More ambient, smoother sound for videos

manniefresh91

New member
Hi. A really fresh newb, so excuse my use of improper terms. Warning: long post, if not bothered skip to the end.

I'm in search of specific audio equipment/mic/recorder to be used for video, since on-board video microphones are poor. Not music videos/movies of any sort, just home videos (mainly outdoors, but also indoor in rooms). I'm hoping to go for a more softer sound, slightly more ambient. Here are a few examples to help illustrate what type of sound I want:

Ex. Clip 1 - vimeo com/16233704
This is the type of sound my camera will pick up, the background noise is a little too loud, and the sound is not well moderated. I wouldn't want to play this type of sound through my TV. Sounds rather wild.

Ex. Clip 2 - youtube com/watch?v=JeVxtMajMMY
Now with that clip, you can see it was recorded in a loud-ish setting, but the audio is very smooth, and well contained. The levels are fine, and the sound is very well captured. You have the background nois, that captures the scene, as well as the poeple talking, but yet they're all kept at the right levels - not just roughly slapped on to the background noise, but are rather a well placed part of it. If I was to record this with my camera, the voices would've been much sharper and uglier (?). Even the sound when the car was going by, it was very 'neat' and was recorded well.

Ex. Clip 3 - youtube com/watch?v=YPiSyfrTeq0
The setting is captured, and the whole 'ambience' too. The voices are kept low, and even when some voice is derected straight to the microphone, it isn't as coarse as it would've been with a camera microphone.

Ex. Clip 4 - youtube com/watch?v=hAO241qIutU

In short, I want to capture the whole surrounding, but yet keep the other voices to a fairly low level where they don't overpower the audio, but remain there limited to supplement the background noise. So for example, outside recording in a park, would ideally like to capture the ambience and surrounding, but yet at the same time let not the other children/people ruin the audio. Would also like to achieve similar results for indoor use too.

Also to clarify, not aiming for a no voice at all, since I would be capturing home videos with my family members, but would like to do so with the desired effect I described to you above. And a further point, I'm also not aiming for a standard shotgun mic, since it doesn't capture the setting well, and when capturing voice I don't want it too loud and directed (will be good for interviews and such, but that's not what I want)... which I why I'm presuming a shotgun isn't what I need.

My budget is up to £600. It could be anything, a recorder, a recorder with a mic. A standalone mic even. So long as it's portable and can be used to record for video. Sorry if this long post didn't make much sense to any of you. Please help.

Quick summary: want a more contained, ambient sound - the difference can be heard between the first clip and the rest. The more suggestions, the better.
 
clip 4 gives you the specs. Rode NT4 and a FP24, which is just a rebranded sound devices MixPre (2?). Which is probably pretty heavy in concert with the mic + camcorder + preamps + cables + .....

I've got a similar setup with Avenson STO-2's x2 spaced at about 17cm. But they're OMNI mics so more ambience, less subject in a lot of cases. And 2x sound devices MM-1's, basically the same circuitry, just two independent one channel preamps. (and twice the batteries). Tack on a Korg MR-1000 since my camcorder doesn't have audio input. And by the time you wrap it up into a single-ish unit like this:

PVC_RIG.gif


And it starts to weight a pretty penny. I scaled down a bit since here, and not my camcorder, just something for the shot. Not even the current camcorder mount. But not too different either in it's current configuration. The NT4 is a single mic with dual elements on the end, so a bit less bulky than my setup. And possible for a full fledged blimp and fake fur cover.

On the cheap a used NT4 and perhaps a beachtek or juiced link preamp. Or one of those SQN brand ones for over the pond. Depending on if you want to record audio on camcorder of off. I prefer off so I get BWF, not mp3, aac, ac3, or whatever lossy format(s).
 
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