writing with a camera

Sound for Documentary: Nine Fundamental Concepts

Thrown together by David Tams, originally posted as two blog posts on kino-eye.com on March 4 and 16, 2013. Revised, merged, and reposted on this site on December 27, 2025 with corrections and updates.

Between access to affordable cameras and smartphones with excellent video capabilities, along with the ascendancy of YouTube as a major media platform, its never been easier to produce and share documentary videos. Across the board, however, sound is the Achilles heel of many videos. While it is relatively easy to shoot video, the art of sound recording is more complicated. It involves choosing the right microphone, positioning the microphone, monitoring, and setting levels (not required if you record 32-bit float), therefore, it remains an elusive mystery compared to the workings of the video camera for many documentary makers.

This article and related resources on this site presents an overview of practical techniques and a guide to the basic tools for recording, editing, and mixing better sound for your documentary video projects. The goal is to help you improve your work whether you are a beginner, intermediate, or experienced media maker. Surprisingly, good results can be obtained with consumer gear in a wide range of circumstances with a basic understanding of the fundamentals. On the other hand, professional gear provides specific affordances, so learning more about your options and balancing them with your budget and requirements will pay off with better work.

1. Sound Coveys Emotion, Picture Coveys Information

Think of the scene in Jaws of a woman swimming in silence. Now add those two famous bass notes. A totally different experience. Consider the emotional impact. Sound carries the emotion of your video, it is half of the picture. Paying attention to sound, both in terms of good recording and how its mixed and the use of sound effects and music, can make a real difference. Even if you are only doing a simple interview with dialog only, a rich sounding human voice will make a difference. You will find a wonderful collection of essays by Randy Thom at FilmSound.org. He worked on Apocalypse Now as a sound effects recordist back in the day and since then has worked on an impressive number of films and has received multiple Academy Awards for sound.

2. Viewers Expect Transparent Audio

Many years ago while I was preparing a presentation for New Media Expo in Las Vegas, I visited Vimeo to find some videos to show as examples during my session. I was amused when I came across the video shown above: the filmmaker left a note saying that he would be fixing the sound as soon as possible. We usually do not apologize for slight imperfections in terms of our video image quality, as most viewers will overlook them, but sound is different. Peter knew he had to say something about the sound issues in his piece in order to reassure his viewers he would soon be fixing the sound (which he knew would bother them). Sound is that important. People expect transparent (good) sound.

3. Microphone Placement Is a Primary Factor Differentiating Good Vs. Bad Sound Recording

The problem with most sound recordings is excessive ambient noise from a variety of sources and low sound levels (relative to the ambient noise). As a result, its difficult to understand dialog, and emotional impact suffers. This situation usually boils down to improper microphone placement. Learn to listen to your recordings and experiment with different microphone types and placement options. Getting the microphone as close as practical to the sound you want and as far away as possible from unwanted noise is a good starting point.

When recording outdoors, you will probably need to control wind noise with a windjammer. In a future post well cover microphone placement in detail and discuss different types of microphones and what task each is best suited for. With a little bit of study and a healthy amount of practice, you can obtain excellent recordings, regardless whether you are using consumer or professional gear. Placement and controlling noise are much more important factors determining your final result than the cost of the gear you are using.

4. Setting Proper Levels and Monitoring Your Recording Is Crucial

For the best recording you will need to actively set recording levels. Not too loud to avoid distortion. Not too soft so your sound is not lost in the noise. Always monitor what you are recording with good over-the-ear (circumaural) headphones (or quality in-ear fitted earbuds that provide good sound isolation) so there are no surprises while editing.

Enabling the limiter, if available, is a good idea. A limiter is basically a fast-acting compressor that will reduce the level of peaks but leave the rest of your audio alone. Avoid Automatic Gain Control (AGC), it is not a viable substitute setting levels, but with some consumer gear you will not have a choice. The problem with AGC is that your noise floor will go up and down as the gain is automatically adjusted, making editing in post more challenging.

Some newer recorders and cameras support 32-bit float encoding. This format has become popular since it eliminates the need for gain adjustments during production. With 32-bit float your recorder or camera can capture the full dynamic range of the microphone, simultaneously capturing the subtle details of quiet passages and loud moments without having to ride levels.

Not all post-production workflows support 32-bit float natively, therefore, you may need to convert your files. In addition, the use of 32-bit float creates the misconception that levels don’t matter, however, you still need to avoid preamplifier clipping and achieve a good signal to noise ratio. That said, 32-bit float offers a safety net for unpredictable recording situations, which is typical in documentary scenarios.

5. Don’t Believe the Shotgun Myth

Shotgun microphones do not reach farther, they do not work like a telephoto lens. Sound, unlike light, is promiscuous, it travels in all directions and goes around corners. Shotgun microphones have their place, they are useful in noisy environments, especially when you cant be as close to your subject as you would like, however, they do not perform magic. Instead of reaching farther, they respond to off-axis sound differently in terms of reduced level, coloration, and a null point.

