Sound for Video Session: Lav Mics, Recording to Phones, Presets in RX, Headphone Volume
This week we have a question and answer session. These are the questions submitted:
- Best lav mic for recording in very noisy environments?
- Best microphone for recording to phones?
- Universal presets in RX?
- What do I set my headphone volume to so that I can tell whether I’ve set the gain correctly?
Links to gear we discussed or used to record this session:
Countryman E6i Cardioid Ear Set Microphone:
RODE VideoMicro - miniature cardioid microphone you could use on a smartphone rig (with the adapter below)
RODE SC4 Adapter (Use the VideoMicro with your phone)
Aputure A.Lav Lavalier Microphone:
Previous Sessions where we’ve covered how to process dialogue audio in Izotope RX:
Izoope RX6 demo:
Reduce reverb with RX6:
Loudness normalization in RX:
Process dialogue demo with RX:
Clean up extreme noise in RX and Audition:
Electrovoice RE20 (recorded this session)
Antelope Audio Orion Studio Audio Computer Interface
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Audio Loudness in Final Cut Pro X with Free Plugin from Youlean
For those who edit in Final Cut Pro X, ensuring that your audio was loud, but not too loud, and consistent from video to video has been a challenge. Of course you could buy expensive plugins to help with this and often what the pros do (it’s the cost of doing business and broadcasting your pieces on TV). But for those who are mainly publishing to the web and working on VLOGs or passion projects, the budget for expensive software or hardware loudness meters just wasn’t there.
Recently I found a free loudness plugin by Youlean which you can get over at Youlean. **NOTE** Several notified me that the Youlean site appears to display spam types of messages and opens new tabs. Close these windows and do NOT click on the links in them. I have notified the site owner and hopefully they can fix this soon.
And once you have that installed, you can get the right loudness consistently with the technique we show here.
For those not familiar with loudness normalization, here are a couple of other pieces where we go into some detail on how it works:
Links to Gear Discussed and Used to Record the VT500 lavalier review (which we use as a demo piece in this tutorial):
Voice Technologies VT500 Omni-directional Lavalier Microphone
Voice Technologies VT500 O Eco (same microphone without the waterproof case or extended accessories and lower price)
Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro - for talking head shots. quite a lot of moire with this particular shirt
RODELink Wireless Lavalier Filmmaker Kit
Sennheiser EW 112p G3 Wireless Lavalier Kit (516-558 MHz)
Panasonic GH5 Camera - for product shots
Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 Zoom Lens
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Sound for Video Session: Recording Live Sound with Mike Stranks
One question that has come up quite often in our Sound for Video Sessions is, “How do I record a live concert?” I have done a tiny bit of this, but wanted to bring someone on to the show who has a fair bit more experience and in this case, that someone is Mike Stranks. Mike is based in the UK and has been recording live sound in various forms since the early 1970s. Thanks to Mike for generously sharing a bunch of information to help us get started on recording concerts!
Links to gear we discussed in this session:
Line Audio CM3 hypocardioid and OM1 omnidirectional mics:
Line Audio's Website
Pink Noise Systems - UK distributor but ship worldwide
The “public face” of Line Audio
Isolation Transformer (to eliminate buzz or hum)
Zoom F4 Audio Recorder (Mike’s primary recorder)
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Voice Technologies VT500 Lavalier Microphone: Pro Quality Lav
We’ve had several requests to spend some time looking at pro-level lavalier microphones. In this episode we take a quick look at and listen to the omni-directional VT500 lavalier from Voice Technologies, a Swiss microphone company. For reference, we also have some sound clips from the Sanken COS-11D lavalier, one of the very common lavalier mics used by pro location mixers for film and video. And we include samples with male and female voice.
I was really impressed with the VT500 with it’s unusual front facing capsule and found it’s audio quality to be very good and its form factor easy to hide. The foam windscreen is thoughtfully designed with hard plastic backing to prevent noise from rubbing against clothing, and the RF shielding worked nicely to avoid those annoying interference issues. There’s also a waterproof model for those recording more exciting pieces in or near water.
You can find our previous review of the Countryman B6 lavalier microphone here:
Links to Gear Discussed and Used to Record This Session:
Voice Technologies VT500 Omni-directional Lavalier Microphone
Voice Technologies VT500 O Eco (same microphone without the waterproof case or extended accessories and lower price)
Blackmagic Ursa Mini Pro - for talking head shots. quite a lot of moire with this particular shirt
RODELink Wireless Lavalier Filmmaker Kit
Sennheiser EW 112p G3 Wireless Lavalier Kit (516-558 MHz)
Panasonic GH5 Camera - for product shots
Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 Zoom Lens
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Sound for Video Session: Q&A Safety Track vs Limiter, Which Camera, Which Mic and More
In this week's Sound for Video Session we discuss several questions submitted by you!
Safety track or limiter?
Clipping at -2dB?
Is there a better way to rig a Zoom H5 to camera?
What’s a good camera for video and photo with a 3.5mm mic input and headphone jack?
Which other microphones should I get?
When should I use a hyper-cardioid mic instead of a shotgun mic?
