Making an instructional video

glynd

Newbie Joined: Sep 14, 2009 07:50 Messages: 22 Offline

Solved by

Oct 27, 2009 09:55

This type of video requires good quality audio with little or no background hiss, and this is where we have been having problems. We have tried a number of different cameras and it is not until you get to the top end of "consumer" products that the hiss starts diminishing. We have tried external mics and zoom mics all with the same sad results.

If anyone has experience of this type of project I would appreciate any pointers or methodologies to get good quality audio with acceptable video. We have not bought a camera as yet so recommendations here would also be appreciated.

One thought I had and I have no idea if this is possible, is to connect the camera directly to the PC with firewire or USB, and to connect the mic to the line-in plug on the computer. I can't see anywhere in PD to split the input of video and audio. But if this is possible, would the lip sync be correct?

TIA
Glyn

vn800rider

Senior Contributor Location: Darwen, UK Joined: May 15, 2008 04:32 Messages: 1949 Offline

Oct 27, 2009 11:14

Hi Glyn,

I can't claim to be an audio expert but I have played about with PD and internal, external and radio mics recently.

One of the key issues I find is setting up the PC correctly to playback or record sound, it seems easy too introduce hiss and hum with poor cable runs and level adjustments.

If you want to review quick clips of any of my more recent videos on seemyworldonvideo.com and PM me with any comments/questions, I can tell you how they were produced, which might help your thinking?

Cheers
Adrian

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James W

Senior Contributor Location: Lakeland, FL USA Joined: Aug 18, 2008 10:36 Messages: 911 Offline

Oct 27, 2009 17:26

Separating the audio from the video is easy with PD. Right click on your video in the media library and select extract audio. PD will create a wave file that you can import separately into your project. Another option is to drag your video clip into the timeline and right click and select split audio. PD will take the audio and insert it into the voice track.

For improving the audio quality you can play with the noise reduction feature to try to minimize the hiss that way if you can't find a way of capturing your video without it. Q9300 2.5 GHz
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Robert2 S

Senior Contributor Location: Australia Joined: Apr 22, 2009 05:57 Messages: 1461 Offline

Oct 27, 2009 22:40

I know this is from left field but I had problems getting proper voice sound in my hang gliding videos due to excess wind noise. My solution was to get an Olympus DS30 voice recorder, mounting the detachable mic covered in foam inside my helmet. I then sync up the sound with the video footage in PD.

You might want to have a look at this persons videos he tests a lot of accessories with his video recorder and has a number of different mic set-ups.

http://www.vimeo.com/janvandermeer/videos

Cheers

Robert

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Oct 27. 2009 23:00

My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn