Anyone used a dictophone to record audio while filming?

[Gazzarose]

Good afternoon,

Firstly I'll say a quick hello from South Wales UK. I'm a first time drone owner having taken delivery of a Mini 2 Flymore combo yesterday. What a gorgeous bit of engineering. Flex it properly for the first time today and even against a stiff breeze it just held its poistion and heading. Having dabbled in little similar sized RC helis in the past, the Mini 2 is so much more stable than it has any right to be given its size and weight.

Now on to the question. I predominantly bought it do film me and friends on MTBs and Motocross bikes. When filming the MTBs audio isn't too much of an issue, they don't really have any sound effects, but with the MX bikes, the sound of them coming and going will add to things. I've read about people using their phones and various different screen recorder apps to record the audio, but depending on what I was filming it mean standing somewhere that would potentially mean being in shot. I was going to try a standalone audio recorder, but without spending 'too' much money on something thats going to be placed by the side of a motocross track and could get damaged by an errant stone. I came across this cheap dicaphone on Amazon and thought it might be worth giving it a try. Does anyone with any experience in such things think it will do the trick? I'd probably then also edit music over the top but, like on professional motorsport videos, it would be good to have a bit of the bikes sound coming and going. This DJI film school is the sort of sound effect I'd be after.

Any tips would be great.

Thanks

Gareth

 

[Deleted member 103366]

A point, regarding

"I'm a first time drone owner having taken delivery of a Mini 2 Flymore combo yesterday. ... Flex it properly for the first time today and even against a stiff breeze it just held its poistion and heading."

The above might be considered "diving in at the deep end", have you read up on how to deal with the drone being blown away? The various options if it loses connection and or the RTH scenarios.

manual = DJI Mini 2 - Downloads - DJI

 

[netfolks2000]

Good afternoon,

Firstly I'll say a quick hello from South Wales UK. I'm a first time drone owner having taken delivery of a Mini 2 Flymore combo yesterday. What a gorgeous bit of engineering. Flex it properly for the first time today and even against a stiff breeze it just held its poistion and heading. Having dabbled in little similar sized RC helis in the past, the Mini 2 is so much more stable than it has any right to be given its size and weight.

Now on to the question. I predominantly bought it do film me and friends on MTBs and Motocross bikes. When filming the MTBs audio isn't too much of an issue, they don't really have any sound effects, but with the MX bikes, the sound of them coming and going will add to things. I've read about people using their phones and various different screen recorder apps to record the audio, but depending on what I was filming it mean standing somewhere that would potentially mean being in shot. I was going to try a standalone audio recorder, but without spending 'too' much money on something thats going to be placed by the side of a motocross track and could get damaged by an errant stone. I came across this cheap dicaphone on Amazon and thought it might be worth giving it a try. Does anyone with any experience in such things think it will do the trick? I'd probably then also edit music over the top but, like on professional motorsport videos, it would be good to have a bit of the bikes sound coming and going. This DJI film school is the sort of sound effect I'd be after.

Any tips would be great.

Thanks

Gareth

Those kinds of devices work well, although I myself prefer regular batteries. You would need to try to keep the audio synced with the actions in the video somehow.

 

[Repaid1]

Those kinds of devices work well, although I myself prefer regular batteries. You would need to try to keep the audio synced with the actions in the video somehow.

Start audio recording, start video recording. Stand in front of video/drone. Clap three times...Align in editor...easy peezy But for filler noise...it isn't that big of a deal to be so precise.

 

[Gazzarose]

Thank you all for your replies. There was another reply as well but that seems to have disappeared. That reply mentioned that the dictaphone type devices may be too tinny. Whilst I done loads of playing with both car and home audio, I've never really done any audio recording, does the tinnyness come from the quality of the microphone or from the recorder iteself. If its from the microphone, I wonder could an external microphone, possibly with one of the wind blocker fluffy things, do the trick when used with a cheaper recorder.

As for flying in the wind and it being a bit risky for my first flight, you're probably right. Especially when it started snowing! lol. There was only a light breeze when I first took off, and within a space of 10 mins the wind picked up a fair bit, but fair play to the M2 it just sat there hovering happily enough. I'm hoping it will be dry and still next weekend so I can go out and have a proper play, it'll be a pain this time of year with it being dark by the time I get home from work. Roll on the summer!

