- Anytime you're making a video, it is important to remember
that what your audience hears has just as much impact
as what they see, which means you should never underestimate
the importance of audio in your videos.
My name is Tom, this is The Enthusiasm Project
and today we're gonna take a look
at several relatively budget friendly options
to help you get good sounding audio
when you're filming outdoors.
And I do wanna start off just by emphasizing that this
is not a sponsored video.
The reason for that
is because, everything I'm gonna use today is a Rode product
but that's just because that's what I have.
That's what I bought when it came time to decide where
to invest my money, that was the road I decided to go down.
So we're gonna head outside in just a second
but I wanted to film the beginning of this video inside
because it is currently, 104 degrees outside
and I don't wanna melt.
Now obviously when you're filming outdoors,
a few challenges present themselves.
When you're in an environment like I'm in right now you can
be in charge of everything background noise, echo, you
can sound treat your room, you can position
the microphone exactly where you want it
and you can just take control of everything.
It's the beauty of a controlled environment.
But when you go outside you basically lose all control
of that environment.
There's the whole world of sounds out there
and as you know, if you've ever tried
to film anything outdoors before, as soon as you press
that record button, that's when the whole world decides
to just conspire to ruin your recording and be as loud
and annoying as possible.
So there's an almost unlimited number of options
to help you get around that.
I'm working with a few things today that, I happen
to already have but I think they're also pretty common tools
that you might have as well or you might
have different versions of.
The first is, the Rode VideoMic Pro Plus which is
what I'm recording this on right here.
And this microphone, put that back up there.
And this microphone usually sells for about $300.
We're also gonna be using a Lavalier microphone.
You can get Lavalier microphones anywhere from you know 20
to hundreds of dollars.
This is a Rode Lavalier that costs about 60 or $70.
Then we're also gonna be using the Rode Wireless Go,
which is about $200.
And for the price I have found this to be
the best, least expensive wireless mic system.
You might be able to find cheaper ones out there, but
they tend not to be so good.
And then, last but certainly not least $30
this guy right here the Rode Interview GO
which is not actually a microphone at all, we'll kind
of explain that in a second.
This sort of seems goofy but it's literally the thing
that I enjoy using the most, out of all of this stuff.
So we'll kind of talk about that, wasn't it super slick?
I was gonna say how I didn't drop it and then I dropped it.
So let's head outside into the heat and check out some
of these microphones setup.
This is the on camera microphone which if you can hear me
at all, probably doesn't sound too terrific
'cause the camera is about seven feet away from me.
I'm over here, there's wind and air conditioner sound.
If get a little closer to the camera, it probably does sound
a little bit better.
But clearly not ideal, so we have a few options.
And the first, is to just use a shotgun microphone.
So this is the Rode VideoMic Pro Plus mounted directly
onto the camera.
Right now I'm an arm's length away from the camera,
so pretty close to it and this should
be sounding pretty decent.
Jumping back here it might not sound as clear as
when I was close to it, but it
should definitely sound better than when I was using just
the on camera, onboard microphone.
This is the on camera microphone.
But now let's look at a few other options.
So the first of these options is a Lavalier microphone
and you might be saying, hey Tom why are you so close
to the camera?
And the answer is, well because it has a wire on it
which is very short.
And the audio quality should be better because
it's positioning the microphone really close to me,
but now I'm kinda stuck to the camera.
If I had one I could use an extension cable maybe to get
a little further, but you're never gonna get past
the problem that, your subject is going to need
to be physically wired to the camera.
So, this is not my favorite option for filming outdoors even
though you might notice the audio quality
is significantly better. So now what I've done is I've taken
that same Lavalier microphone, I've plugged it into
the Rode Wireless GO.
So now, same setup should be the best audio quality.
Eliminating all of the traffic and the wind
and the air conditioners and gardening equipment,
whatever it might be outside and keeping it right next to me
the whole time.
The beauty of that is I can move away from the camera
and still maintain that same level of audio quality.
So no matter where I go from here,
it should still sound the same.
And this is probably your best option,
for getting good quality audio outside
a wireless Lavalier system, but it really only works
if you're filming yourself or you're filming one subject.
If you have more than one person, it doesn't really solve
that problem because now you're picking up my audio
but you're not going to be picking up their audio.
So let's look at a couple options for getting sound
from more than one person outdoors.
I am dripping sweat.
Okay, so now my lovely wife Heather is my volunteer
as a second person.
Basically what we've done is we've taken the Rode VideoMic
and I've plugged it into the transmitter
for the Wireless GO, so now the video mic is
a wireless boom mic.
We don't have a helper here right now, so this could be
on a boom pole that someone is actually moving towards us.
Heather can you give us a soundcheck just so we hear
how it sounds like to have two people talking
from one microphone.
- Yes, mic check mic check one two one two, this is what
it sounds like when there's two of us.
- You're better at that than I am.
Now this option will work really well if you don't want
the microphone to be on screen.
So, you can put it on the C stand or you can put it on
a boom, have it just out of frame
and then no one's gonna see it.
Works great if you're doing like filmmaking
or making any kind of narrative, or you just don't want
a microphone on screen.
If you don't have a C stand and you don't have a boom arm
and you don't mind the microphone being on screen.
There's one other option for picking up sound
from multiple people, using a single microphone.
And what you may or may not know is that with
the wireless go the transmitter is actually
its own microphone.
So I'm talking into the transmitter right now
and that's where this interview go comes in.
So, it's a plastic stick, it's actually more heavy duty
than you'd expect and this, clips right into the top
and then it basically becomes a handheld microphone, you get
this nice little windscreen.
And now I've got a wireless handheld microphone
which is great if you don't mind the microphone being
in the shot.
And just real quick, I should mention you could boom
this microphone, but this is a thinner handle than normal.
So if you put it in a normal mic stand,
it doesn't really stay that well.
If you've ever used an Audio-Technica shotgun microphone
they tend to be a little skinnier.
And the mounts for those fit right on
this Rode Interview GO, I'm dripping sweat it's crazy.
So Heather let's talk with this microphone,
how are you doing today?
- I'm doing great, it's super hot out here Tom.
- Do you remember watching Game of Thrones?
- Yes.
- The reason I bring that up is because being outside I saw
a few crows and I remember in Game of Thrones, they always
had crows deliver messages to different villages and stuff.
Do you remember this?
- I do remember this.
- And when I was watching that, I thought that was so cool
'cause I love crows and I thought it would be really cool
to have a crow that kinda acted as your telephone
because then it would be, my-crow-phone.
- Did you want me to say something about that?
Was I supposed to laugh?
Sorry (Heather laughs) - So the important thing is
whichever method you're using, don't forget or underestimate
the importance of audio in your videos.
And of course, when you're filming outside, figure out
the best method on a budget for what you need to do
so you can get the best quality.
Is it a shotgun mic like the VideoMic Pro?
Is it a wireless system?
Is it a super nifty handheld system like this?
I think I wanna be a news reporter now.
Whatever works for you, just please don't underestimate
the value of high quality audio in your videos.
(bouncy music)