. What is Tape Noise? What is the "hissing" sound on my tapes? Many independent filmmakers get frustrated with the inability to get rid of a “hissing” noise in their productions. When lower quality recording devices are used, it’s not uncommon to hear tape “noise” which often sounds like a “hiss”. Unfortunately, when you’re shooting with stereo audio, which most of us are, you’re going to experience inherent noise. This is because the noise level exists in the tape even before you start to use it. If you just captured a blank tape and then played it back on your sound system you would hear tape noise. There is a huge difference between absolute silence and tape noise. However, this noise is often amplified in consumer and many pro-sumer level cameras because of the microphone itself as well as the camera creates noise. The microphone itself may create a small sound when it’s activated. Due to the proximity of the sound, the microphone will record the sound it creates itself. The same holds true for microphones which are mounted on the video camera or within the video camera itself. In these cases, the microphone will pick up the sounds of the camera’s motor, which may be faint, but it will be loud enough to create additional noise on your recordings. This is why it’s highly recommended to get the microphone off of your camera and away from noises caused by your hand movements on the camera and the camera’s motor. Continue Below... What is tape noise? Automatic Gain Control (AGC) What is room tone? How to fix room tone and ambient sound mistakes Acoustics and recording space       .

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