As for the audio sync bit, I agree with the previous poster in that the split second timing won't be so critical when filming a motorcross bike, its more to give some 'brraappp' sounds to the video.

I'll do some digging about on amazon and see if anything looks like it'll do the trick.

Thanks again.

 

[Whitefalcon]

Good afternoon,

Firstly I'll say a quick hello from South Wales UK. I'm a first time drone owner having taken delivery of a Mini 2 Flymore combo yesterday. What a gorgeous bit of engineering. Flex it properly for the first time today and even against a stiff breeze it just held its poistion and heading. Having dabbled in little similar sized RC helis in the past, the Mini 2 is so much more stable than it has any right to be given its size and weight.

Now on to the question. I predominantly bought it do film me and friends on MTBs and Motocross bikes. When filming the MTBs audio isn't too much of an issue, they don't really have any sound effects, but with the MX bikes, the sound of them coming and going will add to things. I've read about people using their phones and various different screen recorder apps to record the audio, but depending on what I was filming it mean standing somewhere that would potentially mean being in shot. I was going to try a standalone audio recorder, but without spending 'too' much money on something thats going to be placed by the side of a motocross track and could get damaged by an errant stone. I came across this cheap dicaphone on Amazon and thought it might be worth giving it a try. Does anyone with any experience in such things think it will do the trick? I'd probably then also edit music over the top but, like on professional motorsport videos, it would be good to have a bit of the bikes sound coming and going. This DJI film school is the sort of sound effect I'd be after.

Any tips would be great.

Thanks

Gareth

Hi Gareth,
I have a Zoom H1 Handy Recorder, It records audio pretty well. I use it to record gigs (when I was allowed to play them) and ambient audio. It picks up birdsong, rain and thunderstorms no problem. It's relatively cheap but can record in stereo, MP3 and WAV. Theres one on eBay for £40 (not me).
It' fairly sturdy and I'm sure could fend off small stones if required.
If you've seen my other post the birdsong on the last tune was recorded with it.

Hope that helps.

 

[volition]

Yep ton of options.
- Zoom H1 as above is great and you get a stereo mic image. Also has a 3.5mm input for a lav or a camera type shotgun mic,
- or how about just your phone
- your phone with say a rode smartlav
- your phone with a myriad of mic accessories
- wireless options, field recording options, it’s a deep deep rabbit hole.

You will need to sync in post (editor) as above - start recording audio first, then drone video. If you can get in front of camera and make 3 obvious clap movements. If you can’t get on camera. Drone facing away 30m in altitude. Announce “begin 360 manuevre”, rotate your drone 360° and just as you finish input on stick, announce “action” or anything you like. That will give you a audio and visual cue to line up.

I’m a huge lover of audio and field recording and love seeing videos of people combining good audio ad drone video.
A is such a huge part of the watching experience in film/video. Worth watching sound design tutorials for those interested.

 

[Gazzarose]

Hi Gareth,
I have a Zoom H1 Handy Recorder, It records audio pretty well. I use it to record gigs (when I was allowed to play them) and ambient audio. It picks up birdsong, rain and thunderstorms no problem. It's relatively cheap but can record in stereo, MP3 and WAV. Theres one on eBay for £40 (not me).
It' fairly sturdy and I'm sure could fend off small stones if required.
If you've seen my other post the birdsong on the last tune was recorded with it.

Hope that helps.

You sir are owed a virtual pint. I'm now the proud owner of a used H1 for £51 plus a bit of postage. It should be here in a few days so then I can have a play.

Next thing I need is a decent video editor. I used Windows Movie maker last night and wasn't the easiest thing to get to grips with, but also simulataneously lacking in features.

Anyway, heres what I came up with last night.

The RC car in the video has a 23cc 2 Stroke engine, just like a strimmer, so does make some cool sounds that would definitely add to the video, so with a bit of luck the H1 will do the job just fine.

