# Making a short video, need good audio on a budget
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 27, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766 "2009-09-27T18:51:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2009, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766/1 "2009-09-27T18:51:15Z")
What the title says, but to expand:
I am making a video that will involve filming myself speaking for parts of it. I have the camera, but the built-in mic is of course crappy and there will probably be some background noise on location.
Need to decide whether my best bet will be to buy a small mic that clips onto my clothing, or to buy one that I plug into my computer, and try to do a sort of ADR in post and edit the audio track in (never tried this before so I don’t know how hard it will be to get a good sync between the audio and video).
Once that is decided, I need a recommendation for a good quality mic / recording system that won’t break the bank.
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### Author:  [@sleestak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleestak)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2009, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766/2 "2009-09-27T19:17:30Z")
What kind of budget are you looking at? Are you going to use this more than once?
You can get a decent mic for probably under a $100. What kind of mic you are going to get depends on the budget.
Once you get the track on a PC you could use[Audacity](http://audacity.sourceforge.net/) to edit the audio and output it in some different formats. This is free software. I’ve never used it, I’m a Pro Tools guy, but have heard decent things about it.
Slee
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### Author:  [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)
#### Post date: [September 27, 2009, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766/3 "2009-09-27T19:24:56Z")
Yeah, I’ll use it more than once. I probably don’t want to spend _more_ than $100 right now though. Which method would you recommend between clip-on mic at the filming location or recording the audio entirely in post? I know they do ADR all the time in movies but I am worried that it will be tricky to get what I record to match the video exactly if I do the latter method. Again I haven’t tried it before so this may be an unfounded fear and it’s really easy to do with no one the wiser.
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### Author:  [@Turble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turble)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2009, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766/4 "2009-09-28T16:22:23Z")
This one will cost a little over $100 but not much more if you shop around. It is a real mic; you’ll see them on TV and in recording studios. The USB version uses its own sound card, doesn’t depend on the one in your computer. I use one to record acoustic music … best I’ve found.
[AT2020 USB USB Cardioid Condenser Microphone](http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/c75c5918ed57a8d0/index.html)
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### Author:  [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)
#### Post date: [September 28, 2009, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-short-video-need-good-audio-on-a-budget/511766/5 "2009-09-28T16:44:25Z")
> [@Turble](#):
>
> This one will cost a little over $100 but not much more if you shop around. It is a real mic; you’ll see them on TV and in recording studios. The USB version uses its own sound card, doesn’t depend on the one in your computer. I use one to record acoustic music … best I’ve found.
>
> [AT2020 USB USB Cardioid Condenser Microphone](http://www.audio-technica.com/cms/wired_mics/c75c5918ed57a8d0/index.html)
I see that microphone recommended all the time and still haven’t bought it.
If you’re going to record dialog with it, you should buy or build a [pop screen](http://www.amazon.com/Nady-MPF-6-6-Inch-Clamp-Microphone/dp/B0002CZW0Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1254156116&sr=8-1). Simple ones from Amazon start at $15, or you can buy a cross-stitch frame from Michael’s and clamp two layers of pantyhose in it.