What makes a good video? Nice lighting, pretty pictures, interesting content? These all contribute, but something that is often overlooked is sound. There is a saying that states ‘50% of good video, is good audio’. It sounds so simple when said like that, but it’s easy to overlook good quality sound when recording your footage.
Problems with audio
With smartphones and inexpensive video cameras (and DSLRs), it’s really easy to get footage of a project you’re working on. Video quality often ranges from acceptable to (in the case of higher-end smartphones and DSLRs) beautiful. What is often lacking, however, is good quality sound to go with those lovely pictures.
It’s not surprising. Phone and DSLR microphones are about the size of a pencil point and are often many feet away from the action. It’s amazing how forgiving modern viewers are of poorer quality images. In contrast, when they hear bad sound on a video they are quickly thrown out of the moment and lose track of what is going on.
The solution
We, however, have the perfect solution. We have several Tascam digital audio recorders to loan out. These are little mics that plug into a small recording unit that can be discreetly and comfortably worn in a pocket. For their price, they are some of the best audio recorders I’ve ever used.
I’m quite fussy about audio and when out on a shoot, concentrate hard on monitoring audio to get the perfect levels. With these, I don’t need to. Set them to auto, pass them to the person and press record. That’s it. The quality of recording and ease of use is great.
If you’re considering recording something in the future I would encourage you to contact us and borrow one of these kits. It takes a few seconds to set up and a few more to add to your edit. Consequently, you will have brilliant quality sound to go with your lovely, well-shot videos.
All of the posts in this series
1 On the first day… a Post-it in a Plus app
2 What is Articulate Storyline?
3 Podcasting: Voice recorder Pro 7, Bossjock jr, Opinion
4 Padlet walls
5 AppBonanza
Office 365
Trello
PDF Expert and Adobe Acrobat Pro
Dropbox, Google Drive, etc
Alfred and Wox
6 Active learning using Panopto recordings
7 7 easy post-processing steps to get your photos to stand out
8 Wirecast play for live streaming
9 Panopto for student presentations and assessment
10 On the 10th day, get organised to keep all your lords a-leaping
11 Hear those pipers piping!
12 TikiTokis