Multi-microphone setups
Five microphones, designed to stay simple on set. Few enough not to slow a shoot, placed for the separation that keeps instrument, room and voice movable in the mix, then checked against the room they are in.
The short version
Is this for you? For a lesson where an instrument, a room and a voice have to be pulled apart afterwards, and the bleed currently welds them into one. A single voice to camera does not need this, and we will say so.
What leaves your plate. Five inputs, each with a job, kept few enough that a crew builds the rig without dreading it, and the camera's own audio never reaching the master.
What starts working. Files that arrive as three things you can balance independently instead of one you cannot, with every choice about depth and legibility still open months after the room is packed up.
The smallest way in. A free audit: three fields, and a written reading back, usually within about three working days. It commits you to nothing.
What to read next. The five levels to see where this fits, or the casework to see it done.
Simple on set, separated in the mix
Where each of these microphones physically stands, against a particular room and a particular voice, is the microphone setup page; this one is about how many inputs there are and what separation each is there to buy the mix.
Five inputs, and each one has a job
Two stereo direct on the instrument, two small-diaphragm condensers out in the room, one close voiceover for the teaching. That is the whole design. Instrument, room and voice arrive on their own channels, which is the only reason any of them can be moved later without dragging the other two along behind it.
The count is kept low on purpose
Sophisticated enough to take a recording well past an ordinary upload, simple enough that nobody on the shoot is waiting for the audio. A rig that slows a room down gets abandoned by the third video, and an abandoned rig captures nothing at all. Restraint here is a production decision before it is an aesthetic one.
Separation is the thing the mix is actually buying
A single microphone gives one file in which the room, the instrument and the speaking are already fused. Software can pull a fused file partway apart now, but it rebuilds rather than recovers, which makes it a rescue and not a plan. Five gives three independent decisions when the placement earns them: depth on the playing, legibility on the teaching, and a room that can be widened or quietened without touching either. The choice is made once, on set, and it decides everything downstream.
The camera's own audio never reaches the master
Written into one partner's standard as an explicit no: use the file from the recording setup, never the sound the camera happened to capture. Camera audio is a sync reference and a safety net. Treating it as a source is how a beautifully lit lesson ends up sounding like a lesson