Fixing the Audio on GoPro Hero 5: Mic Modification and How to use ProTune RAW Audio
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ก.ค. 2024
- A wise man once said, "The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it's to post the wrong answer."
Here is how I hacked my GoPro Hero 5 and Used Adobe Audition to tune the RAW ProTune audio. If you're a savvy sound guy, I'd be more than happy to listen to your advice on how to tweak the Hero 5's audio tracks.
teardowns:
www.ifixit.com/Device/GoPro_H...
• GoPro 5 Teardown - How...
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![Water Damaged GoPro Hero 5 Black | How To Fix It | [4k]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eoRXsZIUyWs/mqdefault.jpg)
If you made it through this video, here's a cookie!
If you know anyone who may be able to help with this project, *please* share this video with them! I'm at the point where I know there is more to be done, but I'm out of my element.
Hi, You've got guts! Would you please make a short video just comparing audio while speaking for the modified Gopro 5 and Gopro 4? I'm not a biker, and not sure what is "Good" audio of the bike trail, but I love what you've done, and considering doing the same if vocal audio sounds good, like for a vlogging setup. It could literally be a one minute video with 30 seconds of each maybe in front of the cameras, and behind, and maybe switching from stereo to the wind mic. Thank you!!
Pretty compelling! It's a shame that GoPro can't just put a little waterproof cover on the mic and let us remove it-and have a switch to just make it use one mic. For me, this still doesn't approach the fidelity of the Hero4 with a dead cat, but it's the ONLY video on TH-cam that actually provides a FIX for sound quality. All the other videos are clickbait that state the obvious: Plug in an external mic with some kind of deal breaker adapter that sticks ten feet out of the GoPro. I'd like to see how this develops...
Thanks for taking the time to watch this, I know a 25min video is daunting! The Crashing Dad actually reached out to me shortly after I made this video and gave me some tips from his days of producing music. I was able to use that info to make more tweaks to my filters and pretty much got the hero 5 to sound BETTER than the hero 4 (to my ears anyway ;p ).
Give this a listen: th-cam.com/video/L-0ffRCIWz0/w-d-xo.html
Have a follow-up video in the works, just need to find time to pump it out!
This sounds super nice! Really looking forward to a follow up vid. Thanks a lot for putting this together. I have Hero 5 Black, my solution for now was having external mic connected to my iphone and recording extra audio there, then syncing up audio from iphone to video in post. I can't wait to give this a try as I'd love to get good video + audio out of the same source. Cheers!
So in a previous video, I said you were a visionary. I take that back..... You're a genius. Great work. This is so actually important info to the entire Go Pro using community!
Haha! Thank you! I'm getting some good feedback and tweaking things a bit more. I'm getting a lot closer!
This is the first good explanation of the sound issues with the GoPro Hero 5 (and 6). Thank you for taking the time walk through the hardware and related sound tracks in RAW format. Presets are my best option if I'm stuck with the Hero 5.
+Michael Funk glad you found this helpful! I know it's a lot of info, but I felt it was worth showing people what the hero 5/6 could have been.
I'm so glad you got this out there for everyone to see (or should I say hear?) The audio is drastically improved even without any work in post.
Yeah, just getting rid of those rubber membranes does so much! I really think GoPro needs to revisit their designs. Most Phones are waterproof now, and while they can't dive as deep, sound much better. Maybe give up some diving depth to clean up the audio?
Thanks for all of your hard work on this. In my head I thought as soon as you cut the membrane that the audio was going to be fine, if not better. I just didn't have the $$$ or the balls to cut one open! Glad you did it so I can stop wondering.
Thanks! Cutting the membrane out does make a noted improvement off the gimbal, but the processing in camera is still tuned to assume the membranes are there.
Love the video mate! Going to give this a go on my h5b also and report on my findings!
Awesome, looking forward to hearing back!
Thanks again for the time (and equipment) invested. I'm going to experiment with the wav files only, keeping the option to return the Hero 6.
I don't blame you, $500 is a lot to invest for an experiment!
Huge kudos for diving into this issue. Such a pain, hope we find a solution
Thanks, man! Unfortunately, since GoPro is actively trying to get themselves sold to another company it's likely there won't be any fix. Hopefully, whoever buys them really takes audio seriously and makes the Hero 7 and absolute beast of a camera.
Trail Features whoa didn't know that. We can hope, dunno why waterproof > decent audio. Can't imagine how they could have been in the testing phase and someone said... perfect it's done and ready to hit the shelves!
