Recently, in a hit for hit battle, we saw Teddy Riley face off against Kenny “Babyface” Edmonds. Babyface had a simple setup: his phone, speakers and a cup of wine. Teddy on the other hand did the absolute most. He had a hype-man, back up singers, all of it. Visually, it was very appealing, but the battle wasn’t able to happen because Teddy’s sound setup was a horrible experience for the viewing public. By the time the rematch bout streamed, over 4 million people saw Teddy revert to a simpler setup that was geared towards providing the viewers with a more pleasing audio experience. So you get it, audio is extremely important. What can you do to be sure that your videos have that clean sound that’ll up your production value? Let’s talk about it and some video editing!
ON CAMERA SETUP
Often times, we are filming ourselves talking, interviewing someone in one shot or speaking directly into the camera from less than 10 feet away. A great option for a setup like this would be an on camera setup. If you’re shooting on a DSLR camera, you’ll be able to input a Rode mic, or another type of microphone directly into your camera. This helps tremendously with synching sound because there is not synching. The sound will record onto the footage from your camera, rendering the post production process much simpler and faster.
Off CAMERA SETUP
There are situations where the mic on the camera will simply not be enough. One example would maybe be a fitness video, where you’ll be rather far away from the camera to showcase your entire body from head to toe, and therefore rendering you too far away from the microphone to have the sound be silky smooth. Or if you’re speaking to a large crowd and the camera has to be 50 or 60 feet away. If you’re not hiring a production sound mixer, here is an option. Get or rent a recorder like a Zoom H4N and then buy or rent wireless lav microphones. Connect them to your Zoom H4N and when the transmitter and receiver are synched, start recording on both the camera and the Zoom H4N. Here is an important step before you start your scene or speech. If you don’t have a slate, clap in front of the camera in a place where both the camera and the microphone can hear you clap. That loud clap will allow your video editing to synch up your footage with great ease. Without that clap, things may get more difficult than they have to.
Another option you have is placing the actual H4N somewhere near your mouth and recording directly into it. The top of the H4N has a microphone that will capture some decent sound. Be reminded that the sound coming from the H4N will be a little more open than the shotgun Rode mic which aims in one direction. So when using the H4N, do your best to be in a quiet location.
Ok so you’re shooting your shot film and your friend is doing sound and you don’t want to have the lav under your costume and clearly we cannot have a headset in the shot. What to do now? Well, let’s return to our trust H4N or H6N if you decided to purchase that one. You can purchase an XLR cable, a boom pole, and a shotgun microphone
and have your friend running sound track the performer overhead or underneath. Be sure to have the microphone pointing a few inches ahead of the speaker and not directly over their head. The point is to capture the sound projecting forward not upward.
Always do your best to listen to the sound before and after recording to be sure that you’re getting the best possible sound quality that you could possibly get. You don’t want to be the guys that try to “fix it in post”. *CRINGE*. Always remember to clap or slate on camera so that we can synch with ease and badabing, you’ve got great audio for your video.
Great Possibilities for You
I know how it feels to film your content but spend way more time editing it. You should be filming more and posting more. We’ve decided to solve this problem for you. Kelby KO Productions now offers a video editing subscription service to relieve of you the stress. For a low monthly fee, we’ll edit your videos within 48 hours and it’ll include amazing high definition royalty free stock footage and audio, lower thirds and titles as well as epic transitions. Choose the best monthly package for you today and make your videos stand out!
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