Improve your video with pro-level sound captures

Set yourself up for success

There’s a saying in filmmaking: audiences will forgive poor video, but they won’t forgive bad sound. It’s true. You can explain wobbly shots as energy, slightly fuzzy frames as ‘atmosphere’, but crackly sound? It’s just wrong. Sorry.

The main thing is to gain confidence in your set-up. Every ten seconds you spend checking your set-up will save you ten minutes cleaning up in post and might be the difference between an awesome audio performance and a wasted shoot. 

Whether you’re simply shooting on your mirrorless Nikon Z with an external mic or editing a multi-layered interview series, getting your sound right is the difference between amateur and professional. Here’s a field guide – and edit suite checklist – to help you capture, mix and polish your sound with intent.

Choose the right mic for the job

• Lavalier mics are great for interviews, but prone to clothing rustle. Clip them securely, using fabric tape if needed, and test movements before rolling.
• Shotgun mics with a super cardioid pattern (more on patterns at the end) are ideal for noisy environments. Mounted just out of frame, they reject side and rear noise, focusing only on the subject.
• Windscreens (foam or deadcats) are essential outdoors – even a light breeze can ruin a take.
• Dynamic mics are the staple of 99% of podcast shoots. They are clean, convenient and perfect for dialogue.

Need an in-depth guide to different microphones and audio accessories? Click here.

Monitoring on set

• Always wear headphones. Always. I’ve taken a chance on a shoot before without headphones and, on playback, got a lot of jacket rustle and had to bin the whole thing. Never again.
• Listen for rustle, buzz or background hum (from things such as AC units or fridges). You can filter out these frequencies but it can be tricky and might compromise the audio feel. The more frequencies you have to hack out, the more risk of the voice sounding telephone-y (all high end) or too boomy and bass heavy.
• Use audio meters – avoid peaking (anything hitting 0 dBFS will distort) and keep dialogue around -12 to -6 dBFS for clean input with headroom. Digital clipping in audio is just plain nasty.
• After each scene, record 30-60 seconds of silence. Seems an odd thing to do, but no room is truly silent. This gives you a clean atmospheric bed to patch any cuts in the edit and it helps with noise reduction in post.
• Every take, clap on camera. It’s the most old-school thing in film since the talkies, but it makes synching all your footage and audio a breeze.

Dialogue editing essentials

Once you’re in post, start by organising your audio tracks: dialogue, SFX, music. Keep dialogue on its own track(s) and label everything clearly. Even when it’s just you talking on your own, this is good discipline. But when you have a multi-guest interview, for example, it’s an absolute necessity.

In interviews, give your clips recognisable names. Often the best take is a combination of several: a strong start might sag in the middle with waffle, another take might have a very strong finish. Good labelling can help you ‘comp’ together a perfect take. Just make sure you have some good B-roll to cover the joins.

Dealing with noise

There are few guarantees in life, except for death, taxes and unwanted noise on your audio. Unless you are in a full pro audio studio (lucky you) there will be some, so just don’t add to them. A quick tweak of your well-captured audio will make it sit better and easier in your final edit.

• EQ is your friend. Cut low rumbles with a high-pass filter. Start around 80 Hz. You can’t actually hear that range, but it clutters up your audio all the same.
  
  
• Nervous people often speak louder than their normal voice and tend to lean towards the mic when speaking. This will give you a low rumbling voice that sounds odd (known as the ‘proximity effect’). Using a pop shield will help them keep their distance.
  
  
• Use noise reduction plug-ins such as RX Voice De-noise or Adobe’s Essential Sound panel to clean up hiss, hum and electrical buzz.
  
  
• Most NLEs such as DaVinci and Final Cut now have very handy auto audio analysis tools that use AI to review a clip and give it some digital fairy dust – fixing obvious flaws such as low volume or background hum in a single click.
  
  
• Be subtle. Overprocessing kills clarity and can introduce artifacts – digital-sounding hiss that can make your audience mistrust your story. You want humans on your audio, not robots.
  
  
• Plosives (P and B sounds where a lot of air is expelled towards the mic) are low-frequency bursts. Use a high-pass filter in your EQ around 100–120 Hz to reduce their impact or automate volume dips right on the offending syllables.
  
  
• Sibilants (S and Sh sounds) sit in the 4-8 kHz range. Use a de-esser plug-in to gently smooth them without dulling the voice.
  
  
• If your recording space was live and reflective, use plug-ins like De-Reverb (from iZotope or ERA) to tame the room. But don’t try to make it perfect – sometimes it’s better to match reverb across cuts rather than erase it altogether.

Planning your placement and panning

The stereo space is a huge palette to paint across, so make sure you aren’t jamming up a single spot on its spectrum as all the frequencies will get mushed together very quickly.

• Keep primary dialogue centred. This anchors the viewer’s attention and allows both speakers/outputs to provide amplification energy evenly.
  
  
• Secondary voices (off-screen characters, background chatter) can be gently panned left/right for space.
  
  
• Avoid hard pans unless stylistically intentional – subtlety wins.
  
  
• Double test your mix on a single speaker. All that time and attention to that perfect stereo mix? It’s often listened to on a smartphone speaker not a hi-fi, so make sure it works on both.

Your audience will thank you

Clean audio lets you direct your audience’s attention. It helps them trust you. It creates space for emotion, meaning and narrative shape. It’s not just a technical layer – it’s storytelling fuel.

So yes, start with your internal mic if that’s all you’ve got. But keep your ears open, your process thoughtful and your edit intentional. Your audience may never thank you for great sound – but they’ll absolutely notice when it’s missing.

You will really appreciate having great audio to work with. As a director, I always appreciate what I don’t have to worry about later. It makes the edit much less frustrating when you aren’t fighting rustling from people’s jackets, the sound of arms banging on a table and that big air-con unit grinding away. And it’s heart-breaking to not be able to use the best interview answer because of a crackling mic.

So now you’ve captured clean audio and it’s all nicely synced to your visuals, what’s next?

Now you get creative. But that’s another story, where we’ll look at how you can ‘grade’ your audio and music just as you can with your footage.

How do you choose a mic pattern?

Different mics do different things, and the main reason is its ‘pattern’, ie where it picks up sound from. Here’s what you need to know.

1. Cardioid

Shape: Heart-shaped

Use: Interviews, voiceovers, podcasting

Pros: Rejects sound from behind; great for isolating a single subject

Cons: Picks up side noise; not ideal in noisy environments

2. Supercardioid / Hypercardioid

Shape: Tighter front focus with some rear pickup

Use: On-camera mics, indoor boom mics

Pros: More directional than cardioid; better for controlled environments

Cons: Sensitive to rear reflections; precise aim needed

3. Shotgun (Lobar)

Shape: Very narrow, long-range beam

Use: Film, outdoor shoots, boom poles

Pros: Excellent directional isolation; captures clear dialogue at distance

Cons: Sensitive to handling noise; can sound unnatural indoors

4. Omnidirectional

Shape: 360°

Use: Lav mics, ambient capture

Pros: Natural sound; less handling noise

Cons: Picks up everything — bad for noisy locations

Tip: Choose based on environment, not just convenience and remember mic placement and pattern matter more than price. A cheap shotgun will beat an expensive omni on location.