 

[volition]

You sir are owed a virtual pint. I'm now the proud owner of a used H1 for £51 plus a bit of postage. It should be here in a few days so then I can have a play.

Next thing I need is a decent video editor. I used Windows Movie maker last night and wasn't the easiest thing to get to grips with, but also simulataneously lacking in features.

Anyway, heres what I came up with last night.

The RC car in the video has a 23cc 2 Stroke engine, just like a strimmer, so does make some cool sounds that would definitely add to the video, so with a bit of luck the H1 will do the job just fine.

Look for a H1 windshield the dead cat variety is preferable. Recording outdoors with any slight breeze will pickup a lot of distortion without one.
I think it’s a WSU-1

 

[PJordan]

You sir are owed a virtual pint. I'm now the proud owner of a used H1 for £51 plus a bit of postage. It should be here in a few days so then I can have a play.

Next thing I need is a decent video editor. I used Windows Movie maker last night and wasn't the easiest thing to get to grips with, but also simulataneously lacking in features.

Anyway, heres what I came up with last night.

The RC car in the video has a 23cc 2 Stroke engine, just like a strimmer, so does make some cool sounds that would definitely add to the video, so with a bit of luck the H1 will do the job just fine.

For editing video there are so many options.

I use Windows 10 and Apple devices and this is what I would suggest - on Windows 10 "Photos" app built in to system (free, load video into this and you can do basic edits from here).
DaVinci Resolve (free version, need fairly powerful PC to run this, every function you could possibly want, learning curve!).
Adobe Premiere Pro (subscription based, every function you could possibly want, learning curve!).

Apple iOS devices "iMovie" comes free with device, basic editing and easy to use.
Lumafusion (paid for, fully featured editing software, learning curve!).

Of course there is always the DJI Fly app in which you can also do some basic editing. Hope this helps.

 

[Whitefalcon]

You sir are owed a virtual pint. I'm now the proud owner of a used H1 for £51 plus a bit of postage. It should be here in a few days so then I can have a play.

Next thing I need is a decent video editor. I used Windows Movie maker last night and wasn't the easiest thing to get to grips with, but also simulataneously lacking in features.

Anyway, heres what I came up with last night.

The RC car in the video has a 23cc 2 Stroke engine, just like a strimmer, so does make some cool sounds that would definitely add to the video, so with a bit of luck the H1 will do the job just fine.

I'll take that virtual pint!
You're very welcome. Good video, not bad. Better than I have been coming up with so far.
I've got a Mac and have Final Cut Pro X.
If you are windows based I know people recommend Da Vinci Resolve and the free version is quite powerful but can't swear by it.

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with in the future.

 

[wordzenpix]

Thank you all for your replies. There was another reply as well but that seems to have disappeared. That reply mentioned that the dictaphone type devices may be too tinny. Whilst I done loads of playing with both car and home audio, I've never really done any audio recording, does the tinnyness come from the quality of the microphone or from the recorder iteself. If its from the microphone, I wonder could an external microphone, possibly with one of the wind blocker fluffy things, do the trick when used with a cheaper recorder.

As for flying in the wind and it being a bit risky for my first flight, you're probably right. Especially when it started snowing! lol. There was only a light breeze when I first took off, and within a space of 10 mins the wind picked up a fair bit, but fair play to the M2 it just sat there hovering happily enough. I'm hoping it will be dry and still next weekend so I can go out and have a proper play, it'll be a pain this time of year with it being dark by the time I get home from work. Roll on the summer!

As for the audio sync bit, I agree with the previous poster in that the split second timing won't be so critical when filming a motorcross bike, its more to give some 'brraappp' sounds to the video.

I'll do some digging about on amazon and see if anything looks like it'll do the trick.

Thanks again.

 

[wordzenpix]

I bought a cheapie shotgun mic from Amazon on sale for about $20 that's very good, complete with foam windscreen. Plug that in to a recorder with an input if you find the sound unsatisfactory with the built-in mic. Syncing, as you say, is no big deal, precision not required. But if you're going to follow the bikes, you obviously will have some issues with realism if the recorder is stationary. If you're doing groups of bikes, no problem. It's easy enough to slide the audio clip around in editing.