The Movi and Sound Recording

There are a good number of people who want to use the Movi with a mike mounted on a Movi Hoodie to record both image and sound at the same time.

Having tried it, I want to explain why I’ve decided to completely separate Movi image capture and sound recording and to stop using the Hoodie.

I’ve found that almost invariably I want to capture image and record sound from different positions.

For example, yesterday I used the Movi at a NY subway station. The shots that I made with the Movi + a mike mounted on the Hoodie resulted in sound that was far too diffuse/directionless/muddy.

Recording station announcements with my mike close to platform speakers or speakers inside a car, and subway doors opening and closing with the mike a couple of feet away from the doors, made a huge difference in quality. So did recording the sound of incoming and departing trains with two mikes in stereo.

Similarly, if I am recording a subway musician, or indeed any musician, I want to be able to move around with the Movi, but I want the mike in one place, which means on a tripod of some kind, even if it’s a Joby GorillaPod.

Another example. Some time ago, I recorded a scene in front of a NY church, while the church bells were ringing, a few feet from a busy street. The sound of vehicles on the street destroyed the scene. So I went back on a quieter day and recorded the bells, well down a side street. I also took that recording into audio editing software and cut everything below 200Hz, which got rid of NY low frequency sounds but was below the frequency of the church bells. Yes, this took some effort, but it made a huge difference, especially given that I was adding narration on top.

Another example. I shot a scene that included a lighthouse in fog and its foghorn half a mile away. The on-camera sound sucked. I went out to the lighthouse and recorded the audio used in the shot about 30 feet from the lighthouse. Again, a huge difference.

My conclusion is that video sound, like video image, has to be created rather than passively recorded.

Speaking of tripods, I may use the Movi as a tripod replacement in some situations, but I’m not sold on using a mike on the Hoodie even then. If I’m doing an interview, I want to be using either a mike on a boom or a lavalier, not a mike on the Movi, which is guaranteed to result in inferior sound.

On the question of mike to subject distance for interviews and vloggers, Mark Wallace has made a couple of quite good videos for Adorama’s YouTube channel, in which he demonstrates the clear sound advantages of getting the mike next to the person talking rather than the camera.

For me, the problem gets worse when one is talking about recording directly to an iPhone to an app like Filmic Pro. A stand alone recorder, even a fairly inexpensive one, offers both noticeably better audio quality and more control over the recording.

Basically, I’ve decided that I want the Movi to do a great job of recording video, period.

Of course, I’m just expressing my personal conclusions in this post, knowing that there are many who disagree. I’d be delighted if others post on this subject. New Movi users may find various perspectives helpful.

Cheers

P.S. If you’re interested in vlogging, check out Nelson Sullivan’s work from the mid-1980s, who may have invented the idea. You’ll even run into some footage of Ru Paul, who I don’t know anything about except that almost 40 years later she is apparently famous. Link here: https://www.youtube.com/user/5ninthavenueproject

And if you’re interested in where the idea of vloggjng came from conceptually, check out a 1967 fictional documentary called David Holzman’s Diary; https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Holzman's_Diary

 

Hi Darrin,

First, I want to say that I think your video on Huntington Beach in the Showcase forum makes it pretty clear that you know a lot more than most of us. I’m most comfortable with sound and I have a lot to learn on the video side.

In Filmic Pro, I go to Audio Settings and choose PCM/WAV 48kHz.

I’m finding that if I plug in a mike to the Lightning connection, Filmic Pro selects it by default. You can confirm this by going into Filmic Pro Settings > Audio, where you can choose the audio source. Your Rode mike should show as an option, and if it is plugged in it is probably already selected by default.

 

Hi John,

I plan to try making an Instagram video. A one minute limit sounds like a fun challenge.

Also, about a week ago the Wall Street Journal said that Instagram may soon increase allowed length up to as much as an hour.

 

Hi,

What do you currently have in terms of gear to do this and what kind of music do you want to record?

 

Hi John,

I think that the key here is to record to a device that has its own analogue to digital converter, which converts the microphone’s analogue signal to a digital signal, and its own preamp. This sidesteps the converter and preamp in a smartphone or other camera, which is the single biggest thing that you can do to improve audio quality.

The cheapest solution is a Zoom or Tascam portable recorder. These sell for US$100 to $250 depending on features. These recorders have come a long way in recent years and they come with built-in microphones. The built-in mikes are OK, and you can purchase and plug in your own mike if you decide at some point that you want to use a higher quality microphone.

