FAQ – Dealing with Sound

This is common when using the built-in microphones on cameras or smartphones. If you are using a proper video camera and you are feeding the audio into another device for recording or streaming, then you could Insert the Audio into the HDMI connection. Otherwise you need to look at ways to add a better microphone to the camera. If your camera has XLR inputs, you could even connect a send from your sound desk to the camera enabling you to use multiple microphones. The ultimate goal is to get the microphone closer to the speaker or the sound that you are wanting to pick up. For speech a good condenser microphone designed for a podium is an excellent choice especially if you are standing. The condenser will pick up well and if you keep the speakers off (assuming there is no need for them) you can turn them up without risk of feedback. If the speaker is seated, then a lapel mic or a headset mic is better. (Of course this advice assumes that the congregation is not in the room – once you add local speakers then lapel mics can feedback easily and condensers are still good but care should be taken to ensure that they do not cause feed-back

This will depend a lot on the type of camera you have.

If you are recording in the camera, then you need to get a good connection. Most cameras will have at least a 3.5mm mic input. This will accept a microphone specifically designed for cameras. But it will not work with smart-phone headphones as they typically have a 4 pole connector.

If you have a higher quality camera it may have XLR inputs. These are much more flexible for connecting input sources. In this case you could connect a basic microphone similar to what you use for vocals. You could also connect your radio mic receiver, allowing you to use a wireless headset, lapel or handheld mic.

If your microphone does not work, then check to see if it requires Phantom Power. Condenser mics need a voltage sent down the mic cable to power the mini-amplifier in the microphone. Some cameras like the Canon XA55 have a +48v switch to power these types of microphones.

 

We have spent years teaching church sound people to not mix with headphones on because it has always been important to make the audio sound right “In the room, that is, you need to make it sound right for the audience who is in the room with you.

But now that you are mixing for live-stream, you need to be listening to what the audience is going to hear, and they wont be in the room with you. You need to grab those headphones and even better you should be mixing in a separate location where you cant hear them live.

If you can hear the musicians playing without your headphones then you will naturally adjust your mix to make what you are hearing sound right. Instead, you need to mix so that what is in your headphones (what is going to live-stream) is all that you can hear, and it sounds great.

The vocals are usually too loud on a livestream mix because, in the room you are usually increasing their volume to get them up over the instrument sound that is live in the room.

There are a few ways to do this and the way you have your gear setup may require one method over another. However, one of the ways that work in almost any situation is to use an audio embedder. This will insert audio from your sound desk into the HDMI signal path of your camera. This allows you to use the sound desk capabilities, and replaced the camera mics. Read more about the Audio embedder here.