Sound: Replace with Ambient Noise

Sound is one of the most important and often overlooked aspects of a video project for those learning and getting started in film. And one thing that kills a moment is a big “Uhh…” in the middle of the monologue or speech.

Larry Jordan posted a great quick tip for using Soundtrack Pro to replace sections of audio with ambient noise. It’s definitely worth the read if you’ve never used it before!

LINK: Replace Ambient Noise in Soundtrack Pro

Rebel T2i: My Audio Setup

It’s been about a month and a half since I got my Canon T2i. About two weeks after getting it, I took off to Ethiopia to do some filming. In the short time between getting the camera and leaving for Ethiopia I had to scramble to put together an audio solution for the camera that I thought was acceptable (one of my initial tests).

It took quite a bit of time reading reviews, testing solutions, and looking at my budget before I decided what route to take. Take a look.

Microphone: Rode NTG-2

I mentioned this mic before in my audio tests, but the reason that I went with the Røde NTG-2 is because it was sub-$300 and battery or phantom powered. The battery part is important if you aren’t using a recording device that supports phantom power.

When there wasn’t critical dialogue or great sound, I would just plug the mic directly into the camera with an XLR to 1/8″ (with a line-in-transformer). This provided decent enough audio if I wasn’t being picky (and I wanted to try to pull some of the extra noise out in post).

Audio Capture: Zoom H4n

For capturing the audio, I decided to go with the Zoom H4n. You can find a ton of reviews online and quite a few endorsements from professionals (like Philip Bloom). I was impressed with the features that came with the $300 price tag. The unit provides phantom power, 96Khz 24-bit recording, SD card memory, and rather easy to use controls.

I found the unit really easy to use. For the most part, I’ve been using it as part of a one-man documentary-style setting. I have a little case that holds the recorder that I can attach to my belt and plug in the shotgun mic, which is mounted to the camera using the hotshoe shockmount. The audio that is recorded on the camera is used as reference material for syncing up the audio later. I found it to be an easy setup to use to get pretty darn good audio.

Samples

Okay, so I don’t have time to find samples right now, but I’ll include them later. I promise.

Audio Testing with the T2i

With any new setup, it’s important to test it’s capabilities and limitations. Over the past couple weeks I’ve started testing the Rebel T2i to see what I can do with it. Today’s test has is about some basic audio.

The Canon T2i comes with an internal mic like all the other Canon video DSLRs. It’s pretty crappy. If you handle the camera at all, the internal mic picks it up. It’s really of little use except for home movies.

With my setup, I didn’t want to record the audio on a separate unit and spend tons of time syncing audio in post. To get better audio, I purchased a Røde NTG-2 shotgun mic with a shockmount that can be mounted to the camera’s hot shoe. The reason I went with the NTG-2 was because of two factors: cost + battery-powered. I wanted something that I didn’t need to use phantom power with. I also got an XLR to mini cable so I could plug it directly into the camera with no XLR adapter box.

In the video below, you’ll see what the audio was like with the Røde NTG-2 and with the camera’s internal mic. Two things to note before watching. First, yes… I forgot to white balance. Second, the first clip is with the NTG-2 plugged directly into the camera; the second clip is the same as the first, but cleaned up in post; the third clip is the camera’s internal microphone.

Conclusions

I the amount of noise from the mic into the camera is pretty bad. And I don’t want to take the time in post to clean it up, while losing overall sound quality because of it. However, it is still a better solution than the internal mic because it is directional and you get a cleaner audio of your subject.

If I can manage before I head out on a trip to Ethiopia where I’m going to be filming, I’ll try to get ahold of one of the Beachtek XLR adapters. I’ve read a bit about them and they help reduce the noise quite a bit.

UPDATE: I ended up getting a Zoom H4n digital recorder instead of the Beachtek adapter.