Audio Equipment

Hello All!

I am looking into doing a YouTube series. I have some alright cameras but nothing with good audio. I was wondering what some good audio recording equipment would be? None of the cameras have mic inputs so I will need to something to record the audio to also. My budget is about $150-$200 for the equipment and if that is too little then let me know!

Thanks for the help!
Caleb
 
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He said that his budget is about 150$ but no ,Alcove Audio starts with " Add a zero " . And then ,out of nowhere he starts to talk about 1500$ and then he says he should even buy cables and stuff.

And then , you say that he could actually get 400$ worth of equipment .
I told alcove audio that he should add the h6 in with his list. And then I gave the op an option that fits in his budget of $150.

See, when you include a quote that someone wrote, it means that you're responding to that quote. Are you really that new to the series of tubes?

I'm also curious what this kid will use for editing, or if he's just going to pirate something.
 
You think you look cool by saying that audio is the most important thing that often times young filmmakers forget and you do completely agree with APE and Alcove because what they say is absolute law in filmmaking , no , you don't look cool . You look stupid .

Show me one, just one, message I've ever posted on indietalk where I said, or even implied, that audio is the most important thing in film making. I'm afraid the only person looking stupid in this thread is you!

No , you need to spend 5 million dollar on audio , movies without a dialog don't exist, silent films don't exist...

Name just one commercially successful film in the last 80 years which was made without any sound. And, $5m audio budgets are really limited to high budget filmmaking, where great sound is a basic requirement, as I would expect any reasonably knowledgeable filmmaker to know.

I know that in Bulgaria audio standards (and consumer expectations) are pretty much non-existant but I doubt the OP (or most other IT members) are looking to make films only for the Bulgarian market! If you want to believe the visuals are all important and sound quality is irrelevant and/or that you can get good or great sound with $150 of equipment and/or that audio knowledge without the money/equipment will yield great results, that's entirely up to you, but you're not going to get far applying Bulgarian audio standards to American, Northern European or consumers in other regions who have WAY higher expectations. But that's largely beside the point, what I most strongly object to is you deliberately mis-representing what I have said, that is out of order! I also strongly object to the implication that the advice Alcove and I give is self serving. I doubt Alcove owns shares in B&H and has nothing to gain or loose personally regardless of whether the OP spends $5 on audio equipment or $50k.

The OP may (or may not) only be 17 years old but you are coming across as far younger!

G
 
It is the 3th time you're telling me that the sound standars in Bulgaria are non existent .

I have won several awards and they all have been in what seems to be in the best country that has ever been created where you have an amazing audio standarts and it seems that I met your unbeliveably high audio expectations.

The OP is creating a web series for youtube and you're asking me to tell you a comercially successful film that was done without any sound?

And I didn't said without ANY SOUND , maybe you should read what I have written again.

You know what? I've seen enough of people who try to ACT like professionals here.Who have no idea what they are talking about and just repeat the same things over and over again because they saw it on Film Riot or Indy Mogul , just to act like "grown ups" . Of course , I am not talking about you , but to all the people who try to support you in ever topic about audio.Does people have their own opinion anymore?

The author is clearly telling you his budget , why do you keep on talking about mics that are out of his price range? Why ?

What do you think that he is going for theatrical release?Do you think if he is going to make Web Series that have the budget of purchasing what you are offering him he'll be posting here ,on this forum?

And again ,do you think he cares about audio standarts when he can only afford a 100 dollar mic to make a Youtube video? Please,stay realistic and stop throwing useless information just to show the people here who have no idea what they are talking about that you know way more than them.
 
edit: his camera doesn't even have mic input. If he wants sound, he has to spend money on a recorder, too.

My new suggestion is simply to put a zoom H1 on a radio shack lavalier. Boom, done, $150.
The OP's question was answered within his budget. By me.

After doing sound and DP for a recent show, I found AA's and APE's advice extremely useful. They gave real information on getting an indi film to the next level of quality, and they did it from their perspectives of audio engineers. While outside of my budget, too, the cut and paste of the equipment gave me enough information to get done what I needed done.

