DV capture audio vocal distortion

[BJBBJB]

I am very familiar with many things audio and PC, but barely reaching intermediate knowledge on video editing.

My issue is this. Using 2 different mini-dv camcorders (Sony HC90 and an older Canon ZR) and Studio 9 plus I have been capturing and editing video (with varying degrees of rendering and burning success with Studio but that is a different story). I am using a Dell XPS with a 3ghz cpu and Audigy ZS Plat. sound card.

The captures go fine...however, my slight issue is with the audio. Not after-the-fact added music audio, that sounds great, but the camera captured audio. It is in synch (so I've got that going for me) but... Fully understanding the in-camera mikes are inferior, I have noticed a slight high frequency distortion (or is it a harmonic?) in the captured audio, during vocal talking that modulates with the vocal. It is almost like a harmonic that you can in fact see and hear if you bring up the studio EQ and crank up the 16khz slider. If you roll off the 16k and a little 8k you can almost make it go away. But why is it there? Even with a crummy mike, a mini-dv 12 or 16 bit DV recording should be better than that. Background sounds are clear, it is the voice modulation that appears to generate the sound.

It is pretty noticeable in a near-field center channel PC speaker. Less so on a big receiver-driven speaker system.

Things I have tried...
1) Thinking maybe it was a level overload issue, I dropped the volume level
down in Studio but that did not help. I also notice it both when playing back the captured video/audio in Studio and in the final Dolby Digital 5.1 DVD or playing back the video_TS folder files directly. Of course this is not true 5 discrete channels, but you can play with the 3 audio channels in Studio to generate a pretty nice 5.1 sound.
Regardless, the vocal distortion is heard even if you really lower the volume within Studio.

2) I was somewhat concerned that the original recordings might be overrecorded, however you even notice it when the vocal level is pretty low on the source.

Questions I have:
What, if anything actually impacts the direct capture of DV audio via firewire onto a PC for editing? Does sound card hardware or software even "see" or impact the audio? I know the DV data is stored uncompressed so I suspect not. Does anything impact it as long as it is captured successfully?

Can the capture program add any color or processing to the audio?

Any input this group can give me would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance,

BJBBJB

[thecoalman]

I

Can the capture program add any color or processing to the audio?

DV "capture" really isn't a capture but a transfer. There should be no conversion at all. I don't know much about audio but one thing does come to mind. The older Sony cams (others as well) by default are set to 32khz/12 bit audio. Really makes no sense to me, by deafult it should be set to the higher quality audio setting... apparently with this setting it provides additional tracks for dubbing.....

Could be the audio is being converted during the capture process, it has to be converted anyway to be DVD compliant. Might be the source of your troubles. Best thing to do is make sure the cam is set to 48khz 16bit. If your not using 48khz 16 bit you could try it and see if there's any difference.