How To Use A Lapel Mic
Recording groovy video has never been easier. Anyone with the will to learn and a few hundred dollars for a DSLR can produce video that doesn't await out of place in a film theatre. Fifty-fifty smartphones tin make professional-quality video now! Great visuals, notwithstanding, are only i role of what makes a groovy footage. No affair how pretty things look, if the accompanying audio rail is poorly recorded the finished product volition suffer and seem amateurish.
In this tutorial, you'll learn how to use your smartphone and a lapel mic to record audio for video. We'll consider the equipment you need, what apps piece of work also, and important information such as:
- How to set up your phone for recording.
- Where to position the mic on your body.
- What wearing apparel to wear when using a lav mic.
- What to do with the cable.
- How to set the recording up.
- How to sync the separate audio and video files.
- What file format to salve the finished recording in.
The Perils of DSLR Audio
The microphones built into most modern DSLRs are, in a word, deplorable. They can capture the ambient noise of a scene but they are not capable of making truly usable recordings. In sound terms, the problem with DSLR microphones is that they accept a depression bespeak-to-noise ratio. That is, the noise of what you desire to hear—the signal—is often mixed with the noises you don't want. While in-camera mics are useful as a reference recording they just aren't built for good quality audio.
A Quick Comparison
Camera Microphones at 5 Feet
This audio clip was recorded with my Canon 650D at a distance of approximately 5 feet. You tin hear a lot of ambient noise in the recording.
iPhone Microphone at i Human foot
This audio clip was recorded with my iPhone at a distance of about one pes. It's amend, but not perfect. In that location is less ambient noise, only this is mostly because the microphones are much closer to the source of my vox. If you have a static composition in a quiet place and are able to rig upwards the iPhone only outside the frame overhead this is a workable solution in a compression.
Lavalier Microphone
This audio clip was recorded using a microphone plugged into my iPhone. Much better! This setup allows for a much more flexible product mode.
What Y'all Need
To record good audio with your smartphone yous demand two things: a high quality mic and a professional recording app. Your smartphone's built-in microphone and vox notes app won't give you the results you want.
The Lav Mic
The best mic for recording oral communication and dialogue for video with your smartphone is a lapel, or lavalier, microphone. These small mics clip discreetly to a shirt and they're often used in documentary product. Placed on the body, relatively close to the mouth, they're able to isolate the speaker'southward voice from environmental racket.
There are defended smartphone lavalier mics, such as the RØDE SmartLav+ which I utilize. Yous can also use an adapter, like the RØDE SC4, to connect near regular lapel mics to your smartphone.
Whether yous go with a dedicated smartphone or general purpose lapel mic, it's important to get a decent quality one. There are hundreds of sub-$10 lav mics available on Amazon which, although they'll sound better than your camera'south mic, are meant for live presentations and not recorded audio. When in dubiousness, choose a mic from a reputable brand similar RØDE, Audio-Technica or Sennheiser—fifty-fifty their base models are solid products. Boutique mics like the HMNSound MicroLav, Giant Squid, and MicJ 044 likewise offer good value.
Audio Recorder App
To record loftier quality audio you need to be able to ready audio levels and sample rate, monitor your inputs, view the waveform as you tape, and output to a diversity of unlike audio formats. The built in tools on iOS and Android tin can't do this.
On iOS the RØDE Rec app is designed to work with the RØDE SmartLav+ I utilize and has all the features I need—RØDE has a history of supporting DSLR filmmakers.
RØDE competitor Tascam also has an iOS app: PCM Recorder Mk Two. It'due south a free app and has all the necessary features.
Some other slap-up iOS app is bossjock studio. It'southward designed for podcasters rather than filmmakers so includes a lot of podcast specific features. It is, however, more than capable of being used to capture audio as you lot film.
On Android WavePad Audio Editor Free is a professional audio recording app. Like bossjock studio, it's designed more than for dedicated audio producers merely it has all the features filmmakers need.
How to Tape Sound for Video With Your Smartphone
One time you've got the fix necessary, information technology'south time to start audio recording. For this tutorial nosotros're going to await at recording audio while y'all film, however, all the principles even so apply even if you're recording a voice-over before or after the video shoot.
Prepare the Telephone
Your smartphone is a fantastic tool, simply in a higher place all else, it's a phone. If it rings during an sound recording, everything else stops. Before doing annihilation more than, put your phone in Aeroplane Style.
