Microphone Sounds

After spending, at least, a few hundred dollars on a high tech digital camcorder you may be dissapointed by the quality of the audio recorded by the built in microphone and the fact that most ‘experts’ recommend spending additional money buying an external microphone.

The problem is that the camcorder’s microphone is prone to picking up sounds that you don’t want and not enough sounds that you do want. The unwanted noises include background noises, passing traffic, mechanical noises, wind noise and even the camcorder’s own tape drive. To avoid this and have much better sound quality then you really must consider an external microphone.

Microphones are generally defined by the directional pattern in which they pick up sound. The three basic catagories are cardioid (a heart shaped pattern), omnidirectional (sounds from all directions) and bidirectional (sounds from the sides).

If mostly recording ‘talking head’ videos then there is no need to look any further than a [tag-tec]lavalier microphone[/tag-tec]. These are the sort that clip onto your lapel or top of your shirt and used by TV commentators. Perfectly good ones can be purchased for $40 and they perform really well.

Which ever microphone that you choose ensure that it has its own power supply, in most cases a single battery. I purchased a lavalier microphone from eBay for $40 and it gives good sound quality for the type of videos that I make.