Recording audio with a full face mask

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svc7227

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Location
Michigan
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I'm considering upgrading my mask and regulator to an Ocean Reef full face mask so I no longer have to hold regulators in my mouth, don't have masks fogging, and the have the ability to actually talk with my mask on.

So my question is: has anybody tried talking in their full face mask while recording with a self-mounted GoPro and does the camera pick up the voice clearly though the water?

I understand there are those voice communication devices that can be purchased separately from these full face masks, but I would need a sender and receiver which would set me back over 1000$. Overall, I'm just wondering if somebody has experimented recording their voice with the method I came up with.
 
You edit the video..you’re gonna want to edit the audio as well.

Unless...you’re THAT good.

Even if the audio is kind of not-so-good, you mighf get some cool room tone that you can add to your video later. Plus you can always talk to yourself at the editing bay from underwater while you’re shooting.

Play with has it...see what happens.
 
Even if it doesn't work, I guess it will still be worth it to own a full face mask. But I'll give it a try and see how the audio comes out. I can always use some form of noise removal or something.

And yes, I could just use voice-overs, but there's just something I like about when you're talking in the moment of your dive. Maybe combing voice-overs with my recorded voice during my dive while editing as I see fit.
 
Not really. You'd get bubble noise with some mumbling, that's about it. You can't speak while you inhale, so you will ALWAYS have bubble noise any time you try and speak.

If you want realtime audio overlay, you want to get something like a BuddyPhone, the base station/transceiver, and you'll record the audio feed out of the base station, then sync it up in post.

Or, get a rebreather. No bubble noise, ability to talk, although slightly encumbered by the mouthpiece. A GoPro will pick that up pretty well. I don't know that Ocean Reef does a rebreather setup. The best is probably a Dräger Panorama with the P-Port adapter on a DSV/BOV. Although a FFM is unnecessary. Because you need a mouthpiece, it sounds the same whether you're on FFM or just a regular rebreather loop.

Either way, none of it is cheap.


You can hear what it sounds like on a rebreather about 30 seconds in. That's about the best you're gonna get without a direct mic'd recording of some sort.
 
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Having actually tried this on a night dive in Cozumel last year, I can tell you that really all the GoPro picks up is a very mumbled sound. I spotted a pretty large puffer (probably 4' long) under a rock on this dive and a the first thing out of my mouth was "Holy S**t!" I had the GoPro mounted on a tray held out in front of me and it did pick up the audio, but if you didn't know what I was saying you couldn't understand it. I have the raw video on a drive at home that I can probably upload to YouTube if you want to hear what it sounds like.
 
Well I guess muffled sound with bubbles is what is to be expected. But now that brings me to the idea of rigging up some microphone with a waterproof audio recorder. Looking at this article I found ( Waterproof Audio for Action Videos – Thor F. Jensen ), it looks somewhat promising.
 
I've not used the ocean reef coms, but I do use the buddy phone system with my AGA. We keep our talk down to very short, clear words and use a lot of code. I can hear pretty well (so long as I'm not exhaling to strongly when I need to hear something), but words are very garbled by bubbles. Both to other divers and to our shore unit.

Oh, and because of the limited space, you also tend to get a lot of breathing noises through the microphone.

Someone here on Scubaboard once asked about giving a lecture through underwater coms (AGAs), and as I recall, others' experiences were similar to mine.
 
I've got a gopro and ocean reef masks (with comms) but no way to attach the gopro to the mask. Without the topside receiver you mention, I'm sure it would depend on vibrations coming from physical contact between the mask and the camera.

If you want to hear what recorded audio from ocean reef with the receiver sounds like, check out an episode of scuba nation. I believe those guys are using the ocean reef system to record underwater audio. Episodes Archives - ScubaNation, One Nation Underwater
 
I've not used the ocean reef coms, but I do use the buddy phone system with my AGA. We keep our talk down to very short, clear words and use a lot of code. I can hear pretty well (so long as I'm not exhaling to strongly when I need to hear something), but words are very garbled by bubbles. Both to other divers and to our shore unit.

Oh, and because of the limited space, you also tend to get a lot of breathing noises through the microphone.

Someone here on Scubaboard once asked about giving a lecture through underwater coms (AGAs), and as I recall, others' experiences were similar to mine.
I actually saw a "lecture" given using a Buddy Phone and a Guardian FFM about a month ago at an aquarium that actually sounded pretty good. Although I can't say much for the diver since she was bouncing and stepping all over the artificial reefs (and I do mean artificial) in the exhibit. Not that it hurt the structures at all, but it really sets a horrible example for divers should act underwater. But I digress.
 
Even if it doesn't work, I guess it will still be worth it to own a full face mask. But I'll give it a try and see how the audio comes out. I can always use some form of noise removal or something.

And yes, I could just use voice-overs, but there's just something I like about when you're talking in the moment of your dive. Maybe combing voice-overs with my recorded voice during my dive while editing as I see fit.

I can see live audio being helpful to fully remember the moment. Not just what you were seeing but what you were thinking. And the ability to make oral editing notes for later voice-over.

Much cheaper than adding comms might be sticking a mini voice recorder inside, albeit the risk of flooding.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0773KHYPH/
 

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