Monitoring Audio in Your Movies

Take the guesswork out of audio by visualizing and monitoring the sound your camera is recording as you go along.

When it comes to making great video, moving images are only part of the picture. A high-quality soundtrack is essential if your footage is going to have a professional look and feel. This means taking manual control of things like recording levels and using an external microphone, connected through your camera’s 2.5mm or 3.5mm socket.

But how are you to know if the audio being recorded is any good? Rather than discover too late that your soundtrack is too quiet, too echoey, or distorted, it’s possible to monitor sound as you are filming, so there are no nasty surprises later on.

   

On the Level

The best and clearest indication of whether sound is being recorded well comes from the sound level meter displayed on screen when you’re recording video. You’ll see these two bars (one for the left channel, the other for the right) moving up and down to match the fluctuating volume of the ambient audio.

The trick is to fine-tune the camera’s Microphone Level Adjustment (MOVIE SETTING, then AUDIO SETTING > INTERNAL MIC LEVEL ADJUSTMENT) while watching these bars. Try to get them averaging at the line two-thirds of the way up, and only occasionally going into the yellow section at the top.

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You can assign a custom function button to INTERNAL/EXTERNAL MIC LEVEL ADJUSTMENT for convenient readjustment as you go along.

Using An External Mic

The same controls can be used when you’re using an external microphone, such a shotgun or lav mic. In this instance, go through the same Movie Setting menu and then select EXTERNAL MIC LEVEL ADJUSTMENT > MANUAL.

Of course, if you want to record both ambient sounds using your camera’s internal microphone, plus a voice track of someone talking to the camera, this can’t be done in-camera, as it’s not possible to record two separate audio tracks. In these instances, you should record the ambient sounds in-camera and then have the external microphone recording to a separate sound recorder. In such instances, a lavalier (or lav) mic connected to the recording device is recommended. The beauty of this setup is that the both mic and recording device can be hidden on the person talking to the camera, which affords a greater level of freedom rather than being tethered by a cable connecting to the camera.

Naturally, the camera’s microphone is likely to still pick up some of the speech, so you need to ensure the audio tracks are correctly synced together. The simplest way to do this is to ensure the person on camera claps their hands before recording, as the peak on the audio track will be easy to spot when editing the footage.

Getting Plugged In

The sound level meter is great for assessing the volume of recorded audio, but it won’t tell you about other potential problems – like wind noise or echo. For this, you need to listen live to what is being recorded.

Many X Series cameras feature a 3.5mm headphone socket just for this purpose or can be adapted with a USB-C headphone adapter. By connecting headphones, you’ll be able to monitor audio live and listen for any potential problems.

Any regular pair of headphones will work well for this, although over-ear types that exclude background noise will help you discern what’s being recorded by the camera and what is just ambient noise.

Your Next Steps

• CHALLENGE Record an interview with a friend or family member using an off-camera microphone and manual recording levels. Monitor the audio you’re picking up using headphones and move the mic about to get the best quality sound you can. Post your clips to social media with the hashtags #MyFujifilmLegacy and #video. You can also submit your work here for a chance to be featured on our social media channels.  

Header image © Alison Conklin