I don't want one even if its FREE. My 6 is my first GP and will be THE LAST. What a piece of shit. Don't even get me started on the app software.
great job and thanks for putting this together! I am not comfortable tearing apart my Hero 6, but I can at least try out your audio settings and applying them to the Raw audio and see how it works. One question, did you have your audio set to 'wind only', 'stereo only' or adjustable between the two? I have mine set to stereo only.
Jordan Boostmaster Thanks! On the normal track I believe I had it set to stereo only. Protune audio set to low will disregard any other audio settings you have and always record three channels of raw audio.
oh ya thats right!
Jordan Boostmaster same here
pretty good improvement with the software tweaks. I should probably tweak my sound but need to learn how to use audacity first. Video was good and easy to follow. have you tried youtube for tutorials. I hear its full of useful videos :|
BTW you hear gimbal whine on Brian and Alex's videos too
Glad it was helpful! I've been searching around youtube, but haven't really found anything that got me past this point. I'm going to keep searching though.
I did what you did buy cutting out the water proofing to the two mic. I used a coring needle the same diameter to cut the water proofing out. It looks like nothing was done to the GoPro. But the sound is much better now.
Great tip! Glad you got the results you were hoping for!
Thanks for a great explanation of how the Hero5/6/7 audio works! I'll try to do some experimentation myself in audio post production, using compressor and equalizer. The top mic seems in the video file's audio to be panned slightly left, the side mic slightly right, and the front/wind mic center - agree?
Good job!
Is there any improvement with simply modifying the 2 stero mics only - and not doing the software part? I don't use a gimbal, and not into mtb, so wondering if that modification only will be enough to make the audio usable for vlogging?
I saw that you put the protune on low, but are your manual settings on wind, stereo or off? Great video btw 👍
When you set protune to low it ignores the wind/stereo setting and pretty much just records raw audio. Thanks for watching!
Thank you very much I was about to open shit loads on adding audio now I will just tweet the sound file I never knew that option THANKS!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks for putting in the risk, time and effort to share what you've learned. While I'm not willing to take the risk to make the changes to the Hero 5 itself, I did make some changes to the frame. The standard port holes in the frame are not well aligned to the mic holes, adding to the muffle, I drilled those out a little. I will definitely explore your guidance on further editing in post though.
Meant to also ask, what is the reason you select 'Low', over 'Medium' or 'High' in the Protune audio settings?
Great question. Here's the short version: Low does next to nothing to the audio, it's as close to raw as you can get. Med will start to try and adjust and mix the audio and it can cause a lot of issues. Low gives you pure audio as the mics hear it.
Trail Features Thank you! I’ve been trying and testing so many things along this process. Definitely learning a lot
There is a ton to learn, and GoPro did a crappy job documenting it...
Trail Features Recorded on Low today. After downloading the files and playing them. I noticed a ~2 second delay before audio starts at the beginning of each clip. It didn’t do this on high. Have you seen this?
can you solder the external mic and use it like gopro 4 before? if you still own gopro 5 can you do it by any chance?
I'm a new GoPro owner- but usually I'm busy making music, and mostly in Ableton Live.
Last night I simply dragged a VIDEO file into an open project in Ableton- and the audio came along for the ride. I was then able to put an EQ on that track and greatly improve to audio (cut out some bass/mud and boost the mid/highs a bit) and the result was MUCH better.
Ableton is expensive, so I'm wondering if you could achieve similar results with a free program like Audacity.
You very likely could use audacity, and I meant to dig into that. With GoPro trying to get bought by another company I'm hoping whoever does buy them gets this whole audio mess figured out. As much fun as it was to dive into the GoPro, I'd ideally just have it work from the start.
Thanks for watching!
You should look into making a video at canyonlands in lakeway. I ride there almost every day it can get gnarly.
+oliver dishron Thanks! I'll check it out.
This is a really interesting video. Would be petrified to do that to my go pro though. Most things I take apart dont go back together like they should
Hahaha! Some mistakes were made. ;) Thanks for watching!
from all the videos i recorded today on mountain 2 of them didnt have sound... and i cnat find the problem... is my camera crushed or something is her broken? :s I HAVE GOPRO HERO 5 BLACK
A lot of things could cause that. My first guess would be to make sure you have an SD card the is compatible with the hero 5. Here's a good list of SD cards that work well with the hero 5: alikgriffin.com/best-memory-cards-for-the-gopro-hero5/
How exactly do you have your GP 5 or 6 setup on your gimbel? As in physical setup, not settings. Watching your videos and others, mine seems to pick up just tons of motor noise from the gimbel, which I didn't have when I tried it with a virb ultra.