Their general guideline is not to neglect sound, and that's really solid advice. I'm not sure what's up your ass about them, but it sounds like you object to the cut and paste of equipment that's outside the budget of the op. But you're presenting your argument as an attack on their advice, and as someone who's taken that advice, I can tell you that you're way off base.

I have no problem if you say "answer the damn question", which has already been answered btw. But you're just being a jackass for no good reason. And if your doing that causes me to not get their solid advice the next time I need it, then you're being a super jackass.
 
The author is clearly telling you his budget , why do you keep on talking about mics that are out of his price range? Why ?

It's very similar to me posting, "Tell me what high performance street racing car I can buy. My budget is $500 for the entire kit. I want to enter it in a race this weekend."

I've seen APE/Alcove make repeated suggestions within this forum for gear lists. The truth of audio is either you invest something in it, or you're almost mostly often better off not spending the extra cash and just using the camera audio and saving the money for when you have a higher budget to spend on audio gear that's more worthwhile. The point, while camera audio is crap, audio you get from sub-par gear with an unskilled operator is likely to be nearly equally as poor.

Red: You mentioned earlier a film with no dialogue. One question. How do you record the atmos and do your sound design without sound recording?
 
Name just one commercially successful film in the last 80 years which was made without any sound. And, $5m audio budgets are really limited to high budget filmmaking, where great sound is a basic requirement, as I would expect any reasonably knowledgeable filmmaker to know.

There are a few without dialogue, live recorded sound and less than 30 seconds of foley.

Off the top of my head, this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixqr8D7J_Kc - no dialogue, sound effects and foley in two places (tap dancing). $133m USD at the box office, made for $15m USD. A great, great movie yet only a soundtrack and from recollection, played at Cannes and won a few major awards.

Silent Movie is the obvious 70s example although there is use of foley and a whole, one line of dialogue.

etc...
 
I know next to nothing about audio, but since we're talking about money I'll pitch in since it seems I'm the only one whose budget is the same order of magnitude as weathergeek96.

My mic and recorder together cost ~$120. It's nowhere near the quality other people get--besides, I don't have the know-how to make it work. But I do know that my $150 gear is miles better than the onboard mic on my camera. Even the simple fact that my mic is a separate piece makes my filming easier.

People on here tend to be much more professional than me, both financially and intellectually, and their advice is often tailored to people of similar means, but even if your budget is $200, you can still improve your audio from the onboard mic.
 
It is the 3th time you're telling me that the sound standars in Bulgaria are non existent... I have won several awards and they all have been in what seems to be in the best country that has ever been created where you have an amazing audio standarts and it seems that I met your unbeliveably high audio expectations.

No you did not, in fact, the exact opposite!! With the exception of the higher tier film festivals (which all require a decent quality 5.1 mix) the indie film festivals in Britain and the US do not represent "unbelievably high audio standards" but the opposite; unbelievably LOW audio standards. In fact, with the exception of some home made youtube content, the audio standards of most indie film festivals usually could not be further away from general consumer expectations (in the US, UK and various other regions)! This is one of the reasons why extremely few general consumers ever go to the lower tier film festivals. So, congratulations on meeting virtually the lowest of audio expectations!

It's troubling that you don't seem to know the difference between "unbeliveably high audio expectations" and the exact opposite end of the spectrum. The only reasonable explanation I can think of is that the commercial standards to which you are accustomed in Bulgaria are generally not much different (and sometimes even lower!!) from many low tier indie film festivals, and you therefore simply don't realise the huge gulf which exists between consumer expectation in your country and consumer expectation in some other countries. This is why I've needed to state 3 times about the non-existent audio standards in Bulgaria and why I might have to state it again. Not for your benefit, because your opinion is obviously influenced and fixed to the standards you are used to, but for the benefit of others who would not realise this context when reading your advice.

... and you're asking me to tell you a comercially successful film that was done without any sound? And I didn't said without ANY SOUND , maybe you should read what I have written again.

You are the one who brought up silent films, which were of course made without any sound! (although they were not generally screened without accompanying live sound).

I've seen enough of people who try to ACT like professionals here. Who have no idea what they are talking about and just repeat the same things over and over again ... just to act like "grown ups" .

