Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts
Showing posts with label audio. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Professional Quality Wedding Ceremony Audio Recording for $125


If you're not quite ready to invest the $600 needed to get a quality wireless lavalier system, consider a budget alternative that gets great sound, but will not empty your wallet.

Griffin Hammond (known from Indy Mogul on Youtube) is a professional videographer whose freelance work is about 25% weddings.  He captures professional quality audio of wedding ceremonies by placing the recorder with a lavalier attached into the groom's pocket.  This allows clean, distortion free audio capture of all the wedding vows.

He uses the older Tascam DR-08 that is almost identical in size and weight to the newer DR-05 model.



The Tascam DR-05 handheld audio recorder is only $100 on Amazon and B&H Photo.

The omnidirectional Azden EX-503 lavalier mic is just $23 at Amazon or B&H Photo.

I've used this Azden mic for almost all of my video interviews and it records clear, crisp audio for interviews and promo videos. The only time I couldn't use it was during a education demonstrations where I needed to monitor that the audio was in fact being recorded. Previously I would connect the lavalier mic to a Zoom H4n recorder and place the recorder on the lap of the person talking (or in their back pocket if they were standing).

The zoom is bulky and it was obvious that some the interview subjects were uncomfortable having the recorder bulging out of their pocket.

For controlled environments and indoor interviews, this combination is a great way to get solid audio quality for less than $200.

Without batteries, the DR-05 audio recorder weighs just 4 ounces.  With two AA's it weighs 6 ounces.  The Zoom H4n does not fit as well in a pocket and is a heavy 12 ounces with batteries installed.

Friday, August 22, 2014

Where to Find Free Music for Your Video Productions

incompetech.com
Music Composer Kevin MacLeod has posted over 2,000 songs that are completely free for personal or commercial use.
* Be aware that credit must be given somewhere; in your video, or in the video description.  Youtube videos using his music can be monetized.
* Can search tracks by genre or feel.
* most of the music used on Indy Mogul videos comes from this site.

JoshWoodward.com
Musician who does vocal and instrumental versions of his songs.
* About 170 songs available.
* Can cut between vocal and instrumental version of the same track for your video editing.

FreeMusicArchive.org
* Make sure to do a search that includes a filter allow "commercial purposes" so you don't accidentally use music that cannot be used commercially
* Over 3,000 tracks

RoyaltyFreeKings.com
* Scroll down to the bottom to see the free music available.

NoizeIndex on SoundCloud
* Much of their music is available with the Creative Commons attribution license

TheMusicBed.com
Songs are $30-40.
Good selection for making wedding films, or promotional videography with a decent budget.

Most of the links and information on this post came from:
The Ultimate Guide To Royalty-Free Music For Youtube! - Friday 101 - YouTube

Get great video sound recording for $25


The Azden EX-503 Lavalier microphone produces excellent sound and is only $25.  You can get yours on B&H or at Amazon.com.

I discovered this mic after Griffin Hammond from Indy Mogul said that he used it on wedding video shoots.  His wedding films had great production value, so I was surprised to hear that a $25 microphone produced such good quality audio.  His trick was to stick a small audio recorder in the groom's pocket and connect the Azden lavalier mic.  This would capture great quality audio of the vows, which is critical for producing a professional level wedding film.

On my video interview shoots, I plug the Azden mic into a Zoom H4n recorder to capture the audio separately from the camera so I could better control the audio quality and avoid cables running from the video subject all the way to the camera.

See two videos below shot with the Azden EX-503:

Documentary style promo/interview recorded with the Azden mic

Montana Community non-profit promotional video