How To Record Amazing Audio In Your Wedding Films!

How To Record Amazing Audio In Your Wedding Films!

📷 The whole audio kit, with pictures, is on my gear page here.

This is a big one. I’m giving all my audio secrets away. For over a year the single most requested topic has been audio: how I approach recording it for a wedding film, the exact gear I use for the notes, the ceremony, and the toasts, and how I make it all sound good. Today’s the day I reveal it all.

Why Audio Matters More Than You Think

Audio is one point of what I’m going to call the triangle of power, which is a completely made up term I invented about four seconds ago.

Point one is your visuals, the beautiful imagery your camera is recording. On its own it’s pretty, but it isn’t compelling. Point two is music, which adds emotion, and now the viewer feels something. Point three is live audio, somebody speaking, somebody telling a story. Put all three together and it becomes genuinely compelling: people see something beautiful, feel something because of the music, and hear a story at the same time.

For a wedding I’d argue audio is the most important of the three. Without it you’ve made a pretty music video montage. With it, your couple gets to relive their day exactly as it happened.

One more thing before the gear. Audio comes in two parts, just like video does. Your recorder captures raw audio the same way your camera captures ungraded footage, and it hasn’t been improved in any way yet. Whenever I was starting out I’d edit the picture until it looked great and then just drop the audio on a track and call it done. Take the time to learn to edit audio as well as you edit picture and suddenly the lows sound better, the highs are clean, and people actually respond to your work. I did eventually make that video, and here it is.

Recorders

Zoom H5

This is what I reach for first on a wedding day. It has a ton of inputs and, more importantly, physical dials, so I can watch and control my levels while I’m recording. Anything I’m monitoring live goes through this: the couple reading their letters, a message one of them wants to record, anything I’ve put a mic on before the ceremony.

Man holding a black Zoom H5 recorder up beside his face, whiteboard and string lights blurred behind him

The one drawback is that it has no auto gain control. So the H5 is fantastic whenever you can watch it and terrible whenever you can’t. It’s a special-use recorder for me, not a set-and-forget one.

Zoom H4n

You probably recognize this one, because who doesn’t. I’ve owned mine since 2009 and it’s still going strong. It has been the workhorse of my entire audio life and it has auto gain control, so I can press record, walk away, and it handles the levels itself.

Man holding a Zoom H4n recorder in one hand and a small clip-on lav mic in the other, string lights behind him

Two drawbacks. The nitpicky one: you have to press record twice. The first press just starts monitoring, the second actually records, and I have absolutely stood there having pressed it once. The H5 doesn’t do that. The real one: battery life. This thing sucks down batteries like nothing else, so on a wedding day I bring the AC adapter and keep it plugged in, because I am not risking losing a ceremony to a dead cell.

Why own both? Because I shot a wedding that had two soundboards at the reception, on opposite sides of the room, and they were using both for toasts. I needed a recorder in each one. Now if that happens again I’m covered.

Three Small Voice Recorders

Three little Olympus voice recorders, which I pair with three lav mics as three completely standalone units. No wireless signal, no interference, nothing to go wrong between the mic and the card. Battery life is great, they run for hours and hours, and they take a micro SD card so recording time is basically a non-issue.

Two digital recorders on a wood table, the front one showing FOLDER, FILE, SPEED, WAV/MP3 buttons and a small screen

(Those exact models are discontinued now. The Sony ICDUX560 is the current stand-in. And yes, people ask why I’m not using one of the fancy Tascam DR-10L systems: at the time of this video I simply hadn’t bought one yet.)

Five Recorders Is Not Crazy

At this point you’re going “Matt, five recorders?” I believe in backups, and I believe in backups for the backups. I have had a DJ tell me he has never once had an audio problem, everything is always perfect, trust him completely, and I say that’s great, I don’t trust you at all. I’ve been at weddings where the entire house system died mid-ceremony and the minister was up there talking to a room that couldn’t hear him.

I want their audio and my audio. Minimum three sources, ideally five, because the quality varies and having options guarantees the film sounds as good as it possibly can. And remember: this is a wedding. There are no do-overs. Nobody is going to run the ceremony again because you weren’t rolling.

