What is an XLR connector? XLR is a professional grade connector mostly used in balanced audio cables and microphones. The XLR standard consists of a male and female three-pronged plug shielded in a round metal tube. XLR inputs and outputs are found on a variety of professional quality gear suchRead More →
Portable digital audio recorders like the Zoom (and others) are a popular way to capture high quality audio these days. But in many types of environments and for many use cases, you might want to connect a lavalier microphone (or two) to your recorder. Using a lapel mic that isRead More →
Boom poles can get heavy quickly. And for some types of filming like sit down interviews, there’s very little reason to manually hold them up by hand. Luckily boom pole stands and rigs exist to suspend boom poles and microphones above the speaking person’s head exist. In this article we’reRead More →
In this article we’re going to break down several different types of specialty video cameras and still camera types, explaining what each one is used for. Shotgun microphones (boom mics) Shotgun microphones – Shotgun microphones are a specific type of highly “directional” mic that can capture sound in specific areaRead More →
If you’re reading this article you’re probably already aware of the absolute havoc that wind noise can wreak on the sound captured by shotgun microphones for film or video. There are several solutions to this problem (including shooting indoors instead, or dubbing the sound afterward with ADR) but let’s assumeRead More →
You’re here because it’s time to buy a boom pole! We’ve got several good options to suggest but before we hop into the recommendations, let’s spend a moment considering: What features should I look for in a boom pole? Depending on your requirements you may weight various factors more thanRead More →
If you’re looking for help picking the best wired or wireless lavalier microphone you’re in the right place. In this mega-guide we’re going to walk you through what you’ll want to consider when choosing a lav mic and present several options that are suited for your particular needs. We’ve gotRead More →
If you’re looking for the best handheld microphone for interviews, you’re in the right place. In this article we’re going to run down some of the best “reporter microphones” and ENG microphones (Electronic News-Gathering microphones), the type you see reporters using on television. We’ll also look at some accessories youRead More →
Getting great sound for documentary style sit down interviews is extremely important and if you’re reading this article you’ve probably already realized that on-board (on camera) microphones just don’t cut it. Generally speaking there are two common ways to mic a documentary interview: either with a lavalier microphone (skip downRead More →
Ahh, the challenge of finding good music to use in a video. To anybody that’s ever needed high quality music to use for video projects (whether they’re your own projects or projects for a client), this is a familiar struggle. Up until relatively recently there were four basic options toRead More →
Let’s say you’re making a documentary film. You have your subject and… nothing else. While there are plenty of generic film equipment lists for fiction films, documentary films often need specialized equipment. So here’s our complete documentary film equipment list. Some documentaries may need only a fraction of these itemsRead More →
Clip on lavaliere microphones or lav mics can be a crucial bit of your DSLR video kit. If you’re doing any interviews or documentary film work with a documentary film DSLR, having a wireless lav is essential, and if you’re making narrative (fictional) work, wireless lav mics can be usefulRead More →
Often the difference between film and video work that seems amateurish and work that seems polished and professional comes down to sound. The viewer won’t recognize well-recorded sound but they definitely will recognize poorly recorded audio. And nowhere is that more true than in omnipresent documentary narration. Note that allRead More →
Wireless boom microphone systems can be extremely handy for two main reasons: first, they avoid the need for XLR cables getting tangled all over sets (especially if the boom op has to be far away from the camera op), but also because they allow the boom operator to move fluidlyRead More →
Let’s say you don’t want to use a DSLR shotgun microphone that sits on top of your camera but instead you want to use a boom pole and a shotgun mic mounted on top of that to capture sound much closer to your subject than an on-camera mic will allowRead More →