Decent audio for your video production is critical. If a viewer can not hear you, they will not stick around to watch your video.

The BEST way to get good audio when making video is to use a separate lavalier or handheld microphone close to the mouth while recording.    The microphone would be plugged into your camera and using it probably overrides and shuts off the microphone that comes attached to your camera.

To record audio this way requires a camera that accepts a separate microphone plug-in. The smallest and least expensive cameras do NOT have this feature.

So lots of people have no choice but to use the microphone that comes attached to their camera.

Although it is not recommended, you can make this work and this post tells you how.

Even though recording audio with your on-board microphone is not the BEST way to do it, with a few pointers you can make it work just fine.

First and most critical, make sure the background noise is minimal or non existent.  If you have complete control, turn everything OFF.  Everything.  Even white noise like fans and air conditioners.

If need be, leave and find a quiet corner. I’ve recorded audio inside a sealed up car MANY times.  That was the only place that was reasonably quiet at whatever location my job took me.

If the background noise is absolutely impossible to shut down and there is no quiet corner to escape to, hold the camera and mic very close to your mouth (six inches or closer) and speak LOUDLY.  The automatic gain control of the camera will quick in, lowering the recording volume significantly.   At that distance, your voice is so loud compared to the background noise, that a lowered recording volume will eliminate lots of the background and your voice will dominate.

Hopefully, the automatic gain control will lower the record volume enough so that none of your audio is distorted.  Audio recorded this way will not be ultra fantastic, but it will probably be understandable.

If the background is quiet, it is best to be about three feet away from the on-board microphone when you are speaking.    Speak loudly and enunciate well.  Do not mumble.  Speak to the back of the room.

Under these conditions, the microphone on-board your camera will pick up the sound just fine. It will be almost as good as if you were able to record it with a separate microphone plugged into your camera.

There is ALWAYS a way to make video work. Lots of video “gurus” will tell you that you have to have a separate microphone to record decent audio for your video.     It does help, but you can also work within the confines of your equipment limitations if you know how.  Being a TV news videographer, I often had to adapt to less-than-ideal circumstances.

I see lots of You Tube videos where the audio would be MUCH better if they followed these simple suggestions.

Thanks for reading Video Production Tips.

Lorraine Grula

Internet Video Gal