Recording audio inside a helmet

I've only had my Drift helmet camera a few days, and it's been raining almost non stop since it arrived. I hear it's okay to take it in the rain, but it's so new and shiny I just want to keep it that way a little longer.

This video is about capturing audio inside a helmet which can be tricky for several reasons. Wind blowing in the helmet, and the small space inside the helmet can make it very difficult on your microphone. When I first started vlogging I was using a separate audio capture device. The Olympus VN-8100PC Digital Voice recorder: http://t.co/Yb6Y0Dr. I hooked it up to this microphone http://t.co/rmdrFho and found it to be way to sensitive inside the helmet. This was designed to record audio in an open room. I tired many different methods to calm it down, even went to far as to stick it inside of a tampon but was never really pleased with the results.

Recently I got my hands on a Drift Innovations Stealth 170 helmet camera http://t.co/JcnKMiv with the external microphone and it sounds much better. And extra bonus the Drift's mic records in stereo so no comments saying, "I can only hear out the left channel!"

I'm still getting used to filming with the Drift and can't wait for all the comments saying, "Your camera is crooked!" Yeah I've noticed guys I edit the damn video, and will fix it before the next one.

I'm the sort of person who gets really frustrated if everything isn't perfect when I sit down to edit. When I was working with the digital voice recorder and it sounded so terrible I would just cringe while editing. I hated to hear how bad it sounded. The Drift's mic was designed to record inside a helmet and deal with wind noise. You will notice in the video that the wind noise pretty much disappears when I switch the audio over to the Drift at the end. Nothing ruins a motorcycle video faster than screeching wind noise from a microphone.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• motorcycle
• motorcycles
• vlog
• helmet
• audio
• microphone
• tutorial
• camera
• drift
• stealth
• 170
• helmet camera
• panama
• POV
• action camera
• KLR650
• Kawasaki
• KLR 650

[falconjgc]

What do you recommend I do for a gopro. I cannot get any good audio out of my olympus voice recorder.

[halfthrottle]

@falconjgc If you can't get the Olympus to work then you will need to buy a different recorder, or a different camera. One that has a microphone input.

[Trinith]

I was pretty amazed at the sound quality of the Drift. It even outclasses other setups specifically intended for this purpose. I'm curious though, how do you record audio for your voiceovers?

[halfthrottle]

@Trinith Search for a video I made called, "Low Budget Voice Over Tips." I show a few of the methods I use when I want to make things sound nice.

[meloz1246]

What editing program is that?

[halfthrottle]

@meloz1246 Adobe Premiere Pro.

[RaceDayPhoto]

In the past we used lapel microphones we bought at best buy. They would cost about $30 and worked perfect plugged into my video recorder. We made race videos. And the camera bike would follow you and comment on your riding. It was a teaching aid. The audio was perfect.

[Propfrwrd]

If Samsung finally gets their crap together and releases the android 2.3 I think I'll be able to use my Sena SMH10 to record.

[simon44]

Excellent video as per usual. I've been strongly considering the Drift Stealth for a long time now.

[MadStu]

The -10db device did improve the audio quite a lot, but still shite compared to the purpose built solution.

[parshnipe69]

@hughes40 i laughed for like 5 minutes at that part..

[hughes40]

eventually i would have cut the cord. lol.