Sound for Video Session: Dynamic Microphones for Voice Over and Narration
This week talked about the advantages of using dynamic microphones for voice over - Things like the Electrovoice RE20, Shure SM7B or even the humble Shure SM58.
Because many of us record voice over or narration outside of formal recording studios, a dynamic microphone can actually be an advantage over the more sensitive condenser microphones we typically use. This is because homes, offices, and other locations are generally not acoustically treated or designed. The result with a condenser mic is that you often end up with the microphone capturing every little nuance, especially when that room is particularly reverberant.
Dynamic microphones with their less sensitive, un-powered capsules pick up less of that reberb and other noise. The only downside is that dynamic microphones need a lot of amplification in your pre-amp to produce a strong enough signal. So you either need a good solid pre-amp/recorder/audio interface with plenty of gain, or you might want to add an additional amplifier to your signal chain. The Cloudlifer and Fethead in-line amplifiers make this easy - you just need to plug them in between your mic and recorder and you'll have plenty of gain to work with in most cases.
And here are some of the microphones and amplifiers we discussed:
Shure SM58
Shure SM57
Audio Technica AT2005
Audio Technica ATR2100
Shure SM7B
Electrovoice RE20
Cloudlifter CL-1 (adds 25dB gain to amplify your dynamic microphone if your recorder or audio interface doesn't have enough gain)
Fethead (similar to the Cloudlifter, slightly less expensive)
Better Sound: How to Boom Your Camera Shotgun Mic
When you bought your camera-top shotgun microphone, like a RODE VideoMic Pro, you were expecting to get much better sound. But if you’re shooting a talking head or interview type of video, you may have been disappointed at the results when the mic was mounted on top of the camera.
The secret to getting much better dialogue sound from mics like this is to get the microphone much closer to the talent and boom it from above, pointing down at a 45 degree angle. You’ll generally want to get the mic within 40 - 60cm of the mouth of the person speaking, if you can.
In this episode, we cover how to boom your mic like this so that you’ll get much better dialogue sound. We also quickly discuss the gear you’ll need to make this work.
So here's the list of gear you'll need to make this work:
- On-stage Microphone Boom Stand - ~$25 USD, I've had mine for over five years and it has seen a lot of use, and is holding up nicely. Mostly metal and not to bad to transport for location shoots
- Adapter for your particular microphone to attach it to the mic stand. If you have a RODE VideoMic Pro, you'll want this 3/8" to 5/8" adapter. Most other mics have 1/4" threaded taps so you'll need this 1/4" to 5/8" adapter.
- RODE VC1 Extension Cable. Now that you've boomed the mic much closer to the person speaking, you'll need a way to connect the mic's 3.5mm plug to your camera or audio recorder. This is the one I use and it is about three meters long.
Optional items (but I recommend the sandbags or some other creative way to stabilize your mic stand)
- Saddle Style Sand Bags to stabilize the mic stand. You provide the sand and I highly recommend that you put the sand in heavy ziploc style bags first, then put the ziploc into these saddle bags. You'll have far fewer spills. And spouses and property owners aren't usually too thrilled when you spill sand all over their wood floor. :)
- If your microphone doesn't have a threaded tap on the bottom, only a coldshoe mount, you will also need an adapter like this.
Happy recording with much better sounding dialogue audio!
Azden SMX 15 and 30 Shotgun Microphones Review
If you’re looking for a shotgun microphone for your camera, there has never been a time with so many great choices. Azden recently released two more microphones in the $200 to $250 USD range called the SMX-15 and SMX-30. These are short shotgun microphones designed to mount to the cold-shoe of your rig and have a cable with a 3.5mm plug to record directly to your camera.
Both of these microphones are good for recording dialogue sound when you need to travel light. I like to boom the mic even close to the talent for even better sound. The SMX-30 also has an additional set of stereo cardioid microphones for recording detailed ambient sound making this microphone particularly versatile. Both microphones are very light weight so you don’t add a lot of heft to your camera rig. And most importantly, the SMX-15 and 30 sound quite nice for their price.
Saramonic Vmic Shotgun Microphone Overview
If you’re ready to upgrade the quality of your sound for video, one of the easiest and most affordable ways to do that is with a small shotgun microphone which attaches to the shoe mount of your camera. Saramonic just released a new mic in this category which they call the Vmic. It is affordably priced yet manages to produce very impressive, clean sound. For even better dialogue recordings, I also demonstrate how it sounds when boomed about 40cm above your talent. Pretty amazing for the price point which is $119 USD at the time of the review.
Sound for Video Session: Setting Gain or Gain Staging
When first learning the art of dialogue sound recording, one of the more mysterious matters is setting up your gain. What is gain? What is trim? What is a pot(entiometer)? What is a fader?
In this session, we introduce the concepts and put you on the path to getting things set up for the best possible dialogue recording.
Three Lavalier Microphones for your Mobile Phone
Need to record better audio to your smartphone or even record video with better sound on your mobile? We’ve reviewed several lavalier microphones over the last few years and in this episode we’ll let you hear three of them back to back to help you decide which may be best for your projects. Each of them are well under $100 USD and two of the are well under $40 USD so there’s an option for any budget. You can get surprisingly good sound, even with a $20 USD microphone.
