- Are you looking for the best microphones for video?
Well in this video, we're gonna take a look
at the different types of microphones,
which ones you should use for your content,
and our recommendations for the best video mics
right now that balance price and performance
in each category.
(upbeat music)
Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video,
where we help businesses and entrepreneurs
amplify their brand and their business with video.
If you're new here then make sure you click
that subscribe button and all the links to everything
we mention in this video, you can find
linked in the description box below.
So let's jump into it.
Now audio is absolutely critical to creating
quality video content.
So if you're not using the right microphone,
it's one of the easiest ways to level up your content fast,
but there's lots of different types
of microphones out there, and each of them
actually has a different purpose.
So there's shotgun microphones, lavaliers,
wireless, podcast microphones, so what's the difference,
and which is the best one for you and your style of content?
We're gonna take a look at the key differences
to help you pick the right mic for your videos,
as well as my recommendations for the best
bang for buck performance in each category.
And make sure you stick around 'til the end
'cause I'll also link you to my two top tips
for getting the best audio and maximizing
the results from your microphones.
So let's start out at the beginning where most
people start out, and that's with the built in camera
audio, or the microphones that are built into your cameras,
whether it's a DSLR, mirrorless video camera,
or your smartphone, its the built in one.
So the biggest advantages of those microphones
is that they're built in, meaning
that you've got nothing else that you need to worry about
in regards to batteries, or charging,
or any adapters that you need to use
to be able to capture audio.
It is all built in, but that's pretty much
where the advantages end.
And the disadvantages are the audio quality.
In most cases, it is terrible, or very mediocre at best,
especially if there's any wind around.
They will just catch that wind and create
a terrible noise, and they'll also generally pick up
a heap of background noise.
So if you're recording in a noisy environment
and you're trying to talk, then it's gonna be
very hard to stand out above the background sound as well.
So my recommendation is to, wherever possible,
avoid using the built in microphone on your camera,
unless that's all you've got, and if that is all you've got,
then try to shoot in locations with minimal
background noise and away from wind wherever possible.
But really, if you're able to use any of the
other types of microphones that we're about to get into,
then that will give you better audio.
The second type of microphone is a lapel or a lavalier
microphone, they're also known as a clip on microphone.
So these are ones that you've most likely seen
on TV or documentaries that are clipped onto
someone's shirt, jacket, jumper, whatever it is,
usually placed as close to the speaker
or presenter's mouth as possible.
So really with type of microphone,
the closer you can get the microphone
to the audio source, so whoever is speaking or presenting,
the better the audio will be, and the least amount
of background noise or echo that'll be picked up
by the microphone.
So that's where these microphones are fantastic,
because the distance usually between
where the microphone is and the speaker's mouth
is normally a pretty short distance,
and it's consistent too.
So if they're moving around, if it's just clipped
to your shirt, then that distance is going
to remain pretty similar, meaning that the audio
is gonna be consistent and it's close,
so it's going to be decent as well.
Now for this video, and for most of the videos
on our channel, we do experiment with different ones
from time to time, but we usually use a lapel,
or a lavalier microphone as our go to for most
of the videos, and it's actually what I'm using
for this video now.
I've got the lapel stuck under my shirt here.
There's actually two different types,
you can go a wired microphone, or a wireless microphone.
And both of them have different advantages
and disadvantages, but in general though,
across both of them, these types of microphones
as we said are fantastic for people talking,
and they're used a lot for any interviews
or TV shows.
There's heaps of mounting options for these
types of microphones, whether you are going to
tape it under a shirt, or whether you're going
to clip it onto a jacket.
These are really easy to clip on or stick to someone
and you're good to go.
Now these microphones are really designed
for single person use, meaning that each person
you're gonna have in your interview
or in your shot should ideally have one of these
microphones each so that you're getting
that consistent distance between the microphone
and the person speaking.
These really don't work too well for picking up audio
across multiple people.
So these also then aren't great if you're looking
to capture background noise or atmospheric sound
from the locations you're shooting in.
These are designed to be attached to a person
and capture the audio from a person.
Now as I said, there's also advantages
and disadvantages between the two different types,
wired or wireless.
So the wired microphones, you've actually got
a lot less chance of having interference,
because you're physically cabled, or connected,
to your camera, it's not running over any wifi frequencies,
so because you're connected, there's less chance
of any interference with your audio source
from external radio frequencies or wifi.
With the wired microphones, depending on which one
you choose, you'll either not have a battery
or not need a battery at all, or you'll have a
battery in the microphone, but the battery life
will be huge.
So the chances of running out of battery
while you're recording with a wired lapel, lavalier
microphone is very minimal, because the battery life
is so long.
But the biggest downsides of using the wired microphones
is that you're obviously connected, or tied,
or tethered to your camera.
So you're gonna be limited on the amount of movement
that you have and how far you can get away
from the camera while you're creating
your videos because you're directly connected
to the camera.
Another big advantage of these types of microphones
is that they are pretty cheap.
You can normally pick them up anything from $9,
a heap around the $20 price point,
obviously you can spend more as well,
so it really comes down to the type of videos
you're creating, how much flexibility
and how much movement you need as to what's
the best solution for you.
