When you're making video content, capturing quality audio is super important… that sounds
terrible...
Uh.
I can fix that, hold on…
Alright, is that better?
That's still too much reverb, just a second.
How about now?
Good?
Awesome.
Bad audio can ruin even the most beautiful video which is why it’s so important to
get a clean, quality capture of your audio.
In this video I’ll share some tips and recommendations to help you do just that.
Let’s get into it.
Hello creators, I’m Ben Toalson from Podia, where we empower creators like you to make
a living doing what you love.
I’m going to break these audio tips and recommendations into three separate sections:
Location, Equipment, and Performance.
First, let’s talk about where you’re recording.
When considering a room for recording, one of the first things you’ll want to do is
test the room for ambient noise.
Stand quietly in the spot where you plan to record and listen for potential noise pollution.
Is there road or pedestrian noise from outside?
Can you hear the A/C?
Do you have noisy neighbors?
Is your refrigerator running?
You better catch it!
You may be able to fix some of these things, like turning your A/C off temporarily, recording
at times that aren’t as busy, and so on.
If not, you might consider using a different room if that’s possible, but either way
it’s good to be aware of the noises your microphone could potentially pick up.
Another important factor is the amount of reverb in a room.
When we talk about reverb, we’re talking about the sound that bounces off of surfaces
like walls and floors and returns to the microphone.
Generally speaking the bigger the room and harder the surfaces, the more reverb you’ll
experience.
To provide the best experience for your viewer, you’ll want to limit reverb as much as possible.
There are three ways to do this:
1.
Avoid high reverb rooms.
Rooms that have hard floors, lots of blank wall space and limited furnishings will tend
to have more reverb.
And the larger the room, the more amplified this effect will be.
2.
Use rooms that naturally reduce reverb.
Carpeted rooms with curtained windows and cloth based furnishings, especially if those
furnishings come with pillows, can naturally reduce a great deal of reverb.
You’ll still want to test the room to see if it sounds echoey to you.
My favorite way to do this is to clap and listen for how “live” or “dead” the
sound is.
Rooms with lots of reverb will sound “live” like this, as opposed to “dead” like this.
3.
Make adjustments to your environment.
If you need to use a room with lots of reverb, you can purchase sound deadening or sound
proofing kits that you can install to deaden the sound in your room.
You can also use a microphone isolation panel if you’re using a microphone setup off screen.
If you’re on a budget, you could even use area rugs for the floors, hang thick curtains
or blankets along walls, and bring in soft furniture.
Now that you’ve got your location figured out, let’s talk about what kind of equipment
you should use and how best to set it up.
I’m going to talk about 3 different mic styles and how best to use them.
The first is the shotgun mic.
A shotgun mic captures most of its audio from the direction it’s pointing, very little
from the sides, and almost no audio from the opposite direction.
This is my favorite type to use for recording because it does the best job reducing ambient
noise and makes the presenter sound like they’re in the room with the viewer.
I recommend the Rode NTG2 on the higher end and the TAKSTAR SGC-598 on the lower end.
For the best results, you want to set the shotgun microphone up on a boom arm above
and angled down toward the subject, as close to the subject as possible without being in
the frame.
If you can monitor your audio while recording, you want to make sure you’re audio level
stays between the -12 and -6 decibel range.
If you’re too loud or soft, change the position of the microphone and adjust the input level
before you adjust your speaking volume.
We’ll talk about speaking volume in a moment.
The second type of microphone is a cardioid microphone.
These types of microphones are typically set up in the shot either on a stand or on a desk
and capture most of their audio from the front, some audio from the sides, and a little audio
from behind.
The Blue Yeti is great if you’re on a budget, and on the higher end, I highly recommend
the Shure SM7B.
When using a cardioid microphone, you want to make sure that whatever surface it’s
attached to or resting on doesn’t vibrate or convey unwanted noises to the mic.
For the best results, try to keep the microphone within about 4-6 inches of your mouth without
covering your face.
You can also use a lapel microphone.
Lapel mics can come in cardioid patterns or omnidirectional patterns.
For delivering on video, I recommend getting a cardioid, so the microphone won’t capture
unwanted ambient noise.
The Rode smartlav+ is a good low cost microphone if you’re just starting out, and on the
higher end, the SHURE BLX14/CVL is a fantastic wireless lavalier system.
Be sure to clip the microphone between 4-6 inches away from your mouth for a good clear
audio capture.
If you want to check out any of these microphones, I'm going to link them in the description
below.
Now you’ve got your room figured out, the perfect mic setup, but there’s one really
important thing that we need to talk about.
Your voice!
Now if you don’t like hearing recordings of your voice, you’re not alone.
In fact, most people don’t.
This is because when we speak normally, we’re actually hearing something different from
what others are hearing.
This is because we are listening to our own voices through bone conduction, that’s the
vibration of our voices in our bones, which makes our own voices sound richer and lower
than they actually are.
To others, they only hear what exits our throat and mouth.
The bad news is, you don’t have any control over that.
The good news is, you don’t need to because you have a beautiful voice.
Trust me.
What you can and should control is the volume of your voice and the cadence of your speech.
For volume, you want to speak as if you’re talking to someone who is standing 6-8 feet
away from you.
This usually means you’re speaking above what you’d normally use for someone standing
right next to you, but below what you would use to speak to someone across the room.
You also want to make sure your volume stays consistent.
Most people aren’t used to speaking at an elevated volume, so they’ll start nice and
loud but trail off near the end of their sentence.
What did you say?
I said they’ll trail off near the end of their sentence.
Be mindful of this tendency and make sure you’re keeping a consistent volume from
beginning to end.
Your cadence, which is a combination of the rhythm and speed with which you speak, can
range widely depending on your personal brand.
It’s okay to speak more slowly if your brand is more calm and contemplative, and it’s
okay to speak quickly if your brand is energetic and enthusiastic.
You really just want to avoid the extremes.
Speaking too slowly and evenly can be boring and keep people from staying engaged with
your content.
Speaking too quickly and erratically can make you difficult to understand.
Find the sweet spot, a cadence that is engaging and easy to understand and also matches your
brand style.
These tips work best through experimentation.
Record yourself, listen back, and make adjustments until you feel confident you’re providing
a quality audio experience for your viewer.
If you tend to be a perfectionist or have trouble making an objective assessment of
the quality, it can help to get another set of ears in on the process.
Let me know in the comments what kind of audio setup you use for your video content and what
you’d like to improve.
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We release content like this every week aimed at helping creators like you succeed.
Thanks for watching this video and I’ll see you next time!