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Jp’s Audio Visual Gold Thread


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16 hours ago, Gerry in Idaho said:

JP, If I may... Do you feel the urge to turn your threshold up (just a little) even higher in the later afternoon or on really windy days?  I do and it seems to help as I am always splitting hairs trying to keep the threshold smooth enough to hear those faint ones.

I have also found sites that the detector runs even more smooth when I night hunt.  My experience in summer is.. As the soil heats up from the rays of the sun, the ground seems to come more alive with unwanted sounds and my threshold will not be as smooth.  I seem to do best, when 1st hunting in morning and then late hunt just as the sun goes down.  Plus the night hunts were always good, but I did not know there were literally hundreds of scorpions out at night at Rye Patch.

For most certain at night your ears become even better tunes for slight change as the brain adjusts your senses and capabilities.

Thanks in advance.

Hi Gerry, I never touch my threshold relative to Audio Smoothing, 27 on the GPZ compliments Audio Smoothing OFF perfectly. However what I do adjust a LOT is the Volume on my Booster. Sound pollution is a real problem when detecting whether you use speakers or headphones so you NEED to be able to hear and be connected with your threshold at ALL times. The balancing point is trying to elevate the Threshold Volume (different to Threshold level) so that slight variations stand out without causing distortion or worse without making the Threshold TOO dominant and then killing sensitivity to pitch change variation. It’s a complicated thing to get right and of course we are all different in the way we listen. Threshold too low causes the audio to surge killing sensitivity through the volume variations (a little like the Audio Smoothing filter), too high and the threshold loudness kills sensitivity by becoming too dominant relative to pitch/volume changes.

Lately I’ve been experimenting with the Volume control on the Detect page to introduce a bit more thump without blowing overall stability and smoothness, but you have to be careful because each change above 8 is like increasing the Sensitivity by two. In my case I rarely go above 10 unless the wind is howling and I have no choice but to increase or quit. The Volume Control on the Detect page is very coarse between numbers so you have to be careful to not overdo it, you also have to realise that when you get USED to a high volume it takes a long time for your ears to re-adjust back to lower volumes again, this then has the effect of making you feel you are deaf and might be missing gold.

IMHO temperature has more to do with personal comfort than it affecting the actual ground itself (this is different to moisture and moisture layers BTW, a whole different subject), however the earth does go through stages during the day night cycle that waxes and wains the natural sounds, night time is much quieter because usually the wind dies down, and all the critters go to bed. It is also usually more comfortable temperature wise so an operator in warm climes will feel less heat stressed (most detecting is done in Desert country after all). Also as the earth rotates from Night to day there is a natural warming of the planet from Dawn on which heats up the atmosphere above causing natural instability in air, so Sferic noise and general EMI will increase and combine with the general noise thats associated with a planet that is coming to life again after the dark. I experience this most days getting up before dawn when it is calm and quiet hearing the gradual sounds of life gathering momentum. IMHO adjust your threshold at the quietest part of the day then use your volume controls to maintain your ability to hear it as the noise levels of the environment increase or decrease.

There is some evidence that Sferic noise increases just as the sun sets then goes quiet but TBH most of it is linked with personal comfort based around ambient temperature relative to your core body temperature and overall atmospheric instability. IN the case of the GPZ thanks to its amazing electronics and our ability to now tap right into the VERY noise floor of the machine you are able to listen to the variability of the magnetic materials associated with a weathered deposit. I can actually hear the chattering in the threshold (described recently as “bitching” ), the detector sounds slightly unsettled and annoying to an untrained ear, this noise is not linked with general localised mineralisation chatter but ground noise can mask it to some extent so is not noticed so much in most areas. 

When you are right on top of a gold shedding location this magnetic chatter will be at its strongest and can be quite distracting, as you work away from the zone the chatter will become diluted as the weathered materials of rock types that contact with the gold mineralisation zone blend in with the magnetic shed material, in some tight spots there will be concentrations of this material that can sound noisy but these are slightly different to the gold shed zone, this magnetic response is very much different to saturation noise but is associated as well.

