If your audio is great people can forgive medicore video, but if it sounds bad people will turn it off. This episode we are talking with mic and preamp reviewer Curtis Judd and podcast producer Ray Ortega the simple secrets to audio production for some common situations.

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The priority for quick social media videos like Instagram stories is to keep it simple and sounding great. When you turn on the selfie camera, you‘re off to a great start because the mic is only an arm's length from you face and most phones have decent mics these days. Just be extra careful not make the biggest rookie mistake of covering the mic with your pinkie finger.

Portable mics for phones

Similiar to a phone selfie, the vlog format has the instant advtage of mic proximity. As long as you’ve plugged in a half decent mic, set the levels, and put on appropriate wind protection, it’s easy to get great audio. With this format, background noise isn’t a huge problem since it blends in with the overall context of the story you‘re telling. What matters most is that you can be heard clearly.

Mics for vlogging

If people are going to be watching your videos on TV, laptops or with headphones you owe it to them to keep the audio as clean as possible. When they are focused on you‘re talking head, details like echo and background noise start to matter more. So after you’ve taken the first steps of turning off the AC and unplugging the fridge (TIP: put your keys inside as a way to remember to plug it back in), it’s time to treat the room for reverb. In real life, reverb is easy to ignore. Put a decent mic in a room and every echo is a distraction. 

And make sure you get some good Sound Blankets

YouTube Studio mics and premps

All the rules of in studio videos apply, but your audience is listening a lot more closely so the pressure is on to make your audio production sound amazing. Ray Ortega has a great writeup on all your gear needs, but the basics are that you want decent mic that rejects background sounds, a low noise preamp and an echo free room.

Podcast mics and preamps

Less is often more in post production, but it is critical get the volume of your sound to match everyone else's. The easiest way is to run your final mix trough the free software Auphonic or if you're using Adobe Audtion, use it's match loudness feature. If you have background noise to cleanup, the absolute best is iZotope RX.

Special Guests: Curtis Judd and Ray Ortega.

Sponsored By:

• Epidemic Sound: All the music and sound effects a creator could ever need
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Links:

• Curtis Judd - YouTube
• Ray Ortega - YouTube