Top Ten Audio Sins

We view a lot of videotapes here at Videomaker. We get hundreds of entries for our annual contest, we review instructional videotapes in every issue, we even accept Tools & Tips and Video Q&A submissions on tape. Some of the videos we receive are top-notch. Some are not so good.

Especially in the area of sound recording, it's easy to spot the same problems cropping up again and again. It's a fact of human nature that we all tend to make the same mistakes; for videomakers, it's part of learning the craft. But good videomakers, like you, learn from the mistakes of others.

What follows is a list of the 10 most common audio recording mistakes, in no partiçular order.

Each problem has an explanation and a solution or two.

Apply the solutions to your own video productions. They will never sound the same.

Mistake #1:

Over-reliance on the built-in mike.

While your camcorder's microphone is almost always the most convenient way to record audio, it's rarely the best. For one thing, a built-in mike is usually too far from the sound source. This makes your audio boomy and indistinct, with little clarity or crispness. The right distance between lens and subject is not usually the best distance for picking up audio.

For another, few camcorder manufacturers invest more than a couple of dollars in their built-in mikes. Condenser mike elements are extremely cheap; this is one area where manufacturers cut costs. Built-in mikes often sound tinny, with limited frequency response and relatively high noise levels.

Solution: Use an external microphone whenever possible. Even an inexpensive mike ($50 or so) will provide higher quality audio than the built-in version. You can also position an external mike much closer to the subject. Put a stick mike on a stand, hide it in a plant, or attach a lavalier to your talent. You'll get crisp, intelligible audio from an external mike nine times out of…