Getting Great Sound Quality for your Video - Wireless Mic Test Sony UWP-V1/K38 and Others 

Hi Richard, sure thing. I shoot raw footage in 1080p/29.97fps using a Sony NX5 camera. I import the raw footage from the SD card into Final Cut Pro X on a mac. I edit the clips in that tool and export to a Raw file (.mov), then I use Handbrake to transcode to an mp4 ready for upload to RU-vid. Ideally I should shoot at 25fps but my camera does not support that, its a US NTSC version and I have not yet got the WorldCam upgrade for it. Hope that helps. Gerry

Thank you for the feedback. Gerry

Most useful advice Gerry. This vid should be required viewing by all content providers on youtube. Done anything with regard to lighting ?

Very interesting and useful comparison Gerry. Can you tell us what post-processing you do before uploading to RU-vid? Obviously you edit the pieces to splice together the story, but do you transcode the video or audio, compress the audio etc.? Cheers - Richard

Great review. Very helpful

Thanks a lot, very interesting.

Hi Rob, I have not really mastered lighting yet, I am still getting to know my camera so anything I could tell you about lighting at this point would probably be wrong :( Thanks for watching. Gerry

It's fairly obvious that the pro equipment is worth the cost. You should rethink the mic however. A headset is better than a lavaliere as the mouth to mic distance is at a minimum with a headset, there may be chance of getting noise from clothing brushing against the mic with a lav and the voice level will change if one head turns away from face front. I watch many lectures on the internet and it's quite frustrating when no consideration is given by the AV tech to mic placement or monitoring the recorded program level and quality. Just as with the transmitter and receiver quality a pro mic makes all the difference. A My favourite is made by DPA but again one gets what one pays for and you have to pay a lot. www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/354266-REG/DPA_Microphones_4088_B_4088_Adjustable_Miniature_Cardioid.html Sony also makes a fine product at a more reasonable price. www.adorama.com/SOECMHZ1UBMP.html The key, as demonstrated in your video, is to position the mic so as it wont have any breath, either from mouth or nostrils, hitting the element, beside the cheek is fine, and also to make sure the mic cartridge doesn't brush against anything. Also gain adjustment is critical to maximize signal to noise ratio while simultaneously preventing any overloading on loud sounds.

For this kind of work where just talking and not the high volume levels of a singer you need a mic around 6-12 inches away. This reduces reverb from wall reflections to a minimum. Any half decent cardoid mic will do (Shure SM58 for example). The quality of the mic is not very important, in fact cheap mics with limited low frequency are an advantage. Don't try gun mics. You also need to compress the audio dynamically (volume wise) so you can turn head and move closer too and from the mic without sound levels changing. This makes a massive difference to the clarity. You could by a hardware compressor, but all audio editing software offers compression, even the free one's like Audacity. If always in the same room for your youtube recordings, you could try dampening down room reverb by hanging a few curtains in front of hard blank walls and throwing down a carpet rug in the area you are standing. This will have a big effect in deadening the sound and making it sound more like a radio studio. Clap your hands loudly. Can you hear reverberation. If so, you need to deaden acoustics with soft materials like curtains and carpet.