Sound Reasoning: Sweet Sound of Matrimony

Meet Bob and John.

Bob owns a camcorder; for that reason alone his best friend asked him to shoot his upcoming wedding. Not wanting to let his friend down, Bob responded "Sure, I'd love to do it." And why not, Bob thought, how hard could it be?

The day of the wedding dawns. There's Bob, video gear in hand, standing in the church on Confusion Street. Sure, he exercises good command of his camcorder and knows how to capture stable, eye-pleasing images; his audio experience, however, is limited.

Meanwhile, across town on Happyface Lane, John prepares to shoot a wedding as well. But the experienced John knows exactly what to do; he and his long-time partner complete their mike placements in record time. John even enjoys some free time to relax before the ceremony kicks off.

Back on Confusion Street, the ceremony is about to begin. Unfortunately, Bob is fumbling around trying to pick the best spot for his mike stand.

As John already knows and Bob is about to find out, there are dozens of potential mistakes a videomaker can make when recording audio for weddings. Without guidance, the beginner will usually make all of them. One way to learn about proper wedding audio recording: compare the typical mistakes of an amateur (Bob) to the savvy techniques of a pro (John).

Before the wedding ceremony began, John appeared at the bride's house to shoot her preparations for the big day. (His partner did the same at the groom's house.) He recorded all of the audio with the built-in camcorder mike.

John knew that this was the simplest part of the day's shooting. His plan: to mix music over most of the shots captured that morning. The audio John recorded with the built-in mike had a natural sound quality with good editing possibilities. The combination of music mixed over natural sound works well for him. And why not--it's the standard for the wedding video industry. The simplest audio to record in the field, this technique allows for continuity in the scenes while using cut-aways to compress time.

Shooting the bride and groom getting ready is essential to a successful wedding video. Unfortunately, Bob spent his morning with his pals watching football at the local café. It didn't occur to him that he should shoot the bride or groom getting ready until the ceremony had almost started.

Not surprisingly, Bob wanders into the church after half the guests have arrived. Unfamiliar with this particular church, Bob has no "game plan" for shooting the ceremony. He's asking himself the most rudimentary of questions, like "Where should I place the mike for the best possible sound?"

Bob sets up his mike stand next to the podium and trails his mike cable off to the side pews where he can sit and shoot. Bob may be lucky enough to capture usable sound from the pastor, groom and bride; but music or any other activity away from the podium will sound weak and tinny. To his horror, Bob's mike setup becomes academic, anyway, when the pastor moves his mike stand out of the way moments before the ceremony.

Our professional videomaker, in contrast, visited the church a few days before the wedding and sketched a setup for the shoot. John even asked permission from the pastor to hook into the church P.A. system.

Because many churches have extremely limited budgets for sound hardware, some clergy may seem overly worried about damage to their church's equipment.

But John knows his business; he assured the pastor that as a pro he would take care of the church's gear.

After obtaining permission to use the P.A. system, John checked the equipment out. Most churches use P.A.-type mixers, which generally have a line level output. John found the output jack and looked closely at its line level connector.

Church P.A. mixers, especially in older churches, can have one of many possible output jacks: a 1/4-inch phone jack, an XLR 3-pin jack, an outdated screw-on mike jack or a RCA-type jack. (There are even some other possibilities, as John says, "the older, the odder.") John wants to have the correct cable ready for the wedding.

Had the pastor refused to allow him access to the church's equipment, John would have had two options. The first is a split input, where part of the signal is "stolen" from the pastor's mike using a splitter at the point where the mike plugs into the floor (or board, or at any point where tapping is possible). The second: to tie a wireless lavalier onto the pastor's podium mike, as close to the pastor's mike as possible. Finally, if none of these options is available, John knows he could mike the P.A. speakers, but only as a last resort.