- Hey, it's Justin Brown here from Primal Video.
Microphones are absolutely critical
when it comes to nailing the audio in your videos.
If you're using the wrong one,
or you're not using any at all,
then you can destroy all your hard work and your videos.
Now, there's a few different types of microphones
and it can get a little confusing
to work out which one is right for you,
and the different situations that
you're going to be filming in.
The two that I'm gonna run you through
today are probably the most common.
One is a shotgun microphone which,
in this case, is the Rode Videomic Pro,
and the other is a lavalier or a lapel microphone,
and the one I'm showing you here
in this video is the Boya BY-M1.
So, let's start with the shotgun microphone.
Now, this is one that you've probably seen before,
especially if you watch a lot of Youtube videos,
'cause people like Casey Neistat
and other top vloggers, this is their
primary source for capturing great audio
for their daily or weekly videos.
The reason this is such a popular microphone is
because it's just a matter of turning it on,
pointing it in the direction that you
want to capture your audio, and you're away.
It also doesn't make much sense for these
vloggers to have to set up their
lavalier microphones each time,
and also this means that they don't
need to be physically tethered to their camera.
Shotgun microphones are ideal for capturing
great audio from your camera location that's infinitely
better than the built in microphones on your cameras.
Probably the biggest downside with using
a shotgun microphone is that it will
pick up a heap of extra background noise
if the audio source that you're looking to capture
is far away from the microphone.
So, if you're going to interview someone
and you're going to use a shotgun microphone
then the closer they are to the microphone,
the better the audio will be.
The further away they are, then the more
background noise will get picked up in your audio recording.
Shotgun microphones are also ideal
if you're just looking to capture
atmospheric or environmental audio
from the scene that you're recording in.
If you're going to be using them outdoors
in windy situations, then you can add
a windsock or a dead cat in order
to help reduce the wind noise going through the microphone.
So, as I mentioned, this is the Rode Videomic Pro,
and it's the shotgun microphone I use
in most circumstances when I'm not interviewing.
So, when should you use a shotgun microphone?
Well, really, any situation where
either your audio source is gonna be close to the camera,
so, like, a quick interview like this would be fine,
as long as there's no background noise.
Or, if you're looking to capture background noise
in the environment that's you're filming.
If you're doing any sort of interviewing,
then I would always recommend to use
a lavalier microphone where you can.
So, on that note, a lavalier microphone
is awesome for any sort of interviews
or pieces to camera where you have the ability to stick
or mount the microphone on your talent.
As with any audio recording, the closer you can get
your microphone to the audio source,
the better the audio quality,
and the less background noise that's picked up.
And, that's where lavalier microphones shine.
Typically, you're able to mount them,
clamp them, or stick them close to
the mouth of whoever is talking,
which dramatically reduces any background noise
or any other noise around being picked up by the microphone.
In most cases, lavalier microphones
don't handle wind noise well.
So, if you're going to be filming outdoors
and in windy conditions, then there's
a couple of things that you can do
to help reduce the impact of the wind on the microphone,
but if you're just looking to
clip the microphone onto a T-shirt,
then it's gonna be pretty wind-affected.
I did a video a long while back,
it was actually one of the first ones on this channel,
on how to hide your lapel microphone
or your lavalier microphone and still get great audio.
And I'll put a link on the screen now.
So, any time I need to record anyone talking
direct to camera, I'll do my best
to get a lavalier microphone on them.
In most cases, you can actually run
up to two of these microphones
directly into your cameras using a splitter,
allowing you to get great audio
from two different people at once.
As I mentioned, this is the Boya BY-M1.
It's the mic that I regularly use
when creating my weekly content videos.
I really like this one because it has a long cable,
it also works with smart phones, laptops
and DSLRs straight out of the box,
and it sells for under $20 US on Amazon.
So, I suppose the last thing to mention
is that lavalier microphones typically
come in two flavors, wired or wireless.
Now, wireless is awesome if you need
the flexibility of whoever you're trying to capture
audio from being able to move around.
And, also, if you need quite a bit of distance
between the talent and the camera,
then wireless is probably the best option there.
But, wherever possible, I try to use a wired solution.
So, that way, there's no chance of any interference
coming through any of the wireless microphones
and there's much less chance of
batteries going flat if you're using wired.
One of the things that annoys me watching some videos,
and it really looks unprofessional,
is when some people are mic'd up with lapel microphones
or lavalier microphones, and others
are just being picked up by the shotgun microphone.
Totally different.
Some audio is really clear, and then others has
a heap of background noise in it as well.
If you don't have enough microphones
to go around everyone that's gonna be speaking,
then I would highly recommend,
to keep the audio consistent, then just use
the one shotgun microphone and capture the audio
so at least everyone sounds the same.
So, there you have it.
It's pretty simple, but it's really important
that you get the right microphone
for your shooting and video style.
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