Microphones

Sennheiser Wireless Lav

The transmitter and receiver are both small enough to clip onto a belt or drop in a pocket without anybody noticing. Sound quality is great and the battery life is outstanding, hours and hours, straight through the longest ceremony I’ve ever filmed, and I’ve never had to swap one mid-day.

I use it first thing in the morning for the letters, running straight into the Zoom H5 so I’ve got manual gain and can ride the level as they read. During the ceremony it goes into the XLR inputs on my camera, which means audio and video arrive already in sync. Without a camera with XLR in, I’d run it into the H5 and keep that on me so I can keep monitoring while I move.

Microphone Madness Matchstick Lapel Mics

I have three of these, one for each voice recorder. They are about the size of a match, which makes them brilliant for hiding in awkward places.

Man holding up a tangle of thin black lapel mic cables in front of string lights and a whiteboard
Two coiled thin black cables with gold-tipped plugs on a wood table, one bundled with a small zip tie

The connector is an L bracket rather than a straight plug, which means it does not come loose whenever somebody pulls at it sideways. Between that and the hold switch on the recorders, I have never lost a recording to somebody bumping a cable or tangling it in a shirt. One setting to change: these mics are very sensitive, which is good, but set the recorder’s mic sensitivity to low or you’ll peak.

Rycote Stickies (Skip The Clip)

These mics come with a clip. The clip is terrible and flimsy and will break or fall off in roughly ten seconds. Use Rycote Stickies instead, which sound kind of gross and are genuinely great. Peel one off the sheet, press the mic onto the sticky side, peel the backing off the other side, and now you’ve got an adhesive mic.

Stick it just inside the inner lapel of a jacket, where it isn’t visible but is almost visible. You get clean audio without wrestling anybody’s shirt, and nobody in the room can tell the person is wearing a mic at all, unlike a clipped-on lav which is obvious to everybody.

Close-up of a black suit lapel with a thin lav mic cable tucked into the seam, barely visible against the fabric

If it’s a windy day, Rycote also makes Overcovers, which go over the other side of the mic and block wind. Sticky on one side, cover on the other, and you’re well protected.

Who Gets Miked At The Ceremony

  • The groom gets the wireless lav and a voice recorder with a matchstick mic. The recorder backs up the wireless, so if there’s any transmission issue at all I still have clean vows. Both mics are omnidirectional and the bride is standing two or three feet away, so I’ve never had trouble picking her up as well.
  • The minister gets another recorder and mic, so the message is covered.
  • Wherever else matters gets the third. A podium if there’s a scripture reading. And at one wedding, a full mariachi band that nobody had thought to mic, presumably because they were already ear-splittingly loud. I set a recorder in front of them and now I have great mariachi audio.

Add the house audio going into the H4n on auto leveling and that’s three sources minimum, four or five if I can get into the board. Yes, it’s probably overkill. Whenever disaster strikes I’m glad I’m prepared.

Cables, And Talking To The DJ First

These are all for plugging into somebody else’s soundboard, which is the operative point: it’s their equipment. Exactly like I’ve said about getting along with the photographers, reach out to the venue and the DJ ahead of the day. What board are you running? I have these cables, can I plug in to record the ceremony? Who are you miking, and can I get into it for the toasts?

I put together Record PERFECT Audio In Your Wedding Films! – B&H’s Depth of Field Conference Keynote as well, which covers the part I skipped over here.

Once you have the green light, there are really only three cables you need. All of mine are Hosa, bought on Amazon, cheap with good reviews, which are my main criteria for basically anything I have ever purchased.

Man holding two quarter-inch cable ends, one with a red band and one with a black band, near a whiteboard
  1. XLR. The most ubiquitous connector in sound. If your DJ doesn’t have XLR you should seriously question whether he’s just running an iPod. It plugs straight into the bottom of either Zoom. Bear in mind he may already be using all his XLR for speakers.
  2. Quarter inch to quarter inch. Nearly as universal. Most boards have a quarter inch output somewhere, even if it’s only headphone monitoring, which I have absolutely recorded from before.
  3. Quarter inch to RCA. And yes, I just said they might not have quarter inch, but that’s not the point: the RCA end goes into the board, the quarter inch end goes into your recorder. In my experience every DJ has at least one of these three.
Man holding up a black box labeled IMP 1x2 SPLITTER in front of string lights and a whiteboard

Plan B: The XLR Splitter

If none of those three outputs exist, I’m sorry, all hope is lost, you should quit filming weddings. Kidding. I have another option, and honestly it might be better than plugging into the board anyway.

