Whats a good on camera microphone?

Question

Hi everyone, I have a video camera that does a terrible job when it comes to recording loud bass. It does a nice job when it records moderate sounds, but when there is loud music with an excess of bass, the sound recorded is horrible.


What is a good microphone to buy so it can reduce that clicking and distortion in the movie?

I heard about the RODE on camera mono microphone, but I'm not sure.

Is the on camera microphone bad? or it just doesn't do well with bass frequencies? because it only sounds bad when its too loud. I adjusted the audio manually, but the distortion is still bad.

Answer 1

Since you didn't mention what kind of camera you have, I will assume it has an external jack for a microphone. Some have "shoe" type connectors (high end) and others simply a 35mm jack. As far as which is best, thats like asking which is better, Ford or Chevrolet, and then two wheel drive or four wheel drive? It all depends on what you intend to do with your camera. on board microphones can do a great job at recording. You mentioned bass being a problem, are you recording concerts? If so, placement of you and the camera is critical. What may sound cool and awesome to you, may sound over driven and distorted to the camera.

You may run into the problem of being in the "just perfect" location to view the action, but that exact spot isn't perfect in the audio sense. Some people move to remote microphones either wired or wireless to solve this problem.

The RØDE microphone is an excellent choice, but rather expensive, with the average being $250.00.

I asked a friend whom records "soundoffs" at car meets what he likes, and he said he uses the Azden SMX-10, which is less than a hundred bucks. I asked specifically about bass, and he said any mic too close to that much bass will distort.

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

As the other answerer said this is not as simple as buying an external mic for your camera. Does your camera even have a place to connect it? If is does, then there are a few good mics out there (try AudioTechnica). But you still may have the same problem - the audio is too loud for the cameras mic input. The video pros always have some way to control the volume of the sound going into the mic input. The better pro cameras have controls that allow you to "turn down" the mic depending on how loud the sound you are recording is. Consumer type cameras adjust the volume automatically and they do a poor job with loud music (as you know).



Here is a great free book on the subject:



http://www.shure.com/stellent/groups/public/@gms_gmi_web_ug/documents/web_resource/us_pro_audiovideoproduction_ea.pdf

Answer 3

you didn't say what you are using for a video camera, it makes a difference. Formats that compress the audio, such as DVD, HDD and flash drive have a problem with any sound that becomes suddenly loud as happens at live concerts, a new mic won't cure the problem. If you are using miniDV, check the audio record options. Some cameras default to the 12 bit setting, which is compressed, if that is the case, switch to the 16 bit setting and try that before changing the mic.

Answer 4

There is no doubt that the original camera's microphone is not very good and has many Hiss sound and Clicks in the recorded sound. But keep in mind that if to have a good an natural sound with real bass, the first thing is the camera to support high quality sound sample. For example a camera with 16-bit 44100Hz recording format has a normal (consumer) microphone. To have good and real bass, you have to have at least 16-bit 44100Hz, but you should set your camera's microphone to record sounds in +6db to record low frequencies better. Normally, all cameras is set to +3db that is no suitable for low frequencies sounds like drums. If your camera don't allow you to control the db of your sound, the other way is to use an external microphone that can be connected in your camera's Shoe that brings you to use another microphone to improve your recording sound. Your microphone must be able to record sounds in high quality morde too.

Answer 5

A good video clip would require very good audio, else, it distorts the visuals. In a controlled environment, a good camcorder's internal mike may 'possibly' record good audio. But in an open environment, the farther a microphone is to the subject, the more ambient noise it also gathers. This ambient noise distorts the voice or sound you would want to record together with your video.... try shooting in a crowd. In this instance, the microphone should be nearest to the subject/s. There are several types of mike; directional (noise-canceling) microphone is intended for noisy environments.