From my perspective, this quote pretty accurately describes YOUR contributions to this thread!! No one else though has deliberately and repeatedly misrepresented what the real professionals have said and advised!

The author is clearly telling you his budget , why do you keep on talking about mics that are out of his price range? Why ? What do you think that he is going for theatrical release? [The OP is creating a web series for youtube]

What is the standard of Youtube content? ... Youtube hosts content made to the very highest commercial standards, content made to the very lowest "home video" standards and pretty much everything in-between. I am presuming that the OP is looking for something substantially better than average "home video" standards, something which will make his series appear to be closer to the lower end professional standards (of his country), because he mentioned "good" audio a couple of times.

Again, you seem to be confusing Bulgarian standards with the with western theatrical releases. Maybe theatrical releases in Bulgaria can be made with $1.4k of audio recording equipment but the equipment Alcove suggested is not even in the same league as the equipment needed to achieve "theatrical release" standards in the USA! The high end professional grade production sound recording equipment used for commercial theatrical releases costs roughly $20k - $50k. Instead of this professional level equipment, what Alcove suggested is higher end consumer (prosumer) level equipment, at a cost of only $1.4k, roughly 15-40 times cheaper than the cost of a professional set-up!

There's no direct correlation between audio and video equipment, so maybe this argument isn't entirely valid, but what would you suggest to someone asking about "good" camera equipment (including all the required accessories) who had a budget of $150-$200? You can't even buy a good mobile phone for $200!

Contrary to what you are asserting Alcove and I are saying, we are not, and have never, suggested sound is the only important thing or even that it's the most important thing in filmmaking. We are not suggesting that the OP or anyone else should spend all their budget on audio equipment, but the OP has presumably spent a fair amount on his "alright cameraS" and he needs to also spend a fair amount on an "alright" set of audio equipment to match.

1. do you think he cares about audio standarts when he can only afford a 100 dollar mic to make a Youtube video?
2. Do you think if he is going to make Web Series that have the budget of purchasing what you are offering him he'll be posting here ,on this forum?
3. Please,stay realistic and stop throwing useless information just to show the people here who have no idea what they are talking about that you know way more than them.

1. Of course he cares about audio standards, why else would he start a thread asking for advice on "good audio recording equipment"? If he didn't care about audio standards, he would've instead asked for advice on "the cheapest, crappiest audio recording equipment"!

2. But he did in fact post again on this forum in reply to Alcove's advice!

3. Did you even read the OP? "My budget is about $150-$200 for the equipment and if that is too little then let me know!". That is exactly what Alcove did!! So the information Alcove provided was far from "useless", which is way more than can be said of the dis-information you've provided and the malicious way in which you provided it!

Off the top of my head, [The Artist] - no dialogue, sound effects and foley in two places (tap dancing). $133m USD at the box office, made for $15m USD. A great, great movie yet only a soundtrack and from recollection, played at Cannes and won a few major awards.

An interesting example because not only does The Artist have sound, it had extremely high quality (and very expensive) sound! The theatrical style/standard of the music recording and the final 7.1 theatrical mix were superb and in recognition of it's great audio post, along with all it's other awards, it was also nominated for a BAFTA in the category of "Best Sound"! All in all, a rather poor example IMO to support an argument that sound is not important! Also, it's extremely unlikely that The Artist would have been so commercially successful had it not won a whole bunch of Oscars, and the Academy won't even accept nominations in the best film category unless it has a surround mix. (BTW, I realise you're just trying to give an example rather than actually supporting the sound is not important argument.)

The moral of The Artist is that it is possible to make a successful film without dialogue but it needs to compensate in all the other filmmaking areas, have musical score of Oscar winning standards and a superb theatrical audio mix to support it! And let's not forget, The Artist really is the exception to the rule, the only film without dialogue in over 80 years to win an Oscar!

Another example off the top of my head would be Koyaanisqatsi although I don't know how commercially successful it was, but again, the same rule seems to apply: Without dialogue you need a world class musical score and world class sound in terms of the recording and final theatrical mix. So again, not good evidence to support an argument for sound being unimportant!

G
 
I've had argument with a lot of people like you who try unbelievably hard to make their post longer so they can impress the young people over the forums which clearly have absolutely zero clue what they are talking about.

