Audio Recording

Fifty percent of a film's experience is in its audio track. Background music, Crisp Dialog and Sound Effects are what keep us interested during moments of suspense and intrigue. While a great deal of the audio one hears in a professional production is added after initial filming, usually through re-recording and audio effects, good audio recording of a given shot is a must. The more you get down while you're shooting, the less you have to fix in post.

First, you'll need a microphone or two. You'll want to avoid the cheap-o Radio Shack jobs and get something in a decent condenser mic. While it is tempting to pick up a $20 radio shack special, your production is only as good as your weakest part. Remember: Used high quality gear is better than new low quality gear. Don't be afraid to snoop around at audio shops and online auction sites.

Now, on to your mic selection. Assuming you want stereo audio, you will need at least two mics. Three is even better, as it allows for a mono boom mic, and two stereo effects mics. This gives you a lot of audio data to play with in post, which is a good thing.

For your primary mic, you will want a high quality condenser microphone which is responsive to a wide range of sounds, be they voices, sound effects, or what have you. I recommend an AKG 1000S (pictured right). This is an awesome bang-for-the-buck condenser mic, which has the very cool added option of providing its own phantom power via an internal nine volt battery. Phantom power is a low voltage DC source used to provide power to the condenser in professional recording microphones. Usually, this power is provided by an external recording device or mixing board or a stand-alone power source. These devices are usually quite costly, so the AKG solution is best for those wishing to keep their budgets in line. The AGK 1000S can be had for about $240 bucks new, or as little as $100 slightly used.

For your effects mics, you can use something as simple as a pair of Shure 57's, which go for about $70 bucks. However, given the very low price and very high value of the AKG 1000, I recommend simply picking up two more of them. $300 bucks for three professional mics is a deal that is very hard to pass up.

Your primary mic will be mounted on a boom, or basically any length of lightweight pipe. Equip the mic with its provided wind sock, and secure it and its cable to the boom. When recording dialog, you will want to position the boom directly above and slightly forward of the subject being recorded, being careful to keep it out of frame of the camera.

Your stereo effects mics will be joined together, using any method from a custom made frame, to gaffers tape. You will want to separate the mics on a 45 degree angle, and secure them tightly so they do not move. A square frame with a handle can be easily constructed out of virtually any dense material, and provide a convenient method of aiming the microphones. Be sure to equip them with their wind socks. When recording, you'll want the effects mics to be aimed in the same general direction as the recording camera, so that your stereo effects will be matched with the recorded video. Thusly, if someone walks in from the right, the right channel microphone will pick it up first, followed by the main mic, then the left mic should they continue walking out of frame. These simple stereo effects have a huge impact on audiences, especially if viewed on a home theater system.

What about the mic on the camera I just bought? Well, in short, it's crap. Camera mics may be good enough to get the kids laughter on tape, but it's not good enough for a semi-professional recording. Camera Mics are generally very low quality, and due to their being bolted directly to the camera body, they pick up a lot of motor noise and other undesirable traits, such as bumps and pops when one is moving the camera.

Now that you have your microphones, you'll need to work out your interconnect cables. The AGK 1000, and really any mic worth its salt, uses balanced XLR three-pin connectors and cables. These can be had at any music store for a few dollars, and come in various lengths.

Note: Depending on how you are planning on recording your audio, you may need some additional connectors which will be covered below.

So, now that we have our microphones, how do we record stuff? Well, there are two basic ways of pulling this off at the semi-pro level. On camera, or via a separate recording device. Most video cameras have a provision for a line-in, or external microphone jack. On most any recent camera, this is in the form of a 1/8" stereo headphone jack. Recording via this method is acceptable, and makes editing for the newbie much easier as your audio is synced, but the plugs are often very fragile and very easy to contaminate with oil, grease, or other junk which will degrade the audio signal.

In order to translate the dual (or single) XLR signals into your camera, you will need a few adapters. These can be found at any music store, or even at Radio Shack. First, you will need one Female XLR to Male 1/4" mono phono plug adaptor for each XLR channel. So, either two or three, depending on how many mics you picked up. From there, you will need two lengths of Male to Female 1/4" mono patch cord. About six feet will generally be plenty. Then, you will need a dual Female 1/4" mono to single Male 1/4" stereo phono plug adaptor. This will combine your two mono signals into one stereo signal on a single plug. From there, just get a 1/4" Female to 1/8" Male stereo phono plug adapter, and then about a six foot length of 1/8" Female to 1/8" Male stereo patch cable.

You'll want to plug your 1/8" patch cable into the external microphone jack, then leave a loop of cable so that there is no stress on the plug, and tape the slack to the camera body with gaffers tape. You can also gently tie the cable around a sturdy point on the camera, such as the carrying handle. You want to make absolutely certain that a sudden yank on the cable will not damage the microphone jack. From there, the connections should be fairly straight forward.

Now, with your stereo mics switched on, you should have two distinct channels of audio on the camera. If you are using your single boom mic, you can purchase an adaptor which will splice your single 1/4" XLR adapter into a stereo 1/8" plug, which will give you the mono mic output on both stereo channels. This is not needed if you will be mixing your audio in post, but it is handy if you will be using direct camera audio in your production.

Now, the second method you can use to record your audio is with an external recording device of some sort. This could be anything from a minidisc recorder to a DAT. Why would you want to do this? Well, namely as most audio recording chips on virtually every pro-sumer video camera is a piece of crap, compared to an external recorder. The only real downside to recording externally is that one must re-mix and sync their audio in post production. With the right tools, this isn't a big issue.

I'll focus on two main types of recorder. First, is an off the shelf minidisc recorder, which can be had at virtually any electronics store. These retail for about $300 bucks, and offer a surprisingly good recording quality for their cost. Recordable media is cheap, and does not degrade with time. As well, these units have a very small footprint. Unfortunately, they usually have very tiny and hard to manipulate controls, and do record in a compressed format. The cabling for using a stereo minidisc recorder is pretty well identical to that of using a camera, one just connects the final 1/8" patch to the minidisc recorder, and records every scene as a new "track" on the minidisc.

The second is a step up into the professional end of things: A portable DAT recorder. Pictured here is a Tascam DA-P1 portable DAT, which is by far the best portable DAT to be had. DAT stands for Digital Audio Tape, and offers the best quality to be had in this price range. Used DA-P1's go between $1000 and $1500 bucks. However, aside from their amazing quality, they offer many features which the budding producer will want: Dual balanced XLR inputs with phantom power, allowing virtually any mic to be used with a minimum of cable hassle. You can ditch all of the adapters previously mentioned, as the XLR cables plug right in. As well, the DAT offers large, easy to use controls, gain (volume) controls for each channel, and the ability to output a digital signal from the tape. The unit also has a very good quality Digital to Analog converter which far surpasses anything to be found on a camera, or in a Minidisc unit. If you have the few extra dollars to spend, a DAT is the way to go.

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