GoPro Audio is Pointless on Phantom - But is it Worth Disabling.

[Baldrick]

Hey all!
I was wondering... because I use a GoPro on my drone and the only noise it records is the sound of the drone whirring. Of course this sound is deleted instantly when editing... But is it worth disabling the microphone? Does the noise damage it?
Thank you!
Baldrick

 

[jason]

Hey all!
I was wondering... because I use a GoPro on my drone and the only noise it records is the sound of the drone whirring. Of course this sound is deleted instantly when editing... But is it worth disabling the microphone? Does the noise damage it?
Thank you!
Baldrick

There no way to turn it off in camera but you can eliminate it in post.

 

[Mako79]

Leave it on - sounds bad but:
It's good to diagnose if there are issues with motors shutting off etc...
It's also records the gurgle noise when you crash into water...
It's also good when you get into a confrontation with the public. Land the phantom and hold it and let it record the conversation.

 

[kenjancef]

It's also good when you get into a confrontation with the public. Land the phantom and hold it and let it record the conversation.

Ooh... never thought of that one... nice!!!

 

[Baldrick]

I have to say, that's a VERY good argument there Mako! I'm convinced

 

[johan]

Hey all!
I was wondering... because I use a GoPro on my drone and the only noise it records is the sound of the drone whirring. Of course this sound is deleted instantly when editing... But is it worth disabling the microphone? Does the noise damage it?
Thank you!
Baldrick

The sound pressure levels from a phantom are much lower than those required to damage the mic in a gopro. However turning a mic off (which I don't believe you can do with a gopro) simply cuts off the output of the mic, but the mic itself is always 'listening' regardless of whether the output goes anywhere. This means if you expose the mic to a sound pressure level which is high enough to damage it, that damage is going to happen regardless of whether the mic is on or off. The only way to protect a mic from damaging sound pressure levels is to prevent it from being exposed to damaging sound pressure levels.

If you ever want to get fired from your recording studio job in a grand blaze of glory, walk over to the mic cabinet and pull out a $2000 ribbon mic, hold it inches from your mouth (not hooked up to anything) and yell at the top of your lungs that your boss can take this job and shove it. I guarantee your services will no longer be required at that place of business. ;-)

 

[Baldrick]

Haha! Very interesting - not just drone, but in my other film work also. I did not know mics were still damaged without being on! Why is that exactly - what is it that gets damaged?

 

[johan]

Most mics are just tiny speakers in reverse. There is a diaphragm of some sort which reacts to sound pressure and converts that into volts whereas speakers do the exact opposite, take audio signal (volts) and convert that into audio sound pressure (sound).

The Beach Boys and a few others have been notable for taking a 15" speaker and using it as a bass drum mic on some of their recordings. You get a really warm kick drum sound with lots of low end when you do it right BTW. And just about every high school audio/visual geek on the planet has ended up hooking up a cheap microphone to some sort of audio source at some point only to discover that their microphone is now a really small tinny sounding speaker.

At the end of the day, they're all transducers of one sort or another. They all take audio volts and convert it to sound pressure and they all take sound pressure and convert it to volts. And none of them care the least bit about which way they were designed to convert. Push one of the two to them (audio sound pressure or audio volts) and you'll get the other out the other end no matter what.

 

[Baldrick]

I see! Thank you!

 

[sandmann]

Leave it on - sounds bad but:
It's good to diagnose if there are issues with motors shutting off etc...
It's also records the gurgle noise when you crash into water...
It's also good when you get into a confrontation with the public. Land the phantom and hold it and let it record the conversation.

Ditto on a great idea!