Going to events is a good way to generate content for your podcast and other marketing channels. But here’s the problem, after talking with a lot of persons, the audio either sounds too low or has lots of background noise. Worse you can’t hear the person and the audio is unusable.
This is frustrating because you were hoping to use the content on your show. Now, what do you do?
These types of frustrating situations happen time and time again. I can relate because it has happened to me before. To prevent it from happening again, here are a few things to keep in mind when recording audio at events.
#1 Use an external microphone to record interviews
When doing interviews recording using the internal mic is usually a bad idea. The reason being the microphone on most recorders are omnidirectional. This means, when you point the recorder in front of the person you’re talking to, everything else around you gets recorded. This is why you get a lot of background noise in your recording.
Using an external dynamic microphone like a Shure sm 58, is the best tool for the job. It will isolate the person you are talking to even when the background is noisy. This works wonders because it only records in the direction you point it.
#2 Find a quiet space to talk
If you don’t have an external microphone then finding a quiet space to do the interview can help. This will give you the ambience of the event but allow you to focus on getting a good interview for your show.
It will also remove distraction for you and the other person because you are removed from the activity.
#3 Check your levels before you record
Before you do any recording test your levels. This will ensure that your audio is not recorded too low or too loud. Most recorders have a record pause button, hit that or just hit the record button if you don’t have that feature. Do a microphone check, look at your levels and make adjustments.
Doing these 3 things will make a big difference to the audio you record at major events. it will give you usable audio for your show.