The next level is an audio interface that connects to a laptop computer or to an iOS device such as an iPad, iPhone or iPod. Examples include the Apogee One (US$250) and Apogee Duet, which will work with both computers and, with a connector, iOS devices. Apogee has an excellent reputation in the audio recording world. The Apogee One has a built-in microphone and you can also use your own mike. If you don’t need to connect to an iOS device, but only to a laptop, there are many more audio interfaces you can use, at a variety of prices, by companies like Focusrite, RME, Sound Devices, etc. These all require you to use your own mike. If you record to a laptop, GarageBand, which if I recall is free, is fine as recording software. It is basically a simplified and less confusing version of Logic Pro X, which is an industry standard but also has a significant learning curve. GarageBand is completely adequate for your purposes.

You could also consider a higher-end stand-alone recorder. Zoom makes a couple, and Sound Devices recently introduced its excellent MixPre series. You have to supply your own mike and we’re talking about a fair bit more money compared to the basic portable recorders and the Apogee One audio interface discussed above. If you’re prepared to spend the money, I think that the Sound Devices MixPre-3, at US$650 plus batteries, memory cards, etc., is outstanding value.

If you purchase a microphone, and want to record a group of musicians, I agree with Andy that an omnidirectional mike is a good choice. You could also use a cardiod mike. It’s worth learning the difference between omnidirectional and cardiod mikes and thinking about which would be best for what you want to record.

When and if you feel the need, you could purchase a second mike and record in stereo. On stereo recording, look up A-B Spaced, X/Y, ORTF and Mid-Side, which are specific ways to record in stereo. Note that there is no benefit to recording in stereo if you are recording a single sound source, such as a singer or player of a single instrument. There are some cases where one can use more than one mike to record a single instrument, such as a piano or drums, but at that point we’re into a pretty esoteric discussion.

With any of these options, the most important thing, assuming that you are recording acoustic music, is to make sure that the mike is close to the musicians. Sound quality deteriorates rapidly the farther a mike is from the sound you are recording. Contrary to what many people think, a shotgun mike does not act like a zoom lens and does not change this fact of physics.

Re your reference to wireless.. Personally, I use wired mikes, including when using lavalier mikes. The sound quality is better than wireless, and wireless requires additional gear and financial outlay and introduces complications. The view of the professional sound house that I purchase gear from, and that is the rental house for a lot of major film and video productions, is that wired should be used unless there is a good reason why it won’t work. Andy’s example in the post immediately above, where he was using eight lavalier mikes and eight sets of wireless transmitters and receivers, is the kind of situation where wireless may well make sense, but it doesn’t sound to me like you’ll be running into that kind of problem in the near future.

If you are recording to something other than the iPhone on your Movi, you need to sync the video and sound. Look up using a hand clap or clapperboard to do this, as well as what a “scratch track” is and how to use one to sync image and audio.

Good luck!

P.S. What I personally use, depending on circumstances:
Sound Devices field recorder
Lectrosonics PDR (Portable Digital Recorder)
DPA d:vice AD converter & preamp for iOS devices
Sound Devices audio interface
Schoeps omnidirectional & hypercardiod microphones
DPA omnidirectional lavalier microphones
Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X, iZotope RX, iZotope Ozone

 

If you’re on Windows, Premier Pro is probably the way to go. If you’re on a Mac, I think that iMovie, which is free, is a perfectly good way to start with video editing. Just as GarageBand is a simplified but capable version of Logic Pro, iMovie is a simplified but capable version of Final Cut. There are awfully good videos on YouTube that were edited in iMovie.

The mikes generally used for video are relatively compact small diaphragm condenser mikes and can get expensive very quickly. I kind of regret mentioning Schoeps mikes above. I actually wouldn’t recommend them for beginner, casual use. They are frigging expensive, even second-hand.

For recording live music in particular, you can get very good quality and save a boatload of money by using a large diaphragm mike costing US$100-$250. These mikes, of which Shure is probably the best-known brand, offer a huge cost-to-quality return. For example, Shure’s SM57, in production since 1965 and apparently one of the world’s best-selling mikes to this day, costs US$99.

My concrete suggestions for someone starting out making live music videos:

Audio recorder: Apogee One + an iPhone, iPad, iPod or Mac laptop, or a Zoom H4n Pro (the latter is the cheapest Zoom with an XLR mike connection aka keeping one’s options open)
Mike: the recorder’s built-in mike or a large diaphragm Shure or similar
Video editor: on Windows, Premier Pro; on Mac, iMovie to start