+AJ C sorry for not getting back to this sooner. I have my Hero 5 and 6 positioned in the Evo SS the same way I do the Hero 4. I will say that sometimes it is a bit of a gamble how much motor noise gets picked up by the heroes. I lucked out on one ride and hardly picked up any motor sound at all.
I did experiment with sliding the camera slightly to the side so that way the motor and the GoPro were not touching directly. This resulted in mixed results that seem to be just as random.
Any idea what that white dot in the front is?
I have the Hero 5 black and yes the audio is bad. I bought a external Saramonic SR-XM1 3.5mm TRS Omnidirectional Microphone with wind sock. I plugged it in using the GoPro adaptor. Do I need to go to the camera's settings and reset anything because I am using a external mic? Thanks! I used subbed your channel.
I haven't played around much with external mics, so I unfortunately can't tell you if you need to change any other settings. I would assume setting Pro-tune to low would do the same as with the internal mics, and that is it will ignore any other audio settings and record raw sound. You may have to do some testing to find out if my guess is full of crap. 🙃
With the hero 7 black... could you just break the mics close the the gopro? So it will be like the hero 4 black? Just one mic? Or would it just malfunction the whole camera. Hope that makes sense
I wouldn't do anything that would break the mics. All that will likely do is mess with the internal mixing, and completely ruin the resale value of your gopro. :(
IT would be nice if they some how made a waterproofed camera with good audio, and included a ''deadcat''
I got a idea:
a door with a seal, so you can open it and take it off for good audio and put it on again for waterproofing, similar to what GoPro hero has just for the mic.
or maybe a less convenient but more secure option is to have a cover you screw on.
then you got waterproof if you want and good audio if you want.
now let's see if go pro does this, and sends me tons of go pros.
All ideas that are better than "Let's plug up the mic holes and hope no one notices...". ;)
having the choice to have them covered or open are important. I have not done any action camera research lately, So don't know if something liek this exist already, but not seen or heard it so far.
Have you tried software de-noising? Audacity has built in tools to do that.
As for the missing spectrum, there's a chance GoPro's software fills in the middle frequencies from the third channel.
As for processing, if you could please release the audio files as a free download, that'll be pretty useful for folks to try manipulating it.
I'll try de-noising. Thanks for the tip.
I've been playing with this and realized I just wasn't boosting the missing freq enough. I never thought to take my own advice: It's raw audio, just boost it!
I'll have to make sure I record a shorter clip to release to the public. That's a really good idea! I'll be making a follow up video to this soon!
only 4 bike u make this Mod?
I know it's a few years later but I have a Hero 5 and I'm not sure if I should just buy an Action 2, or spend a few quid on fixing the sound on this little box of bullshit. My question is, my audio issues come from just touching it, where even a slight rub whilst holding will make it rustle and pop etc. Does this somewhat eliminate that?
I would actually recommend buying a used, or discounted new, hero 8. The hero 11 is probably going to land later this year and the hero 8 is still a solid workhorse with many creators I know.
The DJI action 2 is neat in concept, but I personally wouldn’t use it as a main camera. I mostly use it for capturing secondary angles or putting it into confined spaces.
@@TrailFeatures So it doesn't have the same audio issues? Neat. Fun update, I DID try and drill some holes in my GP last night and went a little too far my mistake (I coughed and pushed it in too much 😂) and scratched the circuit board. Oh well, gives me a good excuse to buy something else!
@@TrailFeatures Interesting, why wouldn't you use it as a main?
Not as rugged, overheats, rattles, too tall to position.
if you do this and it works good for you. i tried it and my camera never powered up again. good luck. better to open up the holes on the plastic case the camera goes in and get an external mike for when you want to speak.
I think that you should repeat the experiment with the new gopro 7. removing the membranes. And just only use the stereo sound from the camera.
*headexplodes.gif* Most of this went right over my head. I appreciate all the investigation. I bet for most of us content creators, unless there's a silver bullet, we can't afford to factor in time to tweak or macro the audio in addition to our editing/publishing schedules. 😢
I wish gopro would make the hero 4 again that was the perfect action camera for mtb
You can still find them new for ~$200, which is well worth it.
