Hi there..

I have a Sony Hard disk camcorder, which is great for filming on location at events, but would like to record interviews.

This brings the issue as the camcorder has not mic input, only the built in mic. I can delete this audio track when editing, but how do I record the interview between 2 people?

If I get lapel mics, what do I connect them to? and How do I then sync up the audio in the production?

I use Sony Vegas at this time..

Never bothered about the audio too much in the past, but now need to shoot video for many interviews and want the finished sound to be fitting to the film.

Good quality pick up from the 2 people.. Just need some advice on how I do this?

Many thanks for you help

Martin

You could purchase or borrow a mini disc recorder and use that to record audio, although you may have to work a little bit harder on the audio to line it up with lip movements when you go to edit it. It's called lip synching and depending on how near or far you are or at what angle you are recording the people in the interview from you may be able to get away with it. Are you planning on doing a lot of interviews?

Do you have control over it, in otherwords can you tell those involved to start and stop so you can record the interviewer asking the questions, and then record the interviewee answering. With this setup the interview is actually recorded twice, if you do use this option, make sure the interviewer writes down the list of questions as he/she will need to ask them a second time. Other than using a separate audio recorder or get a friend who has a camcorder with a external mic socket to do it, I can't think of any other way.

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Hi there..

Thanks for the reply.
I will not always have full control over the timing and set up and I will often not be able to record it twice..

So I guess the best result is to record direct to a camera mic input that does allow external mics?

The other thing, is there a way to record say straight from video to laptop and have a separate audio input recording at the same time direct to the laptop.. Would that be a potential solution?

Many thanks for your help.

Martin

The old fashioned way was with a clapper board. BUT IT STILL WORKS! The video and the recording have exactly the same signal to align on to in the NLE. A handclap will also do.

If you have no mic input (the curse of many consumer camcorders) then, as suggested a MD recorder (variable speed is useful for lip sync) or a solidstate recorder. (I use a Zoom H2)

My camcorder a Canon HV20 has a mic input, IT IS ESSENTIAL as the on board mics are rubbish.