We’ll have a listen to the GORA Lavalier, the Aputure A.lav, and the RODE smartLav+. I personally prefer the RODE for the great sound quality and robust build quality, but the GORA also sounds really good, despite its lesser build quality. The Aputure A.lav wins as the most versatile as it can record, out of the box, to your phone, your camera, or your camcorder.
Each of these mics can be a great option.
Also, I'm finding the Rycote Undercovers to be a nice way to mount lavalier microphones and avoid clothing noise. We'll take a closer look at those in an upcoming episode.
Canon XC-10 4K Fixed Lens Camera?
The Canon XC-10 4K fixed lens camera which Canon released in 2015 has a magic polarizing effect on shooters. Some people love it! Others hate it! I actually got to shoot with it a little bit with my friend Levi Whitney earlier this year. Here's his review:
I don't own this camera and I don't plan to buy it. But I think it is an interesting option for someone that needs a small kit and runs from shoot to shoot throughout the day and often shoots solo. Autofocus with face detection is really solid. In-built ND filters make it easy to shoot outdoors. This camera makes it fast and easy to capture what you need to capture. The camera records 4K at up to 305mbps with 4:2:2 8 bit color (better than what you get in almost all DSLRs or even mirrorless cameras, most of which record 4:2:0 8 bit at lower bitrates). The color is great straight out of the camera, I find it easier to work with than the color I get out of my Sony a6000 or Nikon D750.
No, you're not going to get a lot of beautiful bokeh and you can't change the lens. No, this is not a low-light miracle like the Sony A7SII.
But if you need something that records beautiful color, is easy to use, and has everything you need for most situations (e.g., ND filters), this is a camera worth you consideration.
Perhaps because they've had a hard time selling these, Canon has dropped the price by $500 to $1999 over at B&H Photo. Perhaps it is just a post holiday special. In any case, if you're the type of shooter that wants a camera that will produce reliable results in nearly any situation, will manage focus while you engage your talent, and produce beautiful color, the XC-10 is worth a look.
And while we're on the topic of cameras, more on the Sony a6000 coming soon.
GORA Lavalier Microphone Quick Review
GORA Products released a new lavalier microphone for recording to your mobile phone. This will record just audio or the sound for video shot by your phone. The GORA lavalier comes in at only $20 USD and overall, looks like a great buy with good quality sound, low noise, and decent build quality. Worth a look if you’re operating on a tight budget and need to get sound for your video that is better than what almost any camera can produce.
We'll follow up in about 2 weeks with a comparison of this versus a couple of other affordable lavalier microphones designed to record to smartphones: The RODE smartLav+ and the Aputure A.lav.
Sound for Video Help Session: Noise Sources and Measuring
This week we spent a while talking about the potential sources of noise in audio recordings and how to measure it using Adobe Audition. When I first started recording audio, I didn't realize how important the recording location was to ensuring a clean recording. One of the biggest things you can do to reduce noise in your recording is to either find the right location or hang sound blankets (or any blanket that will dampen audio reflections off of the walls).
But here we also talk about signal chains and where noise can creep into your recording along that signal chain. While the noise performance of your microphone and preamplifier are important considerations, they're not the only consideration so don't stress too much about those. Make an informed decision before buying but then move on and don't stress if your noise floor sits at around -60dB.
Most of the new recorders and microphones will easily get you into this realm, even prosumer mics and recorders. Let me know if you have any specific questions on which may be a good fit for your particular situation.
Next week we'll cover options for reducing noise.
Zoom F8 Audio Recorder Firmware v2.0!
As expected, Zoom has made a new firmware update for the Zoom F8 Audio Recorder with several nice additional features, filling some of the gaps we saw in the initial release! Let's have a quick look.
First, and perhaps most importantly, you can now set the potentiometer knobs for each channel to act as faders! This was one of the big missing features. And while the knobs are pretty small, its definitely nice to have the option to use them as faders without the fiddly process of switching each one (and I mean one at a time) over to change the fader level. Nice improvement.
False take: You can now mark a clip as a false take which will move it to a separate folder and reset the counter on the next recorded clip to the previous number. Another good little addition that will greatly simplify matters on production day.
Scene number advancement: You now get more options on how scene number file names advance. So you could select numeric or character options. Character option: Scene1 -> Scene1A ... Scene1Z -> Scene1AA -> Scene1AB, etc. Or a simple numeric option: Scene1 -> Scene2 ... Scene9999.
Trim ganging: You can now gang multiple tracks together and control their gain with a single potentiometer. Handy when you need to quickly adjust the gain on multiple channels at the same time while setting up.
And a few others:
- Change next track name
- Change previously recorded track names
- Show track names on level meter screen
- Take name format options
- Adjust the L/R track volume
- PFL solos tracks during playback
- Create sound reports
- Control shortcuts (e.g., show name of next track that will be recorded)
Nice work, Zoom! I was definitely disappointed when I found that the original firmware didn't let you use the pots as faders but you came through with much more than that!
