What is the best way to capture sound for my video projects? I do mostly street interviews with people, and I'm looking for the "best" setup and procedure for what I do.

What do you all do?

From what I've been able to gather from all the different posts I've read is that obviously some other mic other than your camera mic is needed. Is the best practice to record the final audio signal directly into the mic input (XLR) on the camera and record the audio AND video signals onto the same mini dv tape? Or is there a better way record the audio and bring everything together at post?

Some I've talked to have been saying to capture all audio to a mobile recorder like M-Audio Multi-track II, but I just see this as unnecessary and adding an extra couple steps to the job.

Suggestions?

You can look through the Frequently Asked Questions post at the top of this forum. There's plenty of information in there.

Also read the other sticky up at the top of the forum (Thing to Consider), as I think we'll need a bunch more background before we can answer your question.

Cheers,

The VAST majority of this kind of production work employs a simple dynamic handheld mic fed directly to the camera via hardwired cable.

Nearly every pro camera has balanced XLR inputs.

That plus a typical "stick mic" like a Electrovoice 635a, Electrovoice RE-50, Beyer M-58 or similar will put you doing precisely what everyone from network "breaking news" interviews to the Tonight show "JAYWALKING" segments do for Man-on-the-street stuff.

No need to re-invent this wheel.

What is the best way to capture sound for my video projects? I do mostly street interviews with people, and I'm looking for the "best" setup and procedure for what I do.

What do you all do?

From what I've been able to gather from all the different posts I've read is that obviously some other mic other than your camera mic is needed. Is the best practice to record the final audio signal directly into the mic input (XLR) on the camera and record the audio AND video signals onto the same mini dv tape? Or is there a better way record the audio and bring everything together at post?

Some I've talked to have been saying to capture all audio to a mobile recorder like M-Audio Multi-track II, but I just see this as unnecessary and adding an extra couple steps to the job.

Suggestions?

Lloyd:

You might want to take a look at this http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/location_sound.html

Dan

The VAST majority of this kind of production work employs a simple dynamic handheld mic fed directly to the camera via hardwired cable.

Nearly every pro camera has balanced XLR inputs.

That plus a typical "stick mic" like a Electrovoice 635a, Electrovoice RE-50, Beyer M-58 or similar will put you doing precisely what everyone from network "breaking news" interviews to the Tonight show "JAYWALKING" segments do for Man-on-the-street stuff.

No need to re-invent this wheel.

Thanks for that. That seems logical to me. I can't really think of any reason NOT to record onto the video tape, so I was confused why anyone would suggest that? Thanks again.

Hello Lloyd,

Did you mention whether or not it was OK to see the mic and a hand or person holding it? That will drive your choice. If you're OK with seeing the mic and person, the RE50 is the "go to" mic.

If not, you'll need a boom mic and someone to operate it. A busy city street and any shotgun are not good matches because of the high degree of reflected sound. A good hyper or supercardioid mic will work better and you need someone to wield it to best advantage, otherwise it's a waste.

Levels of people and noise on the street can vary significantly. A good mixer with a good limiter and someone to adjust it properly during these session is imperative for the best results. If you can't do that, you can have the best mic and mixer on the planet and still not get the best sound.

Good sound is not trivial and it's not an accident. If you really want to up your game, you need to make changes to get there.

Regards,

Ty Ford

Did you mention whether or not it was OK to see the mic and a hand or person holding it? That will drive your choice. If you're OK with seeing the mic and person, the RE50 is the "go to" mic.


I guess I was just asking a "as a general rule-" question.

Specifically to answer your question, I would rather NOT see the mic in the recording. But that wasn't my direct question, although the answers you gave were very useful and helpful (so thanks for that!).

I guess the question would be, why would anyone choose to record their video's audio to something OTHER than their mini-DV tape that's doing the video recording? You have two channels on the tape to potentially record on to. If you only need two tracks or less of the audio recording, why would it even be a consideration to record to some other tapeless (or other) device?

Am I missing something? So my round-about question is would it be a safe bet to say, as a "general rule," that recording a video's sound should usually go directly on the tape that's doing the video recording?

I'm not talking about multi-tracks (like a ten-member panel at a town hall meeting where each has a lav mic or anything like that...)

I'm talking about just the "standard" news-type interview scenario. One interviewer, and one interviewee. I'm not talking about what kind of mic to use (lav, shotgun, boom techniques, wired, wireless, inside or outside or ANY of that stuff...) Just specifically, is there ever a good reason to record to something OTHER than the easy-to-use, super-accessible mini-dv tape used simultaneously with the video recording?

Just specifically, is there ever a good reason to record to something OTHER than the easy-to-use, super-accessible mini-dv tape used simultaneously with the video recording?

Sure, better quality audio. Not all mini-DV audio sections are equal. Some suck. More than two tracks. Untethered Steadicam.

Regards,

Ty Ford

i might be able to help as i learned the same thing recently.

Depending on your camera audio preamp, you can do a couple things:

-Connect both mics into the camera and assign them channel 1 and channel 2, both inputs are set to mic level (ok quality) at 16bit sound

-Use a mixer and a person to operate it, send both mics into the mixer then out into the camera at line level (way better quality) at 16 bit sound

-Use a feature film technique and record to a seperate recorder at the same frame rate as your camera at 24bit 48khz, a little overkill for your situation, but this will yield the highest quality and dynamic range