Get Better Sound

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Most people consider the sound of the video to be more important than the picture quality. For me, this is certainly true. I can more easily accept poor image quality than poor sound quality. If I can barely hear something, it's simply frustrating.

So what are some ideas for recording better sound?

Set The Audio Gain on Manual

Here's what I do: If I'm recording someone, I ask the subject to talk as loudly as they can without yelling. Then I set the audio recording volume manually to where the sound isn't quite clipping. Usually when the person returns to their speaking voice, they're right around the -12db area, which I think is a perfect recording volume. Obviously this isn't a very scientific method, but it works so well, I've basically made it part of my normal shooting process.

Capture Room Noise

It's important to record some ambient noise, ideally a couple minutes of it. Have everyone sit quietly, turn on the recorder, and just let it pick up a couple minutes of room noise. You can use this ambient noise later to reduce the overall noise, and also to fill in empty gaps. I covered this briefly in Izzy Video episode 15.

Use Software to Remove Background Noises

Soundtrack Pro, the software I use for editing audio, has a feature called "Reduce Noise." First you select a section of the audio which is nothing but the noise you want to remove. Then you click "Set Noise Print." From there, you click "Reduce Noise" and adjust the settings until the audio sounds the way you want it to sound. This can be very, very effective.