I use this method of listening to the noise floor chatter as a prospecting tool in remote green fields locations, I have often found gold because I hung around an area and walked it more thoroughly even though they ground did not look promising. This effect can be very subtle and is once again a BIG reason why I use conservative settings with specific Volumes so I do not drown out or kill off this vital variability. In a know patch of ground it can become annoying but in unknown ground it is a VERY BIG clue to the potential of gold being present.

JP

 

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16 hours ago, phrunt said:

I'll ask elsewhere.  If JP didn't like my question he could easily ask me to move it, he doesn't need you running the show.

There I have removed my question but you've ever so kindly put it here for me.

I’ve missed something here obviously. As was mentioned in the threads bio I would prefer others not putting up photo or video material etc on these threads but you are more than welcome to have a discussion about any of the subject matter enclosed. I sincerely want to avoid conflict and keep the posts informative and friendly. 

However to be fair I have used an X coil as a means of demonstrating various behaviours that are detrimental to GPZ use which Minelab went to great pains to design out during development, poor Ferrite balance and Saturation noise are detrimental to working in my areas. In the interests of fairness I intend to film these again using a GPZ14 coil in the same locations to show the differences. This was not an attempt to discredit or create argument but to clarify comments I’ve made in the past on the subject. Showing what these detrimental behaviours actually sound and look like is educational I feel.

If Phrunt wants to start a new thread with his video I’m more than happy to answer any questions as best I can so long as it remains amicable, for my part I will do my best to keep it that way.

JP

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Here’s a video I did yesterday of a GPZ7000 being Ferrite balanced correctly with a GPZ14 coil. You will notice the detector sounds ground balanced when pumped and waved over the ground nearby yet makes a signal over the Ferrite until Quick-Trak is triggered. If a coil continues making a signal on the Ferrite it will also generate noise associated with any X signal in the ground adding to general ground noise which will degrade performance.

JP

 

 

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Love it! Especially since I finally recently got my ferrite to balance essentially like the video.

Again, because it bears saying a lot. This detector school is the online equivalent of a DVD and the discussion that has been sparked around it makes it even better. You can't ask a DVD questions...

Thanks

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On ‎3‎/‎16‎/‎2020 at 3:39 PM, Jonathan Porter said:

The lowering pitch is the key in Audio B. 

This is the first time in about 9 months since I have listened to a detector-- I like this stuff!

Funny but I relate more to the B audio-- seems like that was the sound we were really chasing in WA … when we got that dip it was a good thing... am I right???

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On 3/18/2020 at 1:29 PM, DigsAlot said:

JP you mention channel flip a lot, I have to admit I am not sure what you mean. Perhaps you could explain and put a few files with and without so other like me can train our ears.

Missed this one sorry......

Channel flipping is when a target is hitting the High/Low and Low/High response all at the same time. The GPZ does it a lot especially on solid small nuggets at depth. The audio can have a slight amount of it present in certain ground types, usually saturable ground or salty ground (quite often its a combination of the two). Channel flipping is also called a “confused signal” when it happens on a target. There are varying degrees of channel flipping, it can happen in one direction of the swing only, it can happen when the coil is held further away, one channel can be more dominant that another and can even swap about as the coil is moved in relation to the target.

JP

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Thankyou JP for sharing your knowledge and the large amount of time you have put into videos, clear explanations.

With a zed with 14 & 19 i have been chasing bigger deeper nuggies  in extra deep. I have recently slowed my swing speed down to incredibly Very very slow when gold is around and i seem to be able to get signals i miss with a slow swing speed. Not sure if i am imagining it

How slow is too slow for optimal signal response for deeper targets??? Is there a general guide for faster to slower swing speed relative to settings/ gold depth?

cheers RDD

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14 hours ago, RedDirtDigger said:

With a zed with 14 & 19 i have been chasing bigger deeper nuggies  in extra deep. I have recently slowed my swing speed down to incredibly Very very slow when gold is around and i seem to be able to get signals i miss with a slow swing speed. Not sure if i am imagining it

Do these signals result in nuggets?

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