Whenever I have an argument with you you're just telling me how Bulgaria has low audio expectations and how I have low audio expectations too because "obviously" I represent the whole country.

I am aware of the Bulgarian cinema right now and it's level . If audio was it's only problem I would be happy . But it's not.It has a a lot of problems.But it's improving , I am happy about it , I know it ain't Hollywood.

Again,your problem is that even though you're intelligent person with huge amount of knowledge and experience in sound even as an art form , you're again over complicating your post and I am afraid it is on purpose. Any chance you're a politician? In a previous life maybe?


The problem with the people who always agree with you is that just like with the politicians they don't understand half of what you're saying but they are still supporting , because you talk in a fancy way. I am not talking in a fancy way.What I am simply saying is that if the OP was interested in theatrical releases and meeting the highest audio standards he wouldn't be posting here in the first place.And even if he does and he wants advice his budget would be way higher than 100$ dollars.

Unfortunately , you don't seem to realize that the average Youtuber who can afford about 100$ worth of equipment is not particularly interested in 1500$ kit.

I went to the bank and I told the woman that I want about 2000$ . She said I didn't had them in my bank account. Of course I was like " But lady , sound is half of the experience , I need the money " . And there were still no money.

Of course then I told her " No , you don't seem to get it . APE told me that I have to meet audio standards across the globe " .

For some reason I only had 150$ in my bank account so I bought Rode Video Mic , I got ML , I disabled the AGC and I worked with what I got . And this is the advice that the average Youtuber will be interested in.

How many 150$ microphones can I buy and which ones are the best?

If I was interested in someone telling me that I have no audio standards and that my country has no audio standards as well I wouldn't be posting anything in the first place.
 
Yeah, APE, how dare you be literate and complete! That clearly shows you have no idea what you're saying.

Don't you realize to whom you're talking?

Oh wait, sorry, should I have left a dangling preposition on that last sentence?
 
Red Robot, relax a bit. This should never get into a big argument or flame war. We're a group of indie folks, all trying to make movies.

AudioPostExpert and Alcove Audio are hugely respected members here and have been in the audio side of the business for many years.

We can all get along. If you disagree, we're all free to say so but it's counterproductive to get into a big argument or flame war.

They know hugely more about audio than me, so I defer to them on this topic.
 
Then you should also add the Tascam DR-60D to the "look at" list. It is much more suited to production sound work than the H6. It has a much more robust build and the pots are very smooth.

btw, I did look at that. In fact, I looked at it first and was seriously considering it, and it should be added to the "look at" list. Two things really turned me off. The biggest was the poor battery life, and the second was the digital pots, which have an audible "step" when they're turned. I'm not a huge fan of the form factor, and it does not come with mics.

One thing I did like... the high sound quality. In the end, that's really what it's about. But I figured I'd do better with the zoom overall, with its really nice pots, lighted display (which has bitten me in the past on field recorders), and long battery life (which also bit me). I only used two of the XLR jacks, although I can easily see using 3-4 with lavs.
 
btw, I did look at that. In fact, I looked at it first and was seriously considering it, and it should be added to the "look at" list. Two things really turned me off. The biggest was the poor battery life, and the second was the digital pots, which have an audible "step" when they're turned. I'm not a huge fan of the form factor, and it does not come with mics.

AFAIK, you really shouldn't be adjusting your audio during a take, so the "stepping" of pots really shouldn't be too much of an issue. I could be wrong though. APE/Alcove, your take on the subject here would be good.

You're somewhat right with the battery life. I found it more akin to the battery life of the higher end units. The Zoom products battery life are a lot better.

If you do go the DR-60d option (I owned one for about a week and then upgraded - what I now use is the DR-680 which may be outside your budget but well worth it if you can afford it), I suggest that you simply invest in Eneloop batteries and a smart charger or two. It makes most of the battery problems a non-issue. You can also invest in an external battery pack (cost about $35 from Amazon I think). It won't help you go through batteries any slower, but you won't have to worry about not being ready (which, the DR-60d does boot significantly faster than the zoom units).

