Audio: The King Maker

“Half of the storytelling ability is sound.”

- Joe Herrington, Principal Media Designer for Disney parks

Recording Clear Sound

Often times the downfall of a video is not the cinematography but the audio. Ever been annoyed streaming a show online and the audio is out of sync? Good clean audio is essential for keeping viewers engaged with your video. This video by Mystery Guitar man gives an excellent overview of sound in video and recording on location:

Lesson Intro: 00:00
Part 1: Good Sound: 00:57
Part 2: Microphones: 03:46
Part 3: Recording Sound: 06:30
Outro: 09:03

QUICK TIPS

CLEAR AUDIO IS AS IMPORTANT AS GOOD VIDEO
DEFAULT MICS ON CAMERAS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS BAD
USING A SEPARATE AUDIO RECORDER/SMARTPHONE CAN ADD BETTER AUDIO QUALITY
- EXTERNAL AUDIO CAN BE SYNCHED WITH VIDEO IN POST PRODUCTION
MICS CAN BE ADDED TO CAMERAS FOR BETTER AUDIO
- SHOT GUN MICS ARE GOOD FOR DIRECTIONAL SOUND
- LAV MICS ARE GOOD FOR NARRATION AND DIALOGUE

SOUND PROOF YOUR LOCATIONS WITH CURTAINS, COMFORTERS, ETC
- AVOID ECHOY LOCATIONS
- TURN OFF ALL PHONES, TV, AC UNITS, REFRIGERATORS, ETC. ANYTHING WITH A HUM

Audio Recording Equipment at the IT Service Center

DUE TO COVID, THE IT SERVICE CENTER IS NOT LENDING OUT EQUIPMENT FOR THE FORSEEABLE FUTURE. The entire brown community has access to a variety of multimedia equipment through the IT Service Center. Below are some of the options we have available that can improve your audio recording

Zoom H1N

The H1N is a handy yet powerful recording device and is the simpler, younger sibling of the H4N recorder used in the video above by Mystery Guitar Man! Intended as a note taker and for getting great quality audio for on-the-go interviews, the H1N is a great all around recorder. It has the XY microphones, giving it clear and crisp audio capture of subjects in front of them. It's the easiest of our stand alone recorders to use and perhaps the most versatile. It can be carried in hand for casual interviews, put on a tripod for a lecture, or attached to a camera via hot shoe to record quality sound for events. We also have the more robust H6N available for advanced users.

Rode VideoMicro

The Rode VideoMicro is a small and versatile shotgun mic that comes standard in our camera kits to give you significantly better sound than using the onboard mics. Unlike the Zoom H1N above, these mics can't record on their own, and should be used in conjunction with a camera like our Sony A6300 camera or CX-675 and AX53 camcorders.

DIY AUDIO FROM YOUR SMARTPHONE + Sound Proofing!

We are big believers that you can get great audio from your smartphone, which is what we recommend to our new podcasters in the MMLs as well! Shameless Maya does a great job of reviewing how to use your smartphone to get some good audio! She also demonstrates how to get some DIY sound proofing which significantly increases the sound quality of any mic or sound recording device. Honestly, this one is just worth watching all the way through!

Synching Audio in Post from external recorder

If you are using an external audio recorder like the H1N above, you will need to synch the recording with your video during the editing process, or as we say, in post (short for post production). Premiere Gal does an excellent job of showing us 3 DIFFERENT WAYS of synching audio in Premiere!!!!

00:00 - Intro to synching
01:10 - Method 1, MERGING
01:54 - Method 2, SYNCHRONIZE (PREFERRED)
02:21 - Method 3, MANUAL

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