Shotguns might look impressive, but a lot of recording situations call for other types of microphones, so it’s a good idea to learn about the range of microphones available. Given the choice between an inexpensive consumer lavaliere microphone properly placed on a person talking compared to an expensive professional shotgun microphone mounted on the camera too far from the subject, the inexpensive lavaliere will provide you with superior sound. On the other hand, that professional shotgun attached to a boom in the hands of a talented boom operator will certainly sound great, but it’s not always an option in terms of logistics, placement, or budget.

The first microphone I purchase many years ago was a TRAM-50 lavaliere. I eventually followed that up with a variety of other microphones (handheld dynamic omnidirectional, cardioid condenser for use on a boom, short shotgun condenser for use on a boom, etc.). Since the majority of the work I was doing in the beginning was interviews, I knew the lavaliere should be the priority. I’m lucky to have had good teachers who set me straight early on in my path as a media maker who advocated for thinking about picture and sound on equal footing.

6. Judicious Use of Four Fundamental Audio Effects Can Make a Big Difference in Postproduction

Compression, equalization, reverb, and denoise are the four essential post-production audio effects you will want to become familiar with and practice using when editing the sound portion of your video.

A bit of audio compression on dialog tracks can help them sound louder and cut through other sounds in the mix, but do not overdo it.

Some equalization (emphasizing some frequencies and/or deemphasizing others) will sweeten the sound of dialog, ambience, effects, and music. For example, through equalization you can make thin dialog sound a little richer through enhancement of the lower frequencies and reduction of some of the high-to-middle frequencies.

On location you want to record clean sound without noise or reverberation, however, in post, you can use some reverb to make a sound effect sound like it part of the soundscape. So if a sound effect sounds too “forward” bring it down in the mix is not usually enough, you often will have to add a little bit of reverb so it sounds farther away.

Denoise can help remove background noise from sound effects and dialogue, but be careful not to overdo it. Listen carefully with headphones when applying denoise to dialogue and effects, at some point you will hear how it changes the quality of the dialogue or sound effect, so then back off a bit. The goal in most cases is to reduce the level of noise, not eliminate it completely.

Some effort in processing your audio during editing will pay huge dividends in how your video feels when you audience is watching and listening to it.

7. Eliminate the Phrase We’ll Fix It in post from Your Repertoire

We will fix it in post is a silly thing to say, if you record bad sound, it usually stays that way, its very hard to fix most poorly recorded sound. For example, if you record dialog with the microphone too far from the speaker in a reverberant room (think gymnasium acoustics), you’re going to get a series of multiple echoes from the hard walls mixed in with your dialog. It is hard to fix reverb problems in post and most ambient noise is impossible to remove from the recording even though there are some AI powered effects that get you part of the way there. Most noise and reverberation removal filters do horrible things to the original sound. Record your sound effects and dialog as dry as possible by recording close to the source and controlling unwanted noise. You can take dialog that sounds too dry (because it was recorded too close to the microphone and thus has very little of the room characteristics in the recording) and add reverb and ambient sound. So get your recording right in the first place and add things like ambient noise and reverb later. Always record the sound of the spaces you work in order to build ambient sound beds you will use during editing. Well certainly spend more time on these issues in subsequent posts.

8. Consider Spending as much on Sound Gear as You Spend on Camera Gear

As a documentary maker you are usually recording both video and audio while observing subjects or doing interviews. And when you record B-roll you want to record good sound, including stereo ambience whenever possible. Therefore, you do not only need a good camera, you need good microphones, accessories for mounting and support, as well as wind control, good cables, headphones, and possibly a separate recorder. Your investment in quality audio gear will pay off, and will most certainly outlast your camera. Video gear comes and goes but good audio gear is something you will have for a long time, it is a sound investment (I could not help myself).

My rule of thumb is spend about as much on your audio recording kit as you do on your camera kit. It is a bit out of balance to spend 100 microphone mounted on the camera. Even if you are shooting with a newer iPhone as your primary camera, you can take your work to the next level with a good microphone and digital recorder, and these will not set you back too much.

When I suggest spending as much on sound gear as you do camera gear I do not necessarily mean you should do this right off the bat. If you are starting out, purchase gear slowly over time as you figure out what you need for your own style of shooting. It is a good idea to take gear out for a spin before you buy, either by renting or borrowing from a friend.

9. the Sonic Landscape Is as Important as the Visuals

If I had to describe sound in one sentence, I would describe sound as vibrations in air that touch us. Like the proverbial tree that falls in the forest, if nobody is around to hear it, did it really make a sound? The vibrations caused by the falling tree don’t become sound until they touch us. And these waves literally touch us, according to developmental psychologist Ann Fernald, who describes sound as “touch at a distance” in the Musical Language episode of Radiolab. I believe the intimacy of touch Fernald is describing has something to do with why there is such a strong connection between our emotions and sound.

In their landmark book, Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?: Experiencing Aural Architecture, Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter suggest that social relationships are strongly influenced by the way that space changes sound. Every environment has an aural architecture, whose attributes contribute to the fabric of human culture. We can sense spatial configurations through hearing, for example, with our eyes closed we can find an open doorway or know if we are in a room with low ceilings. The aural imprint of Tokyo is quite different from that of New York, and once we have experienced one of these cities we are likely to recognize their aural imprint much in the same manner we recognize images.

