You're Only As Good As Your Audio

Jun 13th 2011 2:49PM

by Daniel Collins


To see Part 1 of our "You're Only As Good As" series, click "Disposition"

As the old rule goes, "People will watch a black screen but no one will watch a movie with bad sound," the same is even more true for short online content.

In fact, since so many of our projects are driven by documentary style interview audio, bad audio is a deal killer. Even as less-than-ideal-looking video often goes by unnoticed.

Before you consider upgrading to a new camera (particularly to HDSLR!), its critical that you first have your audio capture techniques under control:

  • Use an external mic (lav microphones are required unless otherwise instructed)
  • Monitor the levels on your LCD. They should average between -6 and -12 db.
  • Monitor in headphones for clarity and to detect any interference issues.

Without those production standards in place, its very likely that your entire edit (no matter how good the visuals look) will not be accepted. Particularly as you are starting out, invest your time and resources in sound, the actual image quality can be far less competent (shhh, don't tell anyone). There is always room to improve on the image side of things, but the audio has to be above a certain quality threshold from the start.

Add your Comments

Please keep your comments relevant to Youre Only As Good As Your Audio blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.