Seeking to record better audio for a video presentation.

[RedRider]

Hey There:
I volunteer for a non profit organization. Last year I made a video that was a huge hit with the founder. The only problem was that the audio in some parts was messed up-meaning had bad feedback, light buzzing sounds etc. I thought an external $70 mic from Best Buy would help, but it didnt. Recently, we have been asked to do another video about one program at the organization-helping at risk youths.


So, my question is, I know how to do the video stuff, but HOW can I improve on recording better audio? Is there any equipment I can buy or rent that is realatively 'uncomplicated' to use? Will renting a better video recorder do the job?

Any suggestions on how to do this job will be greatly appreciated.

Here are some other tidbits worth mentioning:
1) We are NOT a'big time' non profit organization! By this I mean, I made the original video using Windows Movie Maker!
2) For questioning minds... the audio portion of the original video was flawed before the encoding process.

If you can give ANY suggestions on how we can improve the audio during our next video I would appreciate it!

[Alex_ander]

It is important to use a higher bit-depth soundcard for transferring analog audio to PC, Audigy2 (24-bit, up to 192kHz sample rate) is good enough and a cheap one now. If the audio needs editing (like frequency equalizing), do it also in higher bit-depth (32 or 64bit, 16 bit can only be used for cut-edits), then convert to standard 16 bit in the end.

[RedRider]

Alex_ander, thanks for your reply! It took a while for what you wrote to sink in. I am just a newbie at this.

I honestly do not remember what I did during the original video. It happened over a year ago, and since then I have bought a nice Audigy 2 sound card. I will make certain to use it during our next video!

Right now, we are looking at renting a professional video camera to film the project. I think a camera that records stereo, vs analog will fix the problem.

Thanks again.

[tinker]

I think your problem start at recording. If you use camera mic you will pick up all around noise, room echo and camera motor hum.
I would use external mice and record sound separate, mix it with video during authoring. Mice can be placed close to people, where camera has to be far away.

[RedRider]

Thanks again for the replies!

As Tinker pointed out, I think the answer lies in using a better microphone. I just googled and found a wireless microphone that gets good reviews, and plugs into the camera's external microphone jack. I think this is all we need.

Thanks again.