Sound recording on a documentary is not just be about recording clear dialog, in most situations you also want to capture the sonic landscape of the spaces you are observing. Whenever possible, I try to record stereo ambience in addition to dialogue. Given that a good stereo audio recorder can be had these days for under $200. USD (e.g. Zoom H2 Multi-Mic Recorder), there is no reason a separate audio recorder cant be used for capturing the aural landscape when you are out shooting video with your camera. In fact, given where things are heading technologically and aesthetically, perhaps we should go the distance and record surround ambience. It is all well and good that Hollywood features create amazing soundscapes during the post-production process, but as documentarians, we should try when we can to capture the real aural landscape of the locations we observe.

A particularly impressive example of the aural landscape as an integral component of a documentary is Habana - Arte nuevo de hacer ruinas (2006, Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler, English title: Havana - The new art of making ruins). For Borchmeyer, the beauty of Havana lies in the poetry of its ruins. Through this documentary he presents a portrait of the inhabited ruins of Havana in their final moments before the majestic buildings of pre-Castro Cuba either crumble or are renovated. When I spoke with Borchmeyer at the Rio International Film Festival the year the film was doing the rounds of the festival circuit, I shared with him that I was impressed by the dimensionality the sonic landscape in the film. He explained that when he shot the interviews, he also recorded surround sound of the environment.

As a viewer, I was transported into the buildings and the stories the interviewees were telling, but there was something more going on. I felt as if I was enveloped by the landscape in a manner I have rarely experienced in a documentary. All too often capturing the aural landscape is the farthest thing from a documentarians mind, however, listening to and recording the aural landscape can create a sensory experience that will engage viewers in a deep, primal manner. From a documentary filmmakers perspective, sound offers a way of capturing the auditory sense of space in a manner complimentary to the cameras visual recording of that space.

Blesser and Salter remind us that from prehistoric multimedia cave paintings, to classical Greek open-air theaters, through the time of Gothic cathedrals and French villages, auditory spatial awareness has been a prism through which cultural attitudes and a sense of space are revealed to us. Their book really opened up my ears to the importance and potential of sound as an integral component expanding the sensory dimension of documentary.

Resources on this site

For a deeper dive into the technical aspects of sound, take a look at:

Sound Fundamentals (presentation slides with notes).

Location Sound Recording (workshop slides with notes; using kits based on Zoom H4n recorder with shotgun, handheld, and lavaliere microphones).

Advanced Sound Recording (workshop slides with notes; using kits based on the Sound Devices MixPre-3 II recorder with stereo shotgun, handheld, and lavaliere microphones).

Audio-Technica BP4029 MS Stereo Condenser Microphone (guide to a versatile microphone)

Ambisonics Recording Kit (workshop slides with notes; using kits based on the Sound Devices MixPre-6 II recorder with a Sennheiser AMBEO VR Mic ambisonics microphone).

Viewing

Habana - Arte nuevo de hacer ruinas (Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler, 2006, feature-length documentary, English title: Havana - The new art of making ruins).

Justin Boyd: Sound and Time (Mark Lee Walley and Angela Guerra Walley, 2013, short documentary, Vimeo).

The Foley Artist (Oliver Holms, 2015, short video, Vimeo).

Recording Sound on Location (Lizi Hesling, CADARN Learning, tutorial video, YouTube).

The Basics of Recording Audio for Digital Video (Filmmaker IQ, tutorial video, YouTube).

UCLA Post Production: How To Wrap A Cable (David McKenna, tutorial video, YouTube).

Reading

Studying Sound: A Theory and Practice of Sound Design by Karen Collins (MIT Press, 2020), available from MIT Press Bookstore or in ahardcoverorKindleedition from Amazonor ahardcoverorNookedition from Barnes and Noble.

Producing Great Sound for Film and Video: Expert Tips from Preproduction to Final Mix, 4th Edition by Jay Rose (Routledge, 2014), available from Routledge or in apaperbackorKindleedition from Amazonor ahardbackorNookedition from Barnes and Noble.

Spaces Speak, Are You Listening?: Experiencing Aural Architecture by Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth (MIT Press, 2007), available from MIT Press Direct or in apaperbackorKindleedition from Amazonor aNookedition from Barnes and Noble, or from your favorite library.

Image Credits

  1. Cameraman Tomas Tucker and Sound Recordist Bill Stefanacci, KQED Quest, Flickr, BY-NC-SA 2.0
  2. Jaws promotional material, Universal Pictures, used under fair use guidelines.
  3. Peter Vicami, Vimeo, circa 2013, used under fair use guidelines.
  4. “what we are recording,” CC0
  5. Sound Devices 302 mixer meters, CC0
  6. shotgunning the wavicules by Adam LeJeune (Strangeless), Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
  7. Adobe Premiere Pro, CC0
  8. sound-hero by Rob Schultz (notArt), Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0,
  9. Sound gear, CC0
  10. Habana - Arte nuevo de hacer ruinas promotional material, Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler.

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