video audio mutes itself

[Members_BWaKXic]

I have an S21 ultra. I recently recorded some videos at a concert. When watching the videos (I'm just using the default gallery app) the video audio plays normally until one specific person starts singing. When they sing, the audio starts to mute itself, but not all the way. It almost sounds like it's trying to apply noise cancelling for the singer but it's applying it to the whole audio. After a few seconds the audio goes back to normal, until the guy starts singing again and it repeats. This happens to all the videos I took of the concert. I've never had this issue before for normal videos or other concert videos. Is there a way to fix the video audio and turn off whatever setting is causing it so it doesn't happen again? I really hope it's not another one of Samsung's garbage AI software that can't be turned off

[realaud]

It's possible the artist has some voice dampening or electronic jamming going on at the venue in order to prevent bootlegging or misuse of her vocals. Most concerts have no recording rules and this would be one way to enforce them.

[Members_BWaKXic]

Thanks for the reply realaud. I don't think this is the case. The videos on my wife's iPhone are all normal. The group we saw also encouraged photos and videos. Maybe it is a volume thing? Like the phone detects a sound higher than a certain decibel and tries to dampen it? I don't know I can't think of anything else

[realaud]

I don't have the answer to that because I don't record at concerts. It could also be that perhaps you accidentally had your hand covering the mic while you were recording that particular segment.

As for the the mic detecting a certain volume/pitch, it could be possible that the mic just doesn't grab that frequency.  You can test it if you have any other recording of that singer's voice and see if it records normally.

[Members_BWaKXic]

I only mentioned a concert because that's where I was when I was taking the video. The issue is that the audio on my recorded video is being altered multiple times throughout the video. There are periods of normal sound followed by periods where the volume is very low and muffled. It sounds like it's a noise cancelling or sound dampening effect, however I do not see any settings for turning these on or off. The videos are normal on an iPhone and altered on a Samsung, so it seems to be a Samsung issue. It's not an issue with how I held the phone.

[realaud]

I see there's a setting in my camera settings for 360 audio recording.  I currently have it off, and you may too, it may help you to turn it on.  It's in the camera settings/advanced video options.  Maybe you couldn't find a setting because you were looking in the normal sound options?  It appears, though, that that setting is meant to be used with BT headphones, but you can try it and see if it helps.

Edit:  According to my Google search, it appear this feature works only with the Galaxy Buds and says it's compatible with the Galaxy S23 and up, but that does not explain why it's an option on my A54 (unless it's because the A54 is newer than the S21). it's not greyed out, so I can enable it. In any case, if you have the setting, it costs nothing to try.  You also might want to try running a diagnostic on your mics as the S21 is an older phone and it is possible the mics are dirty or failing or just not capable of high quality sound.  You might want to consider an upgrade, if feasible, as the newer phones also have a zoom in mic that isolates sound in a noisy environment when shooting video.

[Members_BWaKXic]

I'm not sure if I have that feature. I have a 360 playback option but the description looks a little different than your screenshot, and it was not turned on when I recorded the videos. 

 A little bit of searching turned up this thread from 2021: https://r1.community.samsung.com/t5/galaxy-s/s21-ultra-suppressing-video-sounds/td-p/11933869

The op never responded if he fixed it or not, but it seems very similar to my issue. One poster mentioned the zoom in mic feature. I did have that setting on when I recorded the videos (I have since turned it off) but the videos that weren't zoomed in also have the same issue. In both cases, it seems like a noise that is louder than the phone "expects" activates a sound dampening feature. Whether this is an intended feature or faulty hardware/software is unclear. I have sent a message directly to Samsung but haven't heard back yet, hopefully someone from the Samsung support team can reply to this thread.

For reference, here is one of the videos that shows what I'm talking about: https://youtu.be/26oOADx6O7w?feature=shared 

You can see the audio is normal until the purple wiggle starts singing at ~13s, then the audio is dampened, then goes back to normal around 29s, then randomly dampens again at 44s

[realaud]

From my research, I understand that this feature, if you had it, only works with the Galaxy buds, should you have them. The setting you appear to have is a different type of hi-def audio recording, which would make sense, given that the technology was introduced with the S23. I suggest running the diagnostic on your mics. The diagnostic can be found in your device care settings.  It may be time to run a full diagnostic on the whole phone, since the S21 is aging out.  As I mentioned before, take the time to clean out your mic holes and your speaker grill. There may be pocket dust and debris in there from years of going in and out of  your pocket. You can do this with a soft toothbrush - no water.

When you sent your message to Samsung, was it a message or an error report?  You should submit an error report, attach the video file (or the portion of the video where this occurs) and make sure your phone logs are submitted.  https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Tips-Tricks/How-to-Send-Feedback/ba-p/3001692

The poster of the post you referenced may not have gotten back to you because they are no longer on the platform.  They made only that single post and has not been active since 2021.  Some Samsung personnel lurk in the background to take the "temperature", but none except the moderators will ever respond to a post in the forums. The best way is the error report.

[Members_BWaKXic]

Thanks realaud. I ran the full diagnostic, everything passed. The mic portion was fine. I cleaned the mics and speakers as well (after running the diagnostic). I have been trying to recreate the problem but I believe it needs a very loud noise to trigger, which I am unable to produce. The other part is that the videos affected are already recorded. While it would be nice to prevent this issue in the future, really what I would like is to fix the videos. I have a feeling that they have already been "corrupted" and the dampening can't be undone, I hope that is not the case. 

I previously submitted an error report through the send feedback option. I got a canned response that they couldn't get enough info and to try sending the report again. I have resent it with a link to the YouTube video above (I could not attach the video to the error report). We'll see what Samsung responds

[realaud]

When sending a log, you can't close the members app until the log upload is complete and it takes several minutes. You get a notification that the log is available on your phone once the upload is complete. At least you have the recording from your wife's phone.