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On today’s Tech, No Babel: How do you get good audio while recording videoThe best way to have good sound is to record good sound. Start by almost never using the onboard mic on your camera. There are exceptions, but they’re almost always bad. Instead, use the appropriate microphone for the situation.
[tweet “Almost never using the onboard mic on your camera. There are exceptions, but they’re almost always bad.”]In church or at an event, use a feed off the the audio board. These tend to be line-level and cameras with mic jacks tend to want mic level (which is much lower). That’s the first thing to contend with. Next, if you’re recording music, it will sound bad because the mix for the room uses the audio in the room. What’s recorded is “dry in comparison.” Add an ambient mic in for more room sound. Also, use a sub-out from the board to mix a special mix for video that sounds good for it.
Ideally, you’d have a dedicated sound engineer in another room mix audio just for video, but few churches have those resources.
If you don’t have a mic jack on your camera, record audio separately and sync them up with a video editor. The easiest way is with software like Plural-eyes. You could also use a slate or clapper board which shows the cause of the sound on the camera at the same time as you hear the sound in your recording.
You could always just clap your hands once. It’s not perfect, but it works.
If something goes wrong, there is another choice. You can replace the audio with audio recorded at a later time. Have the original person rerecord what they said, listening to it over and over again to get the rhythm and inflection the same. This works best with small clips where one sentence had a problem in an otherwise great production.
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