The Whirlwind IMP 1×2 splitter, a name that tells you nothing about what it does. It’s an XLR splitter: one cable in, two out. You put it in between the DJ’s wireless microphone base station and his soundboard.

Close-up of the black Whirlwind splitter box on a wood table, INPUT jack labeled, a red XLR cable beside it

What that buys you is clean, direct audio straight off the wireless mics, with none of the board’s mixing, none of the reverb, and none of the background music the DJ decides to play under the toasts, which I have absolutely had to deal with. You will need to go beg a little, and bring at least three XLR cables, because this thing needs them.

Plan C: The Trick That Always Works

So the board has no usable output, and the DJ won’t let you near his wireless receiver because it’s weird. Help me, Obi-Matt Kenobi, you’re my only hope.

Don’t worry. This one I can pretty much guarantee, and it has saved my bacon more times than I can count. It’s a microphone sleeve. Get the black one. It works with any microphone, wireless or stationary.

Stretch it, slide it over the handheld mic, and you’ve now created a stretchy pocket around the mic body. Slide one of your voice recorders down into that pocket. It holds both easily.

Man holding a small black digital recorder up toward the camera, string lights blurred behind him

Now you have your own source, inches from the speaker’s mouth, with almost no room echo or reverb. I’ve filmed weddings out in the Texas countryside where the soundboard was either broken or so ancient you couldn’t plug into it, and this is what got me flawless toast audio. I put it on the mic even whenever everything else is working, because house mics cut out, and it has caught that too.

Power And Headphones

Everything in this kit runs on AA or AAA. Get rechargeable AAs and rechargeable AAAs in the high capacity version, which hold more and last longer. Get a charger, and get a battery case. My system: charged batteries live in the case, used ones go loose in the bottom of the bag, and at the end of the day I fish them out and charge them. Budget about a hundred bucks purely on batteries and chargers and you’re set.

For headphones I use a cheap pair of earbuds, about twenty bucks. They sound fine and, importantly, they’re black. I have plenty of white phone earbuds and they read as unprofessional on a wedding day. These are not studio grade, but they don’t need to be. Their entire job is answering “is this recording, and is it clean?”

The Complete List

📷 Everything below, with pictures, on my audio gear page.

One More Thing

I hope my extensive use of backups hasn’t scared you off building an audio kit of your own. I really do believe in them. This kit is versatile enough to handle the wide variety of situations you’ll run into, and whenever you’re walking into a church or a DJ you know nothing about, it is genuinely great to know you can go in blind and still come out with the audio.

I’m also now offering personal one-on-one hourly filmmaker consulting. Want me to critique your latest wedding film? Need recommendations on cameras, lenses, or lighting? Want to chat about beard maintenance for an hour? I would love to talk with you, so please get in touch and schedule a consult.

🎬 My wedding film editing course · ✌ The Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook Group · ►► My free guide to booking more wedding clients

A wedding filmmaker’s review of the SKB Tripod Case (1SKB-R4209W)

A wedding filmmaker's review of the SKB Tripod Case (1SKB-R4209W)

Up until around six months ago, when I wanted to transport my video support gear such as tripods, monopods, slider, etc. to weddings and other shoots, I did it all by hand. This typically resulted in multiple trips to and from my car whenever I changed locations on a wedding day, as well as horrible back pain. I will say though, that there was something macho about treating my gear transport in the same way I handled bringing in grocery bags inside from a trip to the store – all in one trip.

After six years of living like this, I realized that it was time for a change and began researching cases that would enable me to transport my support gear, ideally in one trip. My only requirements were that it be sturdy and hold a lot of gear. After much reading and requesting recommendations from friends, I chose the SKB R4209 RotoMold Tripod Case. I’m pleased to say that after taking it to three states, thirteen shoots, and subjecting it to a diversity of terrain, it has held up in a spectacular fashion. In the review video above, I cover the hardware, storage capacity, and a few of the issues I have with the case.

Bearded man holding a video tripod with fluid head, gear cases and a shoulder rig laid out on the table in front of him
Look it’s a tripod case that holds tripods!

