Location Sound: How to Easily Prevent a Disaster

Andrew Huber | March 7, 2017

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A Good Video with Bad Sound is a Bad Video

In the video and film industries, sound has often historically been viewed as a dark horse- a turbulent element of production that may easily dismantle your project without warning and completely negate all of the time, care, and attention that you've been lavishing upon it. During filming, many will speak of sound like it's a force of nature that can't be controlled, while others won't give it a moment's thought only to be horrifically surprised during editing that the prettiest pictures in the world don't look flattering if the audio is atrocious.

Fortunately, sound is a normal part of the process, not a malevolent force of nature, and it is easily tamed with some simple tips.

#1. Be Flexible With Your Locations

So much about recording high-quality sound depends on the location of your shoot. Using the cheap, on-board microphone found on most cameras while shooting in a sound stage will always sound better than the professional who is forced to shoot next to the busy freeway. Whenever you are scouting locations, pay attention to the ambience. Some things to look out for:

Music playing over the speakers at the grocery store
Commercial jets taking off at the airport across the street
Rooms full of reflective surfaces (glass-walled offices are notorious offenders)
Any space with the potential to be crowded with people

Using the cheap, on-board microphone found on most cameras while shooting in a sound stage will always sound better than the professional who is forced to shoot next to the busy freeway.

If you notice something egregious, like a bell tower that likes to chime every 10 minutes, ask yourself: "What's so special about this specific location?"

You might have a really good answer, such as, "This is the designated place for us to meet the Queen of England for the interview". You won't be able to change locations in that scenario, so tell the sound guy to deal with it.

However, if you answered that question with a shrug and an vague excuse like "well, since we're interviewing Janice, it makes sense to show her in her cubicle, even though she is right next to the lunch room and it's a mad house in there", you might want to reconsider your situation.

Showing Janice in her actual cubicle versus showing her in someone else's (who happens to be located in the quiet, back corner of the office) will not, in any circumstance, break your video. Having bad sound will.

#2. Always Monitor Your Sound

Here's a tragic mistake you'll constantly see (hear?) if you watch a lot of student films. The mistake, in a nutshell, is to simply turn the recorder on, plug in the microphone, check to see that the levels indicator is bouncing up and down, and then leave it be. If this is what your sound person is doing on set, be afraid!

Setting aside for the moment the really obscene instances where those levels are actually just static noise or feedback caused by a glitch in your equipment, the common potential issue to be aware of here is "selective hearing", a superpower that all humans possess. It's the reason why you can understand your friend in a crowded coffee shop and subconsciously drown everyone else out. Or you might initially, upon entering the room, notice the faint churning of the AC, but within moments, your brain will automatically tune it out.This

is a great evolutionary advantage for us because it helps us to focus on what's most important and not get distracted by trivial details. However, microphones do not possess this ability. They will pick up everything, the good and the bad and preserve it for all time. A talented sound editor will be able to fix many problems, but don't just assume that they can.

The best way to prevent a lot of unwanted sounds making it into your video is, and please don't be shocked by the groundbreaking solution, listen to your audio on-set. Listening on headphones will bypass your selective hearing and allow you to correct any sound problems you may encounter. You'll be surprised at how obnoxious the roar of the AC suddenly becomes once you put those headphones on, I guarantee it!

#3. Bring Spare Cables

If you're simply hiring someone to handle sound, this final point will seem superfluous. On the other hand, if you are the person running the sound recording, it will be an obvious point. But I make it because most people don't bring spares and a little friendly reinforcement doesn't hurt.

Sound cables will fail - it's practically a law of nature. Sure, you can make them last longer by properly caring for them and purchasing high-quality cables. But you've always got to have replacements on standby just-in-case. In terms of production gear, audio cables are one of the cheapest line items. You do not want to hamstring your production by being forced to use one of those awkward, ailing cables that must be held in just the right position, otherwise it cracks and distorts...just don't let that happen. There's no reason for it.

Pretty simple, right? Well ok, let's not kid ourselves - recording clean sound and mixing it in post-production requires a great deal of skill and expertise. Anybody who says otherwise is inexperienced. But if you keep these steps in mind, you can at least avoid the most unforgiving pitfalls.

For more technical production tips, be sure to check out some pitfalls to editing your own content as well what can and can't be fixed in post-production.

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