bonk, screech, scream, crash"

APKhaos

Zip ties are your friend. I don't think anyone would just stick 'em under the visors and hope they stay there, although I do have some very old footage that includes a piece of gear coming loose and floating around the dashboard until I managed to stow it.

mistressmotorsports

I went the Radio Shack remote way for a while as well, but I also kept forgetting to turn it on or change the batteries. Finally, I just put a piece of duct tape over the built in mic on the camcorder (mines a Sony digital 8 - big, but with a fantastic vibration damper and great video resolution). Even in my open Cobra replica, the wind noise was reduced greatly. In my enclosed car, it sounded perfect. Maybe give that a try.

Mike

Cooter

The best thing is to wedge it uder a one of the rear seats, under the package shelf, or somewhere it will be held in place tightly, not vibrate around, and not be exposed to any wind - basically make it part of the car. That way all the sounds from the motor and tranny are transferred through the car and directly into the mic with no wind noise or buffeting. I've even wrapped it with a papper towl then taped it to the underside of the package shelf in a 993...but then when I was on the track I kept thinking of the weight of that damn paper towel and pitted to yank it

BrokeAss

But can you clearly hear the string of profanities when the knucklehead in front of you doesn't give you a point by?

RSRRacer

I ran a remote stereo mike from my MiniDV into the engine bay and taped them there out of the way.

This is in a 996TT. The sound is great but you get no "tire" sounds - just loud engine revs and the divertervalve going psssssst on every upshift.

Cooter