Thanks for the video, but seriously, it’s as simple as this……if GoPro have not significantly improved the discraceful audio issue when they release the new GoPro 7 later this month (Sept 2018)……then it is the end of GoPro….they will never recover….the stock market crash after their drone debacle will be nothing compared to the crash that will occur if this is not fixed. People are sick to death of waiting for GoPro to fix it and this truly will be their last chance.
I really do hope they did work on the audio for the hero 7, but it seems they always focus on video. :/
I made the mistake of getting the Evo ss and hero 5 session. I just say get a GoPro hero 4 black. Or a separate mic.
So, I have had no sound on my gopro 5 for a while now. Videos are awesome but you feel like a deaf person watching them. Boring. My sound simply would not record on my videos. After watching this video, I turned on the raw audio and ........ now it records sound. Weird weird. After I noticed it had sound, i turned raw audio off. NOW I HAVE SOUND ON MY VIDEOS!!! WTF ?????? lol ....... I had done the latest update and even restored my camera to factory settings and nothing worked. I even had set through a 45 minute session with gopro chat and we couldnt get it working. Simply switching on RAW AUDIO and using it, and turning it back off, I have sound!! Didnt know the raw video option was even there. I guess I didnt read the owners manual good enough lol
Just simple audio processing, man... I would hope you'd know these things if you're cutting up a microphone.
Carter Del Rosario It was a fun leaning opportunity for me, and to show others what I found. If you know how to fix the audio without modifying the GoPro body I'd be very interested for you to share!
First off, awesome video - chalk full of useful content! IMHO, rather than unsuccessfully trying to be everything to everyone, GoPro has continued to focus its cameras on size, video features and handling rugged action environments. When you consider the typical size of a small mic diaphragm, they alone are bigger than a GoPro!
www.micreviews.com/guides/best-small-diaphragm-condenser-microphones
So like it or not, we have to accept engineering tradeoffs. Yes, I'm familiar with high quality ultra-small lavaliere mics (own a handful) but something like my Countryman mics cost $300 - EACH! Certainly GoPro would price themselves out of the market with costly microphones!
Then there's the killer problem of having to RECESS a mic in the housing, which leads to reflected echos and impedes higher frequencies, causing GP engineers to use equalization in "hopes" to compensate for lost frequencies. And how about the GoPro casing ? Yup, you're going to lose more decibels of audio signal there as well!
justaskjimvo.studio/what-is-frequency-response-in-microphones/
But wait, there's more! With an external mic the design is no longer limited to a omnidirectional polar pattern, with a huge benefit of focusing the pattern in more of uni-directional shape (carderiod, hyper-carderiod, etc). At least GoPro sorta did us a favor by putting THREE mics in the case so if we have the time on our hands, in ProTunes mode we could select the best signal in post (since in an action mode wind noise will override audio voices from that direction.
So in reality, physical and price limitations have taken GoPros as far as they can go. And as you suggest, in reality we need to either use external recorder/s (mixing in post), or use the USB-C port and record to an external mic.
Since you are a biker that would like a live recording of your voice, I recommend getting a good quality over the ear lavaliere mic with some type of windjammer on the capsule (foam would be okay). Due to the inverse square proximity effect, doubling the distance reduces audio amplitude by FOUR so you really want the mic to be close to the speaker's mouth! I'm guessing you don't want to spend hundreds of dollars (and also require a special interface cable) so you might consider something like the Pyle-Pro PMEM1 Headworn Omni-Directional Microphone (Amazon, etc) - they're so cheap buy several in case the connector breaks. Then when you are convinced with the superior audio quality, buy a higher-end over the ear microphone ($200-$500) with a screw-on (Sennheiser) connector and interface cable to the 1/8" (10mm) cable that then connects to the 1/8" to the USB-C connector on your GoPro - WHEW!
This is hands-down one of the most HELPFUL comments I'm ever gotten. Thank you!
GoPro should just add a 3.5mm jack next to the USB-C port. Problem solved.
Stop being rational...
Trail Features true! What was I thinking? Lol
so how many cups did u drink coffee
A little bit of a full glass of the whole pot.
7:40 OMG dude, it's designed to just screaw it and then take it off... so why you do this so wrong?
I did it because I wanted you to finally notice me. ❤️
@@TrailFeatures (͠≖ ͜ʖ͠≖)
why do you sound like ethan from h3h3
Dipijolo The better question is why does he sound like me? 🤔