So the wireless microphones then give you the flexibility
where the wired ones wouldn't.
Essentially they're the same sort of microphone,
except you're wireless.
So you have the flexibility to move away from your camera,
and in some cases, up to around 400 meters,
or quite a distance away from the camera,
and walk around and still get great audio
back for your video recording.
The biggest downsides then with the wireless setup
is that you will need batteries
both in the transmitter and the receiver unit
to be able to run the unit.
So depending on how long you're gonna be filming for,
you'll definitely wanna make sure
that you've got enough batteries to last you
for that time.
And because it's wireless, it is possible
that you can get interference from other things
around in the area that you're filming,
things like wifi or radio frequencies
that are in your area may affect
the quality of the audio that you are sending
back to your camera, so it's just something
again to be aware of.
Alright, so really all you need to know here is,
if you want a lapel or lavalier microphone
that you have some flexibility to step away
from the camera and walk around and not be
connected to it, then wireless is what you're after.
If you aren't gonna be moving around too much,
maybe you're creating videos like this
where you're just in a room, then maybe a wired
microphone might be the one for you.
So my top recommended microphone currently
for wired lapel or lavalier microphones
is still the Boya BY-M1 microphone.
For $20 U.S., it is probably the best bang for buck
wired microphone that you can get.
This will work both on smartphones
and on DSLRs, and it's actually the microphone
that we use for most of our videos.
And our current top recommendation for best
bang for buck wireless microphone setup
goes to the Rode Filmmaker Kit.
This is something that I always carry with me,
because it is such a flexible solution
for getting great audio.
The price though is a little bit more expensive
than the $20 for the wired solution,
these normally come in at around the $400 U.S.
price point, so it's definitely more expensive,
but you've got that flexibility of being able
to move away from your camera and not be
directly connected to it.
The third type of microphone is a shotgun microphone,
so these essentially replace the built in
microphone on your cameras with a much better solution.
So being a shotgun microphone, it means
that they will normally pick up the audio in the direction
that the microphone is pointing,
so it is a directional microphone,
meaning if there's a heap of noise behind the microphone,
it's not gonna pick it up anywhere near as much
as it's picking up the audio from the front
of the microphone.
So these types of microphones are really popular
by vloggers, people like Jon Olsson,
or Casey Neistat, they use these mounted on top
of their cameras, pointing directly at them,
the audio source, so they're getting
great audio from that direction
and picking up minimal background noise
from everywhere else.
So one of the biggest advantages with these types
of microphones is that there really is no setup.
Once it's mounted onto your camera,
if it's got an on switch, you turn it on,
or some of them don't even need an on switch
and they're just on when the camera comes on,
and then you're good to go.
So these are perfect for any sort of run and gun filming,
where you might be filming in one location,
quickly picking up and filming somewhere else,
then back to another location,
you don't need to worry about cables,
you don't need to worry about frequencies,
or anything with wireless and moving
and clipping the microphones on.
This is literally the best solution for any
run and gun filming.
They're also fantastic for picking up consistent audio
across multiple presenters if you don't have
the ability to put a lapel or lavalier microphone
directly on each person speaking.
So if I was gonna have a few people in the shot
talking at the same time, if I didn't have the ability
to put a lapel or a lavalier microphone
on everyone speaking, then the best solution there
would be to use a shotgun microphone
so that then everyone around is being captured
by that one microphone, which means
that the audio is gonna be consistent across
the three, or four, however many speakers there are
because it's the one audio source.
If you've got a couple of people using one sort
of microphone and mic'd up with a lapel
or lavalier microphone and the rest of them aren't,
then the audio isn't gonna be consistent
and it's gonna sound really bad.
So if you've got more than one person speaking,
or more people speaking than microphones
that you have, then the shotgun microphone
is the way to go.
The biggest disadvantages then with shotgun microphones,
as we've said, is that it will pick up a lot more
background noise, the further away the audio source
is from the microphone.
So because these microphones are typically mounted
on top of the camera, they're not gonna be anywhere
near as close as a lavalier microphone would be.
So while you'll still be able to get really good
audio using these shotgun microphones,
if you're filming in a noisy environment,
then you will get a lot of that background noise
through in your shotgun microphone as well.
So my recommendations for shotgun microphones
if you're using a smartphone, I would say go the
Rode VideoMicro, if you're using a DSLR
or mirrorless camera, my recommendation is
the Rode VideoMic Pro Plus, or if you're using
a more professional video camera,
then check out the Rode NTG4.
The fourth type of microphone is a handheld microphone,
now these are the ones that you typically see
used by news presenters, especially when
they're out in the field.
So they're microphones that, as the name suggests,
you hand hold.
So in a lot of cases, these are very similar
to a shotgun microphone, they are really directional
in the way that they're picking up the audio.
Whatever direction it's pointed in
is the audio that it's going to capture.
One of the biggest advantages with
hand held microphones is that you have the ability
to move them around while you're actually filming.
So if you've got someone that you're interviewing,
you can move the microphone over to them
when they're speaking, and back to you when you're speaking
so that you're only going to pick up the audio
from those audio sources, and that's really something
that you can't do with a lapel microphone
or a shotgun microphone.
