Separate sound recording?

B

Bjurge

Howdy,

I am considering doing a filming project. As I am just about to start out with prototyping micromovies I have the following situation.

The mic on the video recorder I have sucks. However I have a standalone mic (The zoom h2).

Is it possible/practical to record the sound with my mic and sync it with the film recording later? Or must I go for some other solution?

Thankz
Bjurge
 
When shooting on film, the audio is always recorded separately. You'll want a clapper to start each scene, so you can sync the clap sound with the video. You can also record with both your video audio and separate audio and sync the two based on the audio waveforms, but a clapper is a very neat, tidy solution.
(in case you don't know what I'm talking about when I say clapper ... think of the slate that is used at the beginning of each take --- you've seen it in every movie about making movies --- the guys says "scene 7, take 1", holds the slate in front of the camera and slams down that hinged piece on top of the slate to make a sharp noise, then gets out of the way so the scene may continue)
 
You mentioned "video recorder" so I'm assuming your not actually talking about a film camera...

Oakstreet is still correct, though -- get a "clapper" or something that you can use to create a loud quick sound that can also be seen on video. THEN, you need something to record the audio. Best bet is something like a Mini-Disc. After importing your video file and your separate audio file, you can put them both in the editing program and line up the audio track so the large SPIKE in the wave file where you clapped the clapper lines up with the video of the same moment. Then lock the two clips together and you should be in sync. Just remember, you need to re-"clap" every time you stop/re-start the camera.

However, even though your on camera mic sucks -- do you have the option to plug in the external mic to the camera? That would be a much better choice because the audio/video will already be synced.
 
Even if you don't have a microphone jack, if the camera is out of warranty and you don't care about cosmetics, you can have someone install a microphone jack. It's a pretty straightforward operation for someone who knows a little about electronics. Essentially you jack into the internal mic wires and disconnect the internal mic permanently; or you can be clever and wire the jack to only disconnect the mic when there is something plugged into the jack, but I would not even bother with that.

If the mic in the camera is a powered electret (sp?) microphone; it's a little module that works sort of like a condenser mic, then you might need some preamplification on your microphone (like an XLR adapter). Anyway, don't just give up on a camera with a bad microphone. I've performed this type of "upgrade" on a camera that got dropped on it's mic and it worked fine. You just need to find someone who can do it, if you're not an electronics hobbyist with some tools and experience.

Doug
 
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