A lot of the folks here have jobs and/or work video full time, Orpheus, and though sometimes we can and do answer fairly quickly, there are also times when we're out on a shoot, up against an editing deadline or some other element in our respective lives that has to take priority over responding to every question posed at the forums.
You will find that MOST responses here are usually level-headed, non-condescending and fairly accurate when you do get them, as opposed to a number of other forums where that simply isn't so. There are forums out there where the participants seem more interested in ridiculing or drawing blood, putting down, than actually trying to help somebody beneath their perceive level of royalty.
And, while MANY of us here do not mind helping, it does get a bit old when the same questions get asked over and over again. Or when the answers are easily found simply by doing your OWN research, working Google or whatever.
I don't mind at all responding to people with legitimate questions I feel qualified to answer, chiming in when there's someone getting no responses at all because I do not have the answers but simply by having responded maybe somebody else will - hopefully with valid information.
I have to say that I'm not particularly fond of providing a list of models, prices and specific recommendations for a personal shopping list, especially when my experience has been that the list is dissed, ignored, or otherwise thanklessly received. When it is argued by the person asking, or when I get the continuous, ongoing questions of validation as to why and wherefore, I made such recommendations.
• On a LOW or NO budget, the answer is quite simple - get whatever you can, but probably start with a Zoom H2 and some kind of shotgun mic; Azden, Nady, Samson. This is likely to set you back $500, give or take.
• Realistically, a wedding video producer would want to have a wireless (there's a sweet Sony package from Armatos with Lav, body pack and universal plugon for handheld mics at $695, suggested retail is around a grand. Model UWP-V6)
AND, a Sennheiser quality shotgun with excellent side noise rejection abilities - $700 to $1K.
AND, at least one, if not a PAIR of H2's - $400 to $500, give or take if you shop around.
So, total for the mic systems and options you want, for redundancy you'll need more often than not, you're looking at $1,800 to $2K.
If I had $1,000 and was just getting the best I could for the money I'd go with a couple H2's and a shotgun, and build from there.
If you deal with long audio stretches, you WILL experience drift, latency, whatever you want to call the issues that arise when matching various audio sources go out of sync NOTICEABLY or somewhat. That is when ambient audio, room sound, etc. comes in handy, enabling you to bridge your various tracks. Working with multiple audio sources in an editing environment is enough that books upon books have been written on the process, and the need for detail far exceeds the time and space available here for something that simply calls for experience and to which there is NO FAST FIX answer.
Adobe Premiere Pro CS4 is certainly a capable editing environment, but even folks with that, FCP or other higher level systems will have separate audio editing programs/software that they use to do their professional audio sweetening.
Lesser systems take more time to accomplish higher levels/degrees of audio sweetening; GREATER systems take more knowledge, understanding and familiarity with the system to make any difference in the audio quality. Also, same for audio as for video - garbage in equals garbage out. Regardless of the mindset a lot of people have that most anything can be FIXED in post, not always true.
How layered tracks work depends entirely on your system and how you/it approaches working with multiple tracks. Simply stated, you cue in where you want various tracks to start/end; you ramp up/down or fade music, bring levels under or over the top of your main track, boost vocals, and reduce instrumentals or ambient sound/noise, adjust layers to play on top of, with or whatever, each other. You add effects, take away unwanted audio elements and more. Again, you have to know your system, your software and its/your limitations. There's no ROTE answer.
The vows might run longer than 10 minutes, but usually not by a whole lot. The rings the same, readers the same. All these audio elements can be broken down and matched up from your best available audio source. All audio levels can be adjusted to keep one from sounding radically different from another.
I break up the specific and desired audio elements into their respective chunks and work with them until I get them the way I want them. Other things I allow to slide or pass, depending on how obvious their differences or drift or whatever might be. If I'm tight on lips, then sync is crucial/critical - if it's close enough (as in hand grenades and horseshoes) and the lips are far enough away to not be noticeably off, then it's close enough. Judgement calls all.
There's critical audio. For everything else there's ambient sound, filler, cover-up or more.