Overall, if you are living your life like I was and transporting a lot of gear inefficiently, take hope! A good tripod case can go a long ways to improving your speed, and this one is a winner.

If you watch my review video and decide to invest in one of these cases for yourself, I would recommend checking out the “Used and New” section Amazon for their Warehouse Deals. The case retails at time of this video for $199, but the Warehouse Deals may have them for as low at $170.

Ethics Statement: This is an entirely independent review. SKB did not pay me to create this video, I didn’t receive this case for free, or receive any other compensation. I’m a fan of this case and after six months of use I really wanted to make a review about it.

If you have any questions about the case, or wedding filmmaking questions in general, feel free to leave a comment below or get in touch.

Meant to be together since grade school | A wedding in the heart of Austin, Texas

Meant to be together since grade school | A wedding in the heart of Austin, Texas

We use the term high school sweethearts to describe couples who have been together a long time. They met young, figured out they were the one for each other, and stuck together for years until they got married. But what if they met before high school? Before middle school? What if they became friends in the third grade?

Elementary school sweethearts doesn’t quite have the same ring to it. But for Kelsey and Josh, that’s where the story starts. And after many years of friendship, and when I say many I mean close to 20, which included multiple proms, homecomings, high school graduation, breakups, and three and a half years of college, they were finally together.

The groom looking down and smiling during the getting ready portion of the day
Downtown or not, the morning always starts the same way.

Mexican Food And A Wedding Logo

Whenever my wife and I finally sat down with them it was, of course, over Mexican food. And listening to their vision for the day, it was incredibly apparent that these two had a style entirely their own.

Watch the film and you’ll see it. Palm fronds. A geode wedding cake. Edison bulbs draped over the dance floor like a willow tree. Kelsey even created a watercolor wedding logo that tied the whole theme together, which is not a thing most couples think to do, and it worked.

The groom in a dark suit and checked shirt before the ceremony
Watch the film and you’ll see the style. These two had one entirely their own.
Close-up of brown leather dress shoes being tied on a patterned carpet
Details are where a downtown wedding gives you something quiet to cut to.

A Wedding In The Heart Of Austin

Most of the weddings we film sit out in a field somewhere, which is beautiful and also means the backdrop does a lot of the work for you. This one was downtown, right in the middle of Austin, and downtown is a completely different job. You’re shooting against glass towers and crosswalks and traffic, and you’re doing it in the middle of a working city that has no idea a wedding is happening.

Bride and groom crossing a sunlit downtown Austin street lined with buildings and parked cars
We managed to not get run over while filming this wedding…

Worth it, though. You get shots you cannot get anywhere else, and the city ends up as a character in the film instead of just a location.

A downtown Austin street corner with traffic, a cyclist and office buildings
Most of the weddings we film sit out in a field. This one was in the middle of a working city.
Wide view of the ceremony under a covered rooftop space with the Austin skyline behind
You are shooting against glass towers and crosswalks instead of trees.
The couple at the altar under a palm frond arch with downtown towers behind them
Palm fronds, and the city ending up as a character in the film instead of a location.

The Reception

The Edison bulbs are the thing you’ll remember. Strung low over the floor, they turn the whole room warm the second the sun goes down, and they gave me something to shoot through all night long.

Reception tables lined with candles and glassware while the live band plays behind
The Edison bulbs turn the whole room warm the second the sun goes down.

They also had a live band, which changes the energy of a reception in a way a playlist just can’t. People stay on the floor longer, and the first dance has a room full of musicians reacting to the couple in real time.

The couple's first dance in front of a live band on stage
A live band changes the energy of a reception in a way a playlist just can’t.
Guests dancing with their hands in the air on a warmly lit dance floor
People stay on the floor longer. That is the whole argument for the band.

The Music In This Film

Licensed from Musicbed: “Dancing to the Radio” by Awake or Sleeping, and “Visitors on the Bow Wave” by The Echelon Effect. Licensed from Marmoset: “On Echo” by Mree, “Parachute (Pledge Remix)” by Blue Ember, and “Blackwood Canyon” by Marmoset.

Color graded with my LUTs.

The Gear I Filmed This With

Having A Wedding That’s Actually Yours?

