Video productions of people singing, which gear to buy?
Discussion in 'Production' started by Lars Nielsen, Dec 25, 2014.
I will like to make videos of people singing with my Canon 5D mkIII camera and some new professional audio gear for this. The expected production scene is the singer in front of the video, like 1-2 meters away, music in the background - post production would likely be re-sampling the music and vocal in Final Cut Pro.
I really need to help choosing the audio gear. Which microphone should I choose when I plan to place it like the camera 1-2 meters away from the singer? I don't want it in the picture. I thought about a shutgun microphone but it is probably not tuned for vocal sounds. Is it best to choose something that can be connected to the camera or is it better to connect it via USB, record and sample it later?
The recording will take place at home, so not in a professional studio or similar. I plan to have one singer performing to some rhythmic songs where the music is played in the background. The videos will be made public so the level of sound quality should be very good, professional level. I thought about the Rode shutgun microphone ntg2, but it can be another one, or some different type of microphone.
The NTG2 is a good voice over mic, for dialog and some signing. The first problem you will encounter is the sound of the room, the natural reverb of rooms in homes are often displeasing and can't be removed once recorded. It would be a good thing to plan some ways to control the room with thick draps or acoustic threatments.
What is your budget, is it gonna pay or it's just for fun ?
Using the camera input is convenient but the preamp won't sound as good as those of an audio interface or external preamps.
Add a popfilter like this : http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/PopFilter6DS and you are good to go for basic recording.
You could record audio and video seperatly and combine them with a software.
This Professional level will cost you. Assuming you could find a mic that fit all voices (exemple a AKG 414 is near 900$) a good preamp with converter is about 1K or more and an interface with digital input around 500$ and more.
I think a shotgun mic for indoor use at 1-2 meters is overkill.
Your challenge in this will be, as has been pointed out, finding a room 'dry' enough to not be distracting.
For truly professional results there would be a number of approaches, often used in combination. Including a soundstage, discretely placed lavalier mics, a mic being held on a handheld boom just out of frame (over or under). And if none of that works out, they record the audio in advance taking every advantage to sound as good as possible, and then end up lip-synching the song to the playback for the purpose of the video.
Option A: Sound is most important. Get a decent vocal mic, put it right in front of the performer, like 6" away. You'll get the best sound, and you'll have to live with the visual imperfection. By now people are used to seeing a mic in the frame when people are singing, so don't worry about it.
Option B: Visual is most important. Learn how to treat your room(This is time consuming, and much like voodoo, requiring the sacrifice of at least one chicken), and then have a person hold a boom mic overhead. I've used the Rode boom and in my opinion it is very good. Plus if you're going to do a lot of video, you'll want one anyway.
I was going to say exactly the same thing. Sound is not just some kind of 'bolt on' thing that can be made to sound like videos you see on TV, DVD and on-line without a lot of care and attention - in fact, the visuals are probably easier - what you see is what you get, and sound doesn't work like that. You are doing an entire song in one shot? Then expect lots and lots of retakes.
You also need to consider monitoring - the singer needs to hear the track, but the mic doesn't. Another BIG problem because spill from monitors colours the sound badly. Any attempt at distant miking makes this much, much worse, so close miking will, I think, be absolutely essential to get any body and character into the voice. A 3 minute song with no teeny mistakes will be a serious challenge. If the camera is in close, then visuals will dictate the audio matches the perspective, and this means finding a way to get the right sound - so difficult that most pop videos are mimed.
This technology from 1982 looks promising.