5 Tips to Get High Quality Audio For DSLR Video Recording?

If you regularly record videos from you DSLR for uploading videos to YouTube and use it in your video marketing campaigns, there are some of the repetitively lesser known tricks that enables you to make your voice in the video high quality.

Many of the video recorders make some of the dumb mistakes like recording audio from the inbuilt mic of the DSLR and many others although they have an external mic, they commit some silly mistakes that ruin the quality of their audio recording to a considerable extent.

Here are some of the tips that is proven to increase the quality of your audio while recording videos through your DSLR camera.

#1. Take noise sample

The mistake that even the pro videographers make is that they cancel out out the noise using Audition or Audacity, and tend to not notice the loss in the sound quality of the recording while doing so.

The fact is that, when you do noise reduction with any audio softwares, some low frequency details of your voice will also be cancelled out, resulting your voice a bit robotic.

The technique that most of the experienced videographers use is something called – “noise sampling”. Before recording any videos, they pause for 3-4 seconds to let mic record the ambient noise in the room.

While editing the audio in the computer, they instruct the audio editor software to treat that ambient noise as a reference to cancel out the noise throughout the video. By this, there is less chances of the software also canceling out important vocal details in the audio.

As you can see the above screenshot, you can let software like Audacity to analyse the noise profile and help it to know the nature of the noise to filter out.

#2. Use a proper mic

There is a plethora of mics that can be used for audio recording. The audio quality of the inbuilt mic of the DSLR camera sucks.

If you are serious about DSLR video recording, investing in a good mic is very essential. As far as DSLR video recording in concerned, you have options to go with lavalier mics or shotgun mics.

Lavalier mics are most used in DSLR portrait video recording where there is only one subject. They are most preferred due to their small footprint, low cost, and also good audio quality due to proximity to the subject.

Another mic used extensively is the shotgun mic. These mics are long, and have a narrow pickup pattern. They are most suitable when there are two subjects to be recorded, and in the places where there is just too much of ambient noise like in public places or while doing gold digger pranks.

#3. Take multiple shots

Most of the newbies tend to record the complete video only in one shot. But the fact is, no matter how much you are prepared to face the lens for extended periods, the energy will not be the same throughout the video.

Along with that, in your very long continuous video recording, if any thing goes wrong, you may need to rerecord the while video again.

Taking multiple shots of like 15-20 seconds each ensures that you have a consistent energy levels throughout the recording, you voice quality won’t suffer and it’s just so flexible while editing or if anything goes wrong.

It also helps you to speak more accurately without having to forget the words to speak or having a teleprompter.

#4. Review the first shot

This is the tip I learned the hard way. You need to consider reviewing the first shot, before going for the next one. Why? You 90% of the times will notice some minor mistakes in your first shot itself. Without reviewing the first short, you’ll be continuing the same mistakes over your rest of the video.

It’s better to know your mistakes beforehand, and rerecord the first shot if things don’t workout well.

#5. Use appropriate gain levels

Although you can amplify the sound levels after the video recording is complete, it will not be lossless.

Instead of amplifying the audio after the recording is done, setting the right gain levels in your mic or in the DSLR settings is most preferred. While doing this, you also need to remember that after doing noise reduction and levelling in audio editing, your sound levels likely drop quite a bit. So, while setting gain levels, consider this aspect and set it up a little bit more than what is required.

Guest article written by: Paul Schoff.

3 thoughts on “5 Tips to Get High Quality Audio For DSLR Video Recording?”

  1. This is great! Especially the first technique. It’s something that many beginners don’t know. Most of them just count on the external mic, without taking into account how to eliminate the noise effectively. I’m definitely going to write about it on my blog in the near future. Thanks for reminding me!

    Reply
  2. I totally agree with you about the quality of the inbuilt microphones. I have a Sony Alpha a6300 and I pair it with my rhode VMPR microphone which for me does the trick. I noticed my audio quality is much better now due to the additional gear. By the way great POST!!!

    Reply
  3. I had the same problem.I wanted to cancel background noise so I reduced noise and made it smooth but doing so my voice kinda became robotic.I just applied the first method mentioned above.Worked like charm.Thank you so much <3

    Reply

Leave a Comment