I am Seth, a wedding videographer based in Melbourne. I have heard some rumours that some wedding viderographer is gotten complain from the bride and groom because the bad quality audio.
I have written a complete wedding videography guide for the novice videographer, however the guideline is not so focus the audio which most of wedding videographers in Melbourne are not awareness the importance.
In this blog- how to capture the perfect audio at the wedding ceremony and reception, I will emphasize how to capture professional audio and some common mistake you shall avoid.
Capture the audio at the wedding ceremony
First of all, we start at the wedding ceremony. In a civil or catholic wedding ceremony. We can capture two resources of the audio, which is attached a lapel mic on the groom and PA speakers.
Lapel microphone
Celebrant PA
I start from the easy method. The wedding videographer can use attach the lapel microphone on the groom suit, you can use either wire lapel microphone or the wireless microphone.
Wireless GO
When the wedding videographer use the lapel microphone, please don’t plug the mic into the camera directly. The reason is when you plug the wireless mic into the 3.5mm jack input of camera, if the wireless mic power off, or anything issue come up, you have no backup audio on the camera.
The correct way to use the wireless microphone is that plug the wireless microphone to dedicate recorder, such as ZOOM h1, H6 or H8.
Even the wireless microphone has any issue, you still have a basic audio from the camera.
There are few check things you need to be wary when you set up the lapel microphone on the groom.
- Check whether the battery is full charge, because you don’t have chance to check it when the ceremony start.
- Use windshield on the lapel mic for the outdoor ceremony, particular beach wedding
- Keep the recorder on hold to ensure no one can stop the recording throughout the entire ceremony.
- Use the headphone to check the audio
- Keep the audio level at -6 db to 0 db
The advance way to capture the audio is to connect the recorder to the celebrant system. Because the lapel mic on the groom suit is only capture the bride and groom’s vows when they stand together.
However, the lapel mic can’t capture the celebrant voice and other people who use the celebrant microphone clearly. For this reason, the wedding videographer in Melbourne shall use the recorder to connect the PA output.
In most circumstance, the celebrant’s PA system has quarter inch, XLR, 3.5mm Jack, and RCA. Thus, the professional wedding videographer shall prepare the quarter inch, XLR, 3.5 mm jack and RCA cable.
Sometimes, the celebrant PA speaker doesn’t have audio output, you can put the recorder with external microphone next to the speaker.
Capture the audio at wedding reception
At the wedding reception, the most important audio needs to be captured is the speech. The wedding videographer need to test the audio with the DJ before the reception starts. Because during the wedding reception, DJ has no time to help the wedding videographer to test the audio.
In contrast to the celebrant PA system, the wedding videographer can use the recorder to connect the DJ mixer.
The most common audio output has quarter inch, XLR, and RCA.
There are a few things the wedding videographer need to be wary.
- Connect the DJ’s mixer before the reception start
- Check and listen the audio on the recorder by a headphone, don’t trust the audio meter on the recorder, sometime, the DJ sent you the music channel, however, you want to capture the speech.
- Use headphone check the audio of recorder a couple of times during the speech, make sure you get a good sound. Adject the recorder’s audio level if it is necessary.
- Check the audio level during the speech, the audio can be burst or too quiet, the wedding videographer need to check it.
- Set the audio level on the recorder between -6db to 0.
In the worst circumstance, if the wedding videographer can’t connect the DJ’s mixer, you can use gaffer tape to wrap lapel mic to the microphone which the bridal party use.
Or you can use the recorder with the external microphone next to the audio source, such as the speakers.
If you have any questions about wedding videographer technique, you can read our complete wedding videography guide here, or you can contact us.
