Recording with the Tascam.
In this workshop we got to use the Tascam sound recorder in order to build up experience with it so we knew how to use it before it came to our shoot week.
To display the differences, I recorded a short interview with Ebony, asking her questions about her project. Half way through I changed the sound from the mic built into the camera to the recorded sound from the Tascam, which, as you can see, made a huge difference.
In order to edit the sound and footage together, I used the waveform from both devices to match together the peaks.
In the first image here, you can see that the sound clip from the camera (blue) and the sound clip from the Tascam (green) are different lengths. This is the first thing we fix. I cut off the beginning of the sound from the Tascam to make them the same length so they could be matched together.
Then, in the second image, I zoomed in and looked for peaks that looked roughly the same. I circled the part that I noticed (note: this is why they use clapper boards- so they can easily match the sound with the footage). So from this I knew this is where I needed to line them up to.
In the third image, I dragged in the end of the Tascam sound so that I could move the clip backwards to line them up, and with a little adjusting managed to get them to line up like so. This meant that the sound would now be in sync with the footage.
This is important as if it isn't synced, it can make the footage unwatchable- it's very noticeable, even if it's only a slight difference, and it's very fustrating.
Once I had synced up the 2 tracks I was able to edit the sound to merge together and display the difference between the two.
I would only ever use the sound recorded through the camera for this editing purpose. The sound is of a lower quality to that of recorded through a microphone, and recording sound is a very important aspect of film making as bad sound can make the film look bad. I would never use the sound recorded straight through the camera, however you can attach the microphone to the camera itself and record both through the camera. This however has a lot less room for changing any levels in recording. The best option is to record sound using the Tascam or another external recording device that is similar, as this gives you a lot more control and much better quality of sound. It does mean editing can take a bit longer, but it's definitely worth it in the end.
The sound recorded through the camera is most likely omni-directional or hypercardioid, meaning that it picks up everything. This means the sound quality is much lower as it will pick up everything you don't need- atmosphere, cars going by, other voices. However if you use a shotgun microphone, it will record mostly what is in front of it, cutting out all of that other sound you don't want. You still need to be careful of how you attach it to anything however as as you can see on the diagram, it will record any sound coming through the back of the microphone, which means if it isn't secure or it's attached to something that is going to rattle, you will definitely pick that up louder than your subject.
A shotgun microphone is also quite a bit more powerful than the others (a bi-directional microphone is also powerful as you can see from the size of the recording patterns on the diagram) so you need to use a blimp which is a plastic and foam case for the microphone if indoors which will reduce any atmosphere noise, or a dead cat (not literally) which is a fluffy cover for a blimp if outside which will reduce wind noise.
All of this is something you must think about when creating any production- sound will affect your production massively if it's bad, but going through these processes means you will get the best sound you can on set.
In the first image here, you can see that the sound clip from the camera (blue) and the sound clip from the Tascam (green) are different lengths. This is the first thing we fix. I cut off the beginning of the sound from the Tascam to make them the same length so they could be matched together.
Then, in the second image, I zoomed in and looked for peaks that looked roughly the same. I circled the part that I noticed (note: this is why they use clapper boards- so they can easily match the sound with the footage). So from this I knew this is where I needed to line them up to.
In the third image, I dragged in the end of the Tascam sound so that I could move the clip backwards to line them up, and with a little adjusting managed to get them to line up like so. This meant that the sound would now be in sync with the footage.This is important as if it isn't synced, it can make the footage unwatchable- it's very noticeable, even if it's only a slight difference, and it's very fustrating.
Once I had synced up the 2 tracks I was able to edit the sound to merge together and display the difference between the two.
I would only ever use the sound recorded through the camera for this editing purpose. The sound is of a lower quality to that of recorded through a microphone, and recording sound is a very important aspect of film making as bad sound can make the film look bad. I would never use the sound recorded straight through the camera, however you can attach the microphone to the camera itself and record both through the camera. This however has a lot less room for changing any levels in recording. The best option is to record sound using the Tascam or another external recording device that is similar, as this gives you a lot more control and much better quality of sound. It does mean editing can take a bit longer, but it's definitely worth it in the end.
The sound recorded through the camera is most likely omni-directional or hypercardioid, meaning that it picks up everything. This means the sound quality is much lower as it will pick up everything you don't need- atmosphere, cars going by, other voices. However if you use a shotgun microphone, it will record mostly what is in front of it, cutting out all of that other sound you don't want. You still need to be careful of how you attach it to anything however as as you can see on the diagram, it will record any sound coming through the back of the microphone, which means if it isn't secure or it's attached to something that is going to rattle, you will definitely pick that up louder than your subject.
A shotgun microphone is also quite a bit more powerful than the others (a bi-directional microphone is also powerful as you can see from the size of the recording patterns on the diagram) so you need to use a blimp which is a plastic and foam case for the microphone if indoors which will reduce any atmosphere noise, or a dead cat (not literally) which is a fluffy cover for a blimp if outside which will reduce wind noise.
All of this is something you must think about when creating any production- sound will affect your production massively if it's bad, but going through these processes means you will get the best sound you can on set.
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