Audio is the best way to start: 5 important tips
When you go to YouTube, TikTok or Facebook, almost all of the” how to shoot videos and blog posts” are about lighting or camera settings. Yet most do not give sound the importance it deserves, or they completely ignore sound quality altogether, just assuming you know how to capture it. With my background as an audio master and sound designer, I know that “bad audio ruins good video faster than a bad camera does.” I have come up with a few great tips to help ensure your audio supports the video’s appeal or even gives you a leg up on other influencers or creators who might not be employing them.
My 5 tips to better audio
Here are 5 lesser-known, producer-level tips to bypass your smartphone’s automatic limitations and capture clean, professional audio for your content:
1. Use the “Airplane Mode” Audio Buffer
Besides reducing the risk of a notification on the camera screen, another lesser-known benefit is that it shuts down background cellular and Wi-Fi data processing. On older or heavily loaded smartphones, turning it off frees up your phone‘s processor to focus entirely on encoding your track
2. use a bluetooth external microphone
This is one of the single most important tricks to great audio. If you rely on the phone’s built-in mic, you might be too far away, leading to a higher signal-to-noise ratio. Once you record low, noisy or echoy audio, it is very difficult to fix in post (Trying to fix it later).
3. Record a 10-Second Sample
I can tell you that many a content creator has had the experience of not turning on their mic at least once, and if all other basic tech stuff has been done, they have not tested the mic placement to see if it was picking up enough of the source. You need to record a sample and play it back, listening objectively to its quality and making sure there are no obvious noise or technical issues, such as loud background noise or hums.
4. Watch for reflective surfaces
Hard surfaces like tile, windows, and hardwood floors reflect sound waves, creating an echo, a hollow, echoing effect. To quickly deaden a room without buying expensive acoustic foam, if possible, use blankets to spread out over some of these surfaces to absorb those bounce-back frequencies; if it’s indoors, consider using a large area rug to absorb them.
5. Oganize your audio / video files with names that make sense
Raw video clips from phones or cameras are usually exported with generic names like IMG_4839.MOV. Rename these files almost immediately with descriptive labels as soon as you transfer them to your computer to keep your editing workflow structured and fast. I like to use PROJECT NAME: SHOT NAME: LOCATION, and anything else that will help with identifying it later from a list of potentially hundreds of other files.
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to conclude …
It becomes clear that while most online advice focuses on lighting and camera settings, recording high-quality sound is paramount for a professional-sounding project. “As the post emphasizes, “bad audio ruins good video faster than a bad camera does”
These simple steps, such as using airplane mode, moving a dedicated microphone closer to the source, and maintaining a structured file-naming system, will help you avoid some pitfalls when recording smartphone audio. These workflows keep your production values high, giving you an edge over creators who leave their sound to chance.
What are your thoughts on running a quick audio test before filming?
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