Sound for Video Session — Audio mixing for video people
People who focus on video production, and especially camera operators, often find sound or audio to be a bit mysterious and, sometimes, they just want to not be bothered too much with it. But there are just a few fundamental things that can make recording sound for video a lot easier. And these aren't dificult things. Let's talk about what every music and live sound front-of-house mixer knows that every camera person should know.
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini, Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio, and Mixing fundamentals in DaVinci Resolve Fairlight.
Gear I often use or that we mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:
- Mackie DLZ Creator XS adaptive audio mixer — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Mackie DLZ Creator adaptive audio mixer (the original, bigger one) — B&H, Amazon
- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Allen & Heath SQ5 digital mixing board — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Sound Devices 888 field recorder/mixer with Dante — B&H, Sweetwater
- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon
- Teleprompter Ikan 17" high bright — B&H
- Canon C200 Camera - B&H
- Canon EF 24-105mm f/4 lens — B&H, Amazon
- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon
- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H
- Universal Audio 6176 channel strip pre-amp, EQ, compressor — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.
Copyright 2024, Curtis Judd
Work Session: Processing audio and cutting the storyline for a YouTube video
In this work session, I'll process the audio for one of my upcoming YouTube videos and then cut the storyline.
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini and just added Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio.
Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Waves, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:
- Universal Audio VOLT 276 USB audio interface — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Earthworks SV33 studio vocal microphone — B&H, Sweetwater
- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater
- Neumann U87 Ai microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Epiphan Pearl 2 live stream appliance — B&H, DVE Store, Amazon
- Epiphan Pearl Nano live stream encoder — B&H, DVE Store, Amazon
- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon
- Canon C70 Camera - B&H
- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens - B&H, Amazon
- TA3-M to XLR-F Adapter cable to feed microphones to C70 or Blackmagic Pocket cameras - B&H
- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon
- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H
Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.
Copyright 2022, Curtis Judd
Work Session: Finishing a YouTube Video — ZOOM F3 Review
This is work session where I'm working on my review video of the ZOOM F3 audio recorder. It is just a chance for use to hang out and get some work done. And you can see how I typically edit my videos in Izotope RX, Final Cut Pro, and whatever else might be needed.
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. We have a course on sound for live-streaming with the ATEM Mini and just added Introduction to Izotope RX for Dialogue Audio.
Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Waves, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:
- ZOOM F3 32-bit float audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, DVE Store
- ZOOM F6 32-bit float audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Amazon
- ZOOM F8n Pro 32- bit float audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, DVE Store, Amazon
- Earthworks SV33 studio vocal microphone — B&H, Sweetwater
- Earthworks ETHOS microphone — B&H, Sweetwater
- Neumann U87 Ai microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Universal Audio Volt 276 USB audio interface — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Epiphan Pearl Nano live stream encoder — B&H, DVE Store, Amazon
- Sound Devices MixPre II Series Recorders - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Panasonic GH5 camera - B&H, Amazon
- Canon C70 Camera - B&H
- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8L IS lens - B&H, Amazon
- TA3-M to XLR-F Adapter cable to feed microphones to C70 or Blackmagic Pocket cameras - B&H
- ATEM Mini Extreme & Extreme ISO - B&H, DVE Store, Amazon
- Allen & Heath SQ5 Digital Mixer - B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon
- Rupert Neve Designs Shelford Channel, pre-amp, EQ, compressor - Sweetwater, B&H
Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself.
Copyright 2022, Curtis Judd
Sound for Video Session: Mixing with Buses and EQ
This week we have another film mixing session where I show you a couple of basic tools for mixing in Adobe Audition: Buses and EQ.
With a bus, you can make adjustments to multiple tracks at the same time. Huge time and frustration saver. With EQ, we essentially make room in one track for another track, e.g., we reduce the midrange of the music so that dialogue is easier to hear without pulling the audio down so far that it is hard to hear.
Gear used to produce the short film and this episode:
Audio Technica AT4053b Hypercardioid Microphone - used this to record the interviews out on the street. Works well as long as you have a good shock mount and wind protection (see Cyclone below)
Rycote Cyclone Windshield and Shockmount - this is what prevented the wind from blowing across the microphone capsule and making that low frequency, distorted sound.
