Party Vibe

this is always going to be a problem when recording loud sound systems on consumer level equipment

the sound of the rig overloads the automatic recording level control and distorts the soundtrack on the video

unless that camera has manual audio level control you will always get this problem when you stand close enough to get good video

For next time what you need is an audio recording device like a minidisc or solid state recorder with manual audio level control, and someone else to be your sound recordist and hold this and its microphone. also they must set the level correctly, don’t let the level indicator go over 0db or that sound will be also distorted

now either get one of these (you can buy them from decent camera shops) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clapperboard

or when you are filming, get the person with the microphone to stand directly in front of you at the start

Start your camera 5 seconds beforehand and make sure either the mic or clapperboard (slate) is in shot

whilst filming either bring down the clapperboard so there is a loud “click” or get the recordist to tap the microphone with their finger

then the recordist moves out of shot and you carry on filming

then when you edit the video you import both the camera footage and the soundtrack from your audio recorder into your edit software

by moving the tracks along line up the shot of the clapperboard strike or the mic tap with the sound on the soundtrack and both sound and picture will be in sync

now of course with some concerts they do not like you doing this because they may think you are trying to bootleg the video, but it will work if you are filming your mates band or your own movie or anything else where you want good audio quality – its how some of the professional crews do the job (especially when shooting actual film – ask your parents what this is :laugh_at:)

the bottom bit (the slate) came first as it identifies the shot from what would have ended up as a big roll of film but the clapsticks came with talkies

until about 10 years ago most film sound was recorded on a special reel to reel tape recorder with a middle track in the tape which contained sync or timecode signal, and you had to let both camera and sound recorder get up to speed for 5 seconds before bringing the clapperboard down..

They have made a comeback with digital as you often need to resync sound and picture. You can get really flash (and very expensive) ones which also contain the master timecode generator and have a timecode display..