Recording decent audio with a lousy digicam

August 20, 2008 6:56 AM

We're taking a road trip from Boston to Michigan this weekend, and would like to record some video along the way, just for fun. Problem is, we've got a cheap digicam with a lousy built-in mic. How can we record audio (two people talking, mostly) on the übercheap?

Our digicam - Aiptek A-HD - has enough trouble recording audio normally, but it's completely useless in a car. Everything gets drowned out by engine noise and static. There's no jack for an external mic, so I'd need some kind of external recorder that I can dump to a computer to sync with the video in post. Quality isn't a huge concern, and I'd like to keep it as cheap and simple as possible. Any digital audio recorder + cheap mic pairs? Recording advice? I'm completely inexperienced at this whole thing, so any information will be valuable. Thanks!

posted by SamuelF to technology (2 comments total)

the Sony MiniDisc stuff records beautiful audio and I think you can find them used on eBay
posted by matteo at 6:59 AM on August 20, 2008

Everything will be drowned out by engine noise.

Since your camera has no mike input you're in a world built of pain. Do a test of this first to see how much hassle you're going to have.

Take a good recording system + mike (like the minidisc.) Take the camera. If it was me, I'd take it to the car and 'check' how good the mini disc is.

Start recording. Add some sort of 'sync' moment (like a hand clap.) Now record five minutes.

Go into your editing program of choice, and sync the two moments. See how far you go before they fall out of sync.

I'd probably prefer something that records at the same rate (48k?) as your camera.
posted by filmgeek at 9:14 AM on August 20, 2008