If you’re building something with your own style all over it, we would love to film it. 🎥 Get in touch with us at FilmStrong.

And if you’re the one behind the camera: 🎬 my wedding film editing course is how I teach a film like this getting built, ►► my free guide to booking more wedding clients is a free download, and ✌ the Learn Wedding Filmmaking Facebook Group is where the rest of us hang out.

Want The Short Version?

Here’s the highlight cut of the same day, if you’d rather have the three minute version than the full film.

How To Study For And Pass The FAA Drone Test!

How To Study For And Pass The FAA Drone Test!

About 9 years ago, before I was even considering pursuing a career in making videos, I entered a video contest put on by Texas A&M University called “Why I’m an Aggie.” My entry featured students speaking about why they chose Texas A&M and what they enjoyed about the university. Throughout the video, I featured pretty shots of campus that I shot with my trusty Sony HDR-UX1 (recording to mini-DVDs, SD cards weren’t fast or large enough yet).

The shot that set my contest entry apart from the others though, was an aerial video of campus that I filmed from a plane. Yes, I actually rode in a plane over campus to get a shot for my video! This blew away the judges considering that aerial video was still relatively rare (unless you happened to have a pilot father – thanks dad).

Nine years later, aerial video is now mainstream. People are buying Millennium Falcon camera drones, stuffing their dead cats and turning them into quadcopters, and anyone with a cell phone can purchase a flying camera for as little as $20. My aerial video in 2008 that took so much effort and timing, could now be accomplished by any kid with a drone Christmas present. It would probably look smoother and be better colored too.

In August of 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration passed their official rules for commercial drone usage in the United States. Up until this point, if you wanted to make money flying your drone you had to apply for a Section 333 waiver and actually possess a pilot’s license to fly a drone.

You can eat your drone, but I wouldn't recommend it.
You can eat your drone, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

This all changed with the FAA’s Part 107 ruling, which made getting a license to fly your drone for commercial purposes as easy as taking a knowledge test, no pilot’s license required.

Now when I say easy, I mean easier than getting an actual pilot’s license, not that the test itself is easy. Which brings us to this video that I created today, which is all about why you should take the knowledge test, and how to study for and pass it.

In the video, I detail the exact resources that I used to pass the Part 107 knowledge test. These resources are now listed below in order that I speak about them in the video. If you study these materials, you shouldn’t need to spend any extra money on any courses or classes for the test.

But, if you find that you benefit more from a classroom setting, I would recommend checking out Drone Pilot Ground School and Remote Pilot 101.

Here are the study resources that I listed in the video, in order:

BASIC DRONE KNOWLEDGE
– http://www.knowbeforeyoufly.com

PART 107 TEST COURSES & CLASSES
– Remote Pilot 101
– Drone Pilot Ground School

AMERICAN FLYER’S TESTING CENTERS
– American Flyers

FAA OFFICIAL STUDY GUIDE
– https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/media/remote_pilot_study_guide.pdf

FAA Advisory Circular
–https://www.faa.gov/documentLibrary/media/Advisory_Circular/AC_107-2.pdf

SECTIONAL CHARTS VIDEOS
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLBz8Z1w4PQ
– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ITjUfl80bs

FAA TEST SUPPLEMENT BOOKLET
– https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/test_questions/media/sport_rec_private_akts.pdf

COMMERCIAL DRONES FM PODCAST EPISODE 6
– https://commercialdrones.fm/home/faa-part-107-test-study-guide-test-prep-drone-pilots

FAA PART 107 PRACTICE TEST
– https://www.faa.gov/training_testing/testing/test_questions/media/uag_sample_exam.pdf

JONATHAN RUPPRECHT FAA PART 107 PRACTICE TEST ANSWERS & STUDY GUIDE
– http://jrupprechtlaw.com/part-107-knowledge-test
– http://jrupprechtlaw.com/part-107-test-study-guide

3D ROBOTICS PART 107 PRACTICE TEST
– https://3dr.com/faa/drone-practice-tests/

OTHER RESOURCES NOT MENTIONED IN THE VIDEO
– SkyVector
– AIRNAV

That’s it! Read and study these articles, listen to the podcast, take the practice test, and when you’re ready, go and take the real thing. If you take your time and prepare, you’ll pass like I did.

As always, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave one below or get in touch.