Why the high pitched beep on DV material?

Zwampen wrote on 1/27/2006, 6:43 AM

Hi,

Lots of material that I use gets a high pitched beep added to it when i open it in Vegas. I can EQ it with a bandpass filter set to very narrow and placed at around 11730 Hz to get rid of most of it.

The material is either from DV tape or a QT ref mov eported from AVID. Most of it is filmed with Sony DSR-300 cameras or DSR-150 and captured with Sony DSR-20p DV Tape recorders. I am running Vegas 6.0c at the moment.

The beep is definately not in the AVID and not hearable from the tape recorders. The sound is hearable on multiple computers running when Vegas. On the same computers when the material is played in AVID there is no beep. The beep varies in strength over time and can suddenly disappear and then come back again and run for a minute. It's mostly there when there are voices, perhaps because it's easier to hear the beep then?

What is causing this. I have been EQ:ing away this beep for years and would like to find out what it is. Should I install another DV codec? Is it a plugin that causes this?

Thanks for our help.

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Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 1/29/2006, 8:31 AM

Bob,

Where is this coming from? Seems unlikely that a digital transfer from firewire to disk would be resampled... Why the extra work?

If it was true, then Scenalyzer for example could be used for capture.

16/32k or more likely 12/32K, isn't that what miniDV uses for 4-channel audio?

If Vegas gets confused about what's coming from one of the most common decks used all over the world, it could if anything point to some unusual setting on the deck itself.

MichaelS wrote on 1/29/2006, 8:34 AM

If you just can't figure this thing out (and it's a one time occurance), perhaps its time to create a notch filter to remove the tone. If the pitch is consistant, a very narrow notch filter on the audio should clean it up. Simply isolate the tone and create a filter using EQ to drop it out.

I downloaded a demo DJ mixer program once that after added beeps after the trial period was up. Got rid of that in a hurry.

Sometimes you just gotta fix it and move on. I'm still curious as to the cause though. I believe Bob is right. I would be quite amazed if this is a Vegas problem, but you never know.

johnmeyer wrote on 1/29/2006, 8:34 AM

want some bad news, it's VERY possible for Vegas to have an effect on the audio during capture

Does it do this during capture, or does it do it when the file is opened and put on the timeline?

If what you say is true, then one obvious solution to the problem at hand would be to use Scenalyzer for capture. If what you say is not true, then capturing in Vegas, but then opening the resulting file in another application should show no spurious tone.

farss wrote on 1/29/2006, 11:46 AM

It happens during capture because many decks when there's blank tapes over the heads send 12/32K audio down 1394, VidCap locks onto that and doesn't budge even when 16/48K gets sent. Decks affected? Anyone that is capable of sending 12/32K including DSR-11 and J30.
SCL doesn't have this problem and it's easy enough to avoid when using VidCap if you know about it however using the Capture Tape button in VidCap it's almost 100% certain to happen.
Bob.

Pyriphlegethon wrote on 2/3/2006, 6:37 PM

I don't know if it makes you feel any better, but I am experiencing the EXACT same problem. I can't see how it could involve capture or interference or anything, because as was repeatedly stated, Vegas will do this to non-captured audio. It is a very annoying beep in playback which fluctuates and appears randomly, and makes for some very irritating audio renders. Mine usually will beep twice in quick succession before waiting another two seconds or so to beep twice more.

http://www.fennworld.com/audio/testing_odd_audio.wav

Here's a small sample if it helps.

Thanks!

Chienworks wrote on 2/3/2006, 6:49 PM

Hate to say it, but that sounds exactly like the "unregistered plugin" beeps.

EvilGeniusDan wrote on 2/4/2006, 8:58 AM

Yup, Pyriphlegethon. Your clip definately has the unregistered plugin beeps. 6.0c does the same thing to me right now.

Don't know about Zwampen though.

jrazz wrote on 8/3/2006, 10:42 AM

Was there ever a resolution to this issue? I am experiencing the same thing. This is the first time I heard it and it is the first time I captured in cam downconverted material from my A1. I do not know if that has anything to do with it. Here is a link to a sample. I I rendered out to mp3 just to see if a render would get rid of it but no luck. At 1.08 you should hear a spurious response. Any ideas? I am not using any plugins save for what Vegas automatically put there. This is straight captured footage and the only edit that has been done is singling out the right channel and normalizing the audio. It is still there even before normalization.

j razz

johnmeyer wrote on 8/3/2006, 10:56 AM

I'm not sure I am hearing anything. It is way, way down in the mud (-40 dB, for a guess), is very high frequency, and lasts about one second. Is that it? It sure isn't a "beep" in any usual sense of the word. Almost sounded like a squeaky roller wheel or something like that.

Actually, having listened to it again, I don't think there is anything at all at 1:08. The file sounds completely clean to me.

jrazz wrote on 8/3/2006, 11:00 AM

Try at 3 sec's and 1.04, 1.17, 1.58 If you can't hear them at those spots, maybe I need to try it on another machine.

j razz

johnmeyer wrote on 8/3/2006, 12:16 PM

I don't hear ANYTHING at any of those points. What's more, I put the file into SoundForge and selected portions around those points in time and used the spectrum analyzer to see if there was something there that my 54-year-old ears are missing. I can't find anything.

This leads me to wonder if there is something on your computer that is doing this at playback. Do you have another computer you can use to play back the MP3 file you posted?

jrazz wrote on 8/3/2006, 12:26 PM

yep- I have 3 others and I will check them now. I have a gigabyte GA-K8NS- Ultra 939 MOBO with the F8 update. It has on board audio and that is what I am using. Maybe I am getting some kind of analog feedback. Well, not maybe, I am. I will check on the other computers and go from there.
I am unsure how this came about as I have not added anything to my editor (only MS updates) in over a year and this is the first time I have heard this.
Thanks John,

j razz