Position the Mic
The lav mic must be shut plenty to your mouth that it picks up sounds clearly but not then close that plosives and breathing racket becomes an upshot.
Position the mic between vi and 8 inches away from your oral fissure as centrally equally possible. Nearly lav mics are omnidirectional and so you lot can get away with having them slightly off centrality. For the same reason you can move your head a modest amount when you talk. Even still, the more primal the mic is and the less y'all motion your head, the better the resulting audio.
What to Article of clothing
When recording with a lav mic, clothing is an important consideration.
The all-time thing to wear is a push down shirt as the mic can adhere through the gaps in the buttons on the heart of the shirt. Failing that, a jacket or blazer with lapels works well. Round-necked t-shirts, jumpers and other tops that don't have somewhere depression enough for the mic to adhere to are best avoided.
The fabric your dress are fabricated of also matters. Natural fabrics like cotton are less likely to rustle or create unwanted sounds than synthetic fabrics. To test whether or not a garment is suitable, rub two sections against themselves. The less dissonance, the meliorate.
Cable Care
The cable connecting your smartphone and mic is incredibly important. If information technology snags or catches on anything it'll mess upward whatsoever recording you lot're making. Even worse, information technology could end up breaking the mic.
Run the cablevision from the mic to your smartphone under your clothes. If you're using a button down shirt, the cable should run out through the gap the mic is fastened to.
The cable should never be stretched taut. Your smartphone should be placed close enough to the mic that there is enough of slack. Similarly, the cable should never dangle as that makes information technology more than likely to catch on something or be noticed in the final video.
When possible, the cable should be taped to your torso. This ensures it can't move too much while providing the mic with enough cable to move as much as it needs. Medical tape, the kind that is used with bandages, is your all-time choice: it sticks to wearing apparel and skin akin without tearing or leaving sticky residual. And it'due south inexpensive!
Set Up the Recording
Record sound with the highest sample charge per unit offered by the setup you're using. My RØDE SmartLav+ and the RØDE Rec app record at 32 kHz by default, nonetheless they can record at up to 48 kHz. Look for college data rates, as well: 24-bit is preferable to 16-bit. Check what the maximum your setup allows is and use information technology. You desire to tape as much data as possible.
Earlier y'all tape, examination and set your levels. With the mic placed correctly talk as you lot will during the filming. Lookout man the levels to see that they aren't too high or two low. The bar should height at about -12 dB. You desire to avoid clipping, which is when the quantity of signal exceeds the capability of your recorder (ordinarily marked in red on your levels).
Sync Audio to the Camera
If you're separately recording video and audio y'all demand a fashion to sync the 2 in mail service. The best way is to use a production slate. Ben Lucas has a full tutorial on using production slates and another 2 on how to synchronise audio manually and automatically after you've recorded.
If you don't have a slate, y'all can get past with simply your hands. Clap them loudly close to the mic and in view of the cameras recording the have. If you're shooting uncomplicated scenes with one or 2 cameras this will work fine. If, however, you're filming something more complex a slate will make mail-product much easier.
Salvage the File
While you lot can edit sound and video together on your smartphone, it'due south improve to do information technology in a powerful non-linear editor like Adobe Premier Pro. It's of import to requite your editing app as much data equally possible to piece of work with then y'all don't desire to lose any data when you lot consign it from your phone.
All the professional person audio apps offer multiple file formats. To keep the highest quality sound possible, use a highbitrate or lossless format like Apple Lossless or FLAC. This gives you the almost flexibility when editing everything together.
Conclusion
While larger productions will invest in a dedicated package of audio gear, using your smartphone with a small lapel microphone is a neat commencement step toward proficient audio for your video productions. Lav mics aren't perfect: they don't provide the same quality of sound as a directional, powered, and dedicated microphone. For everyday and depression budget videos, withal, they are a smart way to maximize your production value with a minimal investment.
A lapel mic also makes a solid 'program b' in a more complete audio kit, as well. A common documentary tactic, for example, is to combine a lavalier microphone on the subject with a shotgun microphone mounted on the photographic camera; a flexible and balanced way to record sound. A practiced-quality lav mic is an investment that will pay for itself many times over.
Did you notice this mail service useful?
How To Use A Lapel Mic,
Source: https://photography.tutsplus.com/tutorials/use-a-lapel-mic-and-your-smartphone-to-record-audio-for-video--cms-24328
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