Alternative ways to capture audio in an amateur documentary

[cadu]

Hello,

I intend to produce an amateur documentary and
the only camcorder I have available is a simple JVC GZ-HM30 (http://www.trustedreviews.com/jvc-everio-gz-hm30sek_Camcorder_review).

So, I am looking for alternative ways to
capture audio with quality, once this cam doesn’t have input to external microphone.
I intend to record audio in three different situations: (a) indoor interviews;
(b) outdoor interviews; (c) general audio from external environment.

I was wondering if it is possible to capture
audio through an IC recorder and to make synchronization with video through
edit software (Vegas Movie Studio Platinum 11). I have an Panasonic RR-US551 (http://shop.panasonic.com/shop/model/RR-US551)
which has input to external microphone. The questions are:

a) Which could be the type/model of
external microphone to use together this IC recorder (considering the different
situations mentioned before)? It would be a reasonable solution to my capture
audio with quality? Is there other one?

b) Through audio software (as Sound Forgenot professional version), is it possible to improve the audio quality (eventhe audio recorded from the JVCGZ-HM30 camcorder)?

Thanks indeed in advance,

Cadu

[composite1]

Cadu,

Short and sweet, with the software you already have (Vegas Studio) you’ll be able to do sync audio. You’ll need preferably a digital audio recorder like the Zoom H1 with your camcorder. you’ll start them (hopefully at the same time) and then you’ll do an ‘Audio slate’ while both devices are recording. Say at minimum the project name, location name/interviewee name and date then use a ‘Clapper’ if you’ve got one or snap your fingers in front of the lens. You can use that and the peak in the audio waveform in the audio track to sync up your video and audio in the timeline. That’s pretty much it.

Make sure you use a fuzzy muff over your recorder and when using a handheld recorder, take the setting off ‘Auto Levels’ if you can. Doing those two things will help you get cleaner sound that isn’t too hot.

[vid-e-o-man]

 Cadu, as Compostie1 said, you can use Movie Studio to sync up your audio off of your audio recorder. Lay your video from the cam on the time line with it’s audio below it. Add the audio from your recorder on the audio track below that and use the spikes from the clapper to help in shifting the lower audio track to align it with the audio track from the camcorder. Once you have done this mute the camcorders audio track and play the video to check the sync. Clicking ‘Solo’ on the lower audio track will accomplish the same thing for the sync check on playback. Once you have it synced to your satisfaction, you unlink the camcorder’s audio/video tracks and delete the audio leaving you with one audio track which is insync and hopefully great audio for your great video. The audio software that comes with Movie Studio is pretty good for basic functions and is pretty easy to use. It does a good job of cleaning up your audio. Click on your audio clip and open in the soundsoftware to clean up and save a copy of your cleaned-up version. Add this new version to the time line in the same way as before and eliminate the ‘unclean’ and voila. On thing that I forgot to mention, after you sync the audio clip from the recorder, trim it so that either it’s begining or end is exactly the same as the video clip so that if you need to replace it with a clean clip or have to move the video clip around on your timeline you can easily snap the audio back into sync. Hope my explanation helps. Keep shooting.

[cadu]

Hello,

Thanks for valuable information. I will
begin my tests very soon. I would appreciate an additional little help. To record
interviews I intend to use an lavalier microphone plugged in the external
recorder (Panasonic). Besides that, I think I will need other microphone type
to record background narration/locution (using my voice). In this case, what would
be a good microphone to plug in the laptop to take my narration voice? Ps.: My
laptop doesn’t has any dedicated audio board; just an audio chipset Realtek (http://www.realtek.com/products/productsView.aspx?Langid=1&PFid=27&Level=5&Conn=4&ProdID=166).

Best,

Cadu
——————————————–
Wishes of amazing ideas in 2012!!!!!!!!!

[Tony]

Make evey effort to get your audio right. Try not to cut corners if at all possible. This tutorial article might give you some ideas regarding recording and sync’ing audio and video

http://rocksuresoundz.com/2011/10/11/the-importance-of-getting-good-audio/

[Author]

Posts