AT4053b outdoors?
Why is my Zoom F8 picking up an FM radio station?
“Homeless” recorded outdoors with an Audio Technica AT4053b Hyper-cardioid microphone:
Session on how to match levels on audio recorder and camera so you can monitor levels from camera:
Audio Adapter comparison
Links to gear we discussed or used to record this session:
Sennheiser MKH416 Shotgun Microphone - Perhaps the quintessential pro shotgun microphone
Audio Technica AT4053B Hyper-cardioid Microphone
Schoeps CMC641 One of the most commonly used super-cardioid microphones by the pros for indoor dialogue
Rycote Cyclone Wind Shield & Shock Mount
Zoom F8 Audio Recorder
Shure SM58 Vocal Microphone
beachtek DXA-Micro Audio Adapter for DSLR and Mirrorless cameras
Panasonic GH4 Camera
Panasonic GH5 Camera
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
RODE VideoMic Pro+ Overview
RODE just updated their very popular RODE VideoMic Pro to the VideoMic Pro+ here in late summer 2017. The new version of the camera-top shotgun microphone includes several new features which make it a very worthwhile upgrade or option for those looking for a simple way to improve their sound quality.
In this episode we have a closer look at the new features and provide comparison sound clips from the older VideoMic Pro and the new Pro+.
Remember that to get the very best sound out of your microphone, you really need to get it off of your camera and boom it over the person speaking like this:
Also, if you do use the new safety track feature on the RODE VideoMic Pro+, this is how you use that safety track in post when the main track clips and distorts to save your audio:
Links to Gear Discussed and Used to Record This Session:
RODE VideoMic Pro+
Adapter Cable to use the VideoMic Pro+ with a smartphone (RODE SC7)
(Note smartphones have a mono mic input so the safety track feature will not work with smartphones)
Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 Zoom Lens
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Immersive Sound Recording: Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset
Sennheiser introduced their new Ambeo Smart Headset and were kind enough to send an early version to us to try out. I took it along on a recent canoeing day trip and put together a little sketch to get a sense for how it works. Pretty impressive, immersive sound with this set of binaural microphones/earbuds.
For those not familiar with binaural recordings, this is a stereo recording where the microphones are placed at your ears. So the recorded sound is much more lifelike and immersive, and results in a more three-dimensional type of recording.
Please listen with the best set of headphones available to you!
Canoe sequence shot with iPhone 7+ and Ambeo Smart Headset
Links to Gear Discussed and Used to Record This Session:
Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset for iOS (iPhone and iPad) - Coming Soon
Sennheiser Ambeo Smart Headset for Android phones and tablets - Coming in the future
Music in canoe sequence: "Cosmos" from Meta-Music - Save 10% with coupon code JUDD
Talking head sequence shot with:
Blackmagic Design Ursa Mini Pro Cinema Camera
DPA 4017B Shotgun Microphone
Sound Devices 633 Audio Recorder/Mixer
Panasonic GH5 Camera
Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 Zoom Lens
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Sound for Video Session: Fixing Clipped Audio with Safety Track in Adobe Audition
In this week's Sound for Video Session we walk through one way to fix clipped/distorted audio by replacing the clipped portion with audio from a safety track.
Not sure what a safety track is? Have a listen, it's all explained in this session!
Links to gear we discussed or used to record this session:
RODE VideoMic Pro+ (Newest version introduced in August 2017 with safety track recording feature)
Zoom F4 Audio Recorder - includes safety track recording feature
Zoom F8 Audio Recorder - Includes safety track recording feature
Panasonic GH5 Camera - The sample audio clip was recorded from RODE VMP+ to this
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Timecode Demo with NanoLockit from Ambient Recording
What is timecode and when does it help make things easier for finishing your video or film project? When you’re shooting a project with a LOT of clips and you’re recording your sound separate from camera to get the highest quality sound, syncing can be a lot of work. Using the timecode generators like the Ambient NanoLockit can save you a lot of time. Here’s how it works at a high level.
Links to Gear Discussed and Used to Record This Session:
Ambient Recording NanoLockit Timecode Generator (2 pack)
Sound Devices MixPre-6 Audio Recorder
Sound Devices 633 Audio Recorder/Mixer
Blackmagic Design Ursa Mini Pro Cinema Camera
Panasonic GH5 Camera
Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Lens
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
Photos of the Ambient Master Lockit are copyrighted by B&H Photo and used here with permission.
Sound for Video Session: Cleaning Up Background Noise from dialogue recordings in Audition and RX
In this week's Sound for Video Session I show an example of how to reduce the noise (fairly extreme background noise) in a dialogue recording using Adobe Audition and Izotope RX 6.
Links to gear we discussed or used to record this session:
Focal Solo6 Be - Top-end professional near-fields from Focal. Beryllium tweeter. These are the monitors I finally decided to purchase for my mixing work - just to follow up from last week's session where we talked monitors.
Electrovoice RE20 Dynamic Broadcast Microphone - this is what I used to record my voice for this session
Antelope Audio Orion Studio Audio Interface - this is what I used to record my voice for this session.
Copyright 2017 by Curtis Judd