Most handheld microphones also have fairly decent
wind reduction as well, so if you're using them
outdoors and it's windy, then you're not gonna
pick up a heap of that wind noise in your video,
which is really cool.
So where these microphones really stand out
is if you're filming in uncontrolled environments,
so where you can't control the amount of background noise
or what's going on in the rest of your shot,
if you wanna get good audio, then these microphones
will allow you to do that because they'll
only pick up the audio that is closest
to the microphone.
The further away the microphone is,
the huge amount of drop off there is.
So in some cases, with some of these hand held microphones,
it can be the difference of a few inches
or a few centimeters in positioning of the microphone
and distance it is from your mouth
to getting amazing audio and getting barely average
or really quiet audio through.
So these are fantastic for cutting out a heap
of background noise, even at things like trade shows
where there's just so much going on.
So the biggest disadvantage then is pretty much
the same thing, you really need to be aware
of where the microphone is pointing
and the distance that the microphone is
from whoever is speaking, or from the audio source.
So if you forget to point it at whoever is speaking,
then there's a good chance that there will be
next to no audio or really, really quiet audio
from that person speaking.
And once again you've got the options of both
wired and wireless hand held microphones as well.
So our current top recommendation for best
bang for buck hand held microphone goes to the
Rode Reporter microphone.
It's an amazing microphone, it's actually got
an XLR port on the bottom of it,
so it can be either cabled in or you can buy
the additional adapter, and convert it to be
wireless as well.
And you can currently pick up the microphone for
around the $130 mark.
So the fifth type of microphone then is
a podcast microphone.
So these type of microphones are ideal for
creating podcasts or doing interviews on
your phone or on your computer to get decent audio.
So again, with these you wanna get as close to
the microphone as you can for the best audio,
the further away you are, the more background noise
and echo that you'll bring into your audio recording.
So in a lot of cases, you'll actually see people
sitting right up next to these microphones
so that they're getting the best audio out of them,
and that nice, deep bassy sound that you would hear
from a radio presenter.
But most of the time if you're using a podcast
microphone, it will either be mounted on
something like a mini tripod on your desk,
or it'll be on a boom extension arm,
so something that is adjustable
and you can fold it away, or bring it in
when you're gonna use it, right up next to your face.
Most of the podcast microphones out there
you won't need to worry about batteries
or worry about power, because you'll be plugging
them into your computer using USB,
which will power the microphone as well.
Depending on which one you go, you could also have
a heap of additional features on the microphones,
like having the ability to monitor and listen
to the audio that you've got coming through there,
and in some cases, even the audio coming back
through your computer as well.
So probably the biggest disadvantage with these
types of microphones is how close you actually
need to be positioned to it.
So depending on the type of recordings that you're doing,
if you're doing podcast, that's probably fine.
If you're using these types of microphones
to have general online communications,
so things like Facebook Messenger calls,
Slack calls, Zoom calls, and you like to move around
a little bit or work off multiple screens
and look in different locations,
then you really need to be close to the microphone
to be able to get the best audio.
You seriously don't have to move
that far away from the microphone,
similar to the other microphones we've spoken about,
to really degrade the audio that you're getting out of them.
So it really depends on your use case.
If you have the ability to sit up close
to the microphone, then you will get amazing sound
out of these types of microphones.
If you need to step back a little bit,
then these aren't going to give you the best results,
and that's probably where some sort of shotgun
microphone, or even a lapel, or lavalier microphone
would be better suited, if you wanna be able
to move around a little bit away from your computer.
So our current top recommendation for
podcast style microphone is the Rode NT-USB,
and this is really the best bang for buck microphone.
We've tried a heap of them, this one has
amazing sound, and it's also got built in
monitoring as well.
So really, these are the major types of microphones.
So before we get to my top two tips for maximizing
your results with each of these microphones,
I just wanna be clear that you definitely
don't need all of these.
You'll really come down to the type of videos
you're creating, and in a lot of cases
you might just need one of these microphones
to do everything that you need.
Now obviously if you've got the budget for
more than one microphone, then definitely go for it,
but most people out there will probably be looking
for just one microphone to get started with.
So if you have to choose just one of these
microphones and you're producing a range of content,
then which one should you get?
Well for flexibility in filming, a decent shotgun
microphone could be a good all-rounder
for a lot of people, and depending on your budget,
I would be looking at either the Rode VideoMicro
if you're using a smartphone or if you're using
a smaller camera or you don't have a huge budget,
or if you're shooting on a bigger camera
and you've got a big bigger budget,
then check out the Rode VideoMic Pro Plus.
Okay, so now that you've got a better idea
of which microphone is likely the better choice for you,
it's time to get the most out of it,
and two things you'll definitely want to consider is,
number one, soundproofing, so whether it's a home
or office studio, or you're out on location,
there are some simple DIY solutions
that can get you great results fast.
And number two, if you're noticing an issue
with wind noise, then grab a cheap lavalier microphone
and mount it under your shirt.
I've included links to videos running through both
tips now in detail on screen, so make sure
you check them out and I'll see you soon.