Sound Devices 633 Audio Mixer/Recorder - my go-to recorder/mixer
Electrovoice RE20 Dynamic Microphone (Voiceover for this session was recorded with this)
Antelope Orion Studio Audio Interface (Voiceover for this session was recorded with this - couldn't be happier. By far, the best audio interface I've owned)
LED COLOR RENDERING DATABASE OF 2016
Indie Cinema Academy has posted an interesting set of color quality measurements for a bunch of LED lights available on the market. Measurements of CRI, TLCI, and others were made with an Asensetek Lighting Passport Color Spectrometer. I was pleased to see that the Aputure Light Storms did well overall, particularly the new COB 120t.
If you're in the market for LED lighting, this list is worth a look because you'll get a good idea of how well each light renders the visible spectrum of color and how natural your talent and set will appear in video.
Silhouette Lighting Look Quick Howto
In some of my previous microphone reviews, I’ve used silhouette shots to take the focus off of me, and naturally help viewers to focus on the sound. In this episode, we quickly run through how to achieve the silhouette look with lighting and a tiny bit of post processing in DaVinci Resolve, Premiere Pro, or Final Cut Pro X.
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.
Shooting an Interview
B&H Photo put together one of the most helpful pieces I've seen on shooting interview/talking head style pieces. The coverage of audio is a little light due to time constraints (I'd add that a cardioid condenser mic is probably the best choice for indoor/studio interviews) but great info overall.
Sony a6000: The First 24 Hours
The Sony a6000 camera and 50mm f/1.8 lens arrived yesterday and I spent a few hours putting it through its paces. Not a ton to say just yet but this camera is every thing I expected, mostly good and a bit of bad.
The good: Incredible imaging in a tiny, very convenient to carry almost anywhere little camera body. Full sensor readout for video (vs. line-skipping which many DSLRs and mirrorless cameras do), electronic viewfinder, good build quality, assignable custom buttons. Screen articulates for low and high angle shots. Hotshoe so I can add proper portable strobes. Focus is fast and so far, feels as good as my DSLR. More to come on all of this.
The Bad: Tiny battery needs frequent swapping out, strange, somewhat onerous menu system, how do I get a histogram overlay on top of the live-view image? Video record button in an odd location on the handgrip.
Here's my first real foray into the Sony ecosystem (the camera I bought for my wife doesn't count). So far I really like it. It is small enough that bringing a proper camera with me more often is a real possibility. I'll be putting it to use at a concert later this week alongside my Nikon D750 to see how well it holds up for video and stills.
It needs a fast card to record to the XAVC S 50mbps codec so I'll need to order another UHS-3 card along with a battery charger and extra batteries (we've had good luck with Wasabi Power batteries which are priced at a fraction of the OEM Sony batteries).
Sony a6000 Camera Special Pricing
I am so tempted right now... But I already have two very capable cameras...
B&H has the Sony a6000 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera for just under $400 USD right now as part of their black Friday specials. I bought the a5100 for my wife last December and she's been really happy with it. Truth be told, I've been really happy with it too as its the camera that usually comes along on family outings.
When I reviewed the a5100 early this year, the a6000 didn't have the XAVC-S codec while the a5100 did. In true Sony fashion, they since added the XAVC-S codec in a firmware update for the a6000 so now it is capable of recording full HD at 50mbps and reads out the entire sensor to make that image. It is quite beautiful. In fact, I like the footage the a6000 produces better than my Nikon D750.
But the a5100 doesn't have an electronic viewfinder which can be a problem when shooting outdoors. And now the price of the a6000 is same that I paid for the a5100 last year - only $400 for the body.
Yes, Sony will probably release an update of this camera some time in 2016, but wow, this is a great deal for a camera that produces some very nice HD footage with a solid codec. High ISO performance is very solid up through 3200 and maybe even up to 6400. That's not Sony a7S II territory, but plenty of gain for 99% of the shooting I do. Focus system is solid, even in video mode. I really love these little Sonys.
So the $400 gets you just the body, or for $550 you can get it with the 16-50mm kit lens. And that lens is ok, but not the fastest (f/3.5 - 5.6). When we took it along to an indoor dance competition, my wife asked me to shoot during her competition. And while that lens got some great shots, it would have been nicer to have a few more stops to work with. I could have walked away with more motion-blur-free photos. So if I were buying, I'd probably get the body only and then add the Sony 50mm f/1.8 lens.
In case you missed it, here's the review I did of the a5100 earlier this year. Nearly everything on the a5100 also applies to the a6000 except that the a6000 has that electronic viewfinder (which would be very helpful when shooting outdoors):
Please don't be tempted like I am unless you are in the market for a camera and have the cash sitting around. ;-)