The two things that I disliked the most about the DR-60d was the poor quality of the XLR ports and they way that is records multiple channels (allowing no more than 2 wav files to be recorded at once - think about that for a 4 channel recorder - maybe I'm just showing my ignorance here).

One thing I did like... the high sound quality. In the end, that's really what it's about. But I figured I'd do better with the zoom overall, with its really nice pots, lighted display (which has bitten me in the past on field recorders), and long battery life (which also bit me). I only used two of the XLR jacks, although I can easily see using 3-4 with lavs.

Be wary, if you're consider the Zoom H6 as an option, there are a lot of reviews that say the display is unreadable in direct/indirect sunlight.

While the H6 and the DR-60d are big steps in the right direction (2 steps forward, 1 step back) for prosumer gear, they're really suited for DSLR usage. Great for YouTube or student filmmaking projects. AFAIK they're not as well stacked as the sales brochure makes them first appear for more professional usage.
 
AudioPostExpert and Alcove Audio are hugely respected members here and have been in the audio side of the business for many years.

They know hugely more about audio than me, so I defer to them on this topic.

It's all about common sense and budget at the end of the day. I was reading posts on this message board for a very long time before I registered and said hi. I've read many posts by many members with far more knowledge and money than me. And anyone with any common sense appreciates ALL the information on display, even if it is beyond their reach. You just read a crap-ton of posts and store reviews and buy the best that you can with the money that you have. I for one really value everyone's input on this site and I have learned so much from it. Just looking at and reading about the equipment I can't afford is still good to know. It increases my knowledge on the subject. If you truly love film and you truly want to make films, ALL information is relevant in someway and sometimes, it's the little snippets of other information about something else in a post about a million dollar mixer that makes the post worthwhile to the novice or the moneyless dreamer. Whatever your experience level is, share it, share it all. I don't have to go to film school because of you! :yes:
 
Red Robot -

I'm very sorry if a person who practices music audio engineering, production sound and audio post as their full-time profession offering advice to others with less knowledge of sound-for-picture offends you. What I can't understand is your purposeful, willful misunderstanding of the position of myself and Greg (APE - Audio Post Expert). Neither one of us, at any time, has ever stated, implied or even hinted that audio is more important than any other aspect of filmmaking.

The position we have taken is that:

"Sound is half of the experience."

When it comes to film this is 100 percent accurate. A filmmaker has the ability to affect only two of the five physical human senses - sight and sound. So sound is literally half of the two senses available for filmmakers to exploit. Yet too many filmmakers almost completely ignore film sound until it is much too late. My "mission" on this and other filmmaker forums is to get filmmakers to understand the potential of a carefully planned and crafted sound design. At the low/no/mini/micro budget level this must begin with capturing quality production sound/dialog. Why? Because 99% of low/no/mini/micro budget filmmakers have neither the knowledge or equipment, much less the experience or skills, to do a comprehensive audio post, so the quality of the production sound becomes even more important to the low/no/mini/micro budget filmmaker.

weathergeek96 asked:

I was wondering what some good audio recording equipment would be? None of the cameras have mic inputs so I will need to something to record the audio to also. My budget is about $150-$200 for the equipment and if that is too little then let me know!

Without mic inputs on his cameras he will need an audio recorder. He also specifically said "If [my budget of $150 to $200] is too little then let me know!" I let him know that, in my opinion, his budget was much too low.

My basic assumption in all cases is that the persons on this forum have aspirations of becoming professional filmmakers, so I try to recommend relatively affordable prosumer equipment that has basic professional features; these pieces of equipment are an investment in the filmmakers future. The $1,200 kit that I recommend will, if used with some skill and some a basic audio knowledge, give very satisfying results. I very reluctantly suggest cheaper kits because those less expensive kits often present serious drawbacks that require even more knowledge and skill to overcome.

What I can't understand is your animosity aimed at Greg and myself for answering questions from our position as audio professionals. It is, of course, a professional bias - you need professional gear combined with skills and experience to get quality production sound. Despite that bias I did recommend a cheap consumer solution. Yet you still reacted with great enmity, self-rightiously spouting indignation in an adolescent hissy fit. The next time why don't you try offering an alternative solution instead of throwing a tantrum like a two-year-old?
 
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