We’ve all been through it. Watching a gorgeous video with bad sound, which ends up ruining the video experience. Many people say that the sound is one of the most important elements to a good video. It makes sense. Bad sound can not only be distracting, it can devalue a film.
How You Record Sound for Video Makes a Difference
People have very little tolerance for bad sound. This is clearly reflected in which videos are popular on Youtube, Vimeo and the shares on Facebook. Without pristine sound, your video loses the audience. If it’s in-and-out, scratchy or perhaps too much bass you’ve lost your following. Without a following and social media involvement, your video becomes dead online space.
What You Need for Good Sound
Depending on just your camera’s microphone isn’t good enough for most videos. The simple reason is that it records everything, rather than the focus of your video sounds. All of the background noise is treated the same as an interview, for example. The camera treats each noise with equal importance.
What we do are two different versions of sound, because we understand the audio integrity is one of the most important aspects of a successful video. Recording the sound straight to camera plus using a video recorder helps us maintain the highest quality of sound, which is synched with the video, for the best sound clarity.
How Bad Sound Affects Your Audience
It’s one of the easiest ways to lose an audience by having bad audio. People’s attention spans are growing shorter and shorter, with video becoming one of the easiest and most accessible ways to reach your target audience.
One of the biggest turn-offs of a video is a warped, patchy or overlapped soundtrack. If the sound is off, the video isn’t watched all the way through. It becomes worthless with bad sound.
Different Types of Sound for Different Videos
Not every event is the same. Each event sound requires different attention. For example, a large event with a lot of background noise requires different sound to an interview that’s in a closed surrounding.
Imagine a choppy or muddy interview. These days, most video watchers don’t have the patience to sit through a video that is shot well but has mediocre sound. Quality matters, on every level, for your video.
A Few Tips for Getting the Best Audio for Your Video
There is no typical setup for perfect sound, but there are a few things you can add for recording good audio. Interviews, for example, are better if they have a ‘lapel’ recorder.
Large events require two separate recorders, one that gets all of the sound that’s synced with the video and another external one that focuses on the individual subject. Never forget your audio is just as important as your video, and you’re halfway to a very successful filming.
Keep Your Audio in Mind and You’ll Do Fine
At the end of the day, if you take your audio seriously your video will have much more success. It might happen that you have some sound problems with your video. Please take a look at our article about fixing sound problems on your video for more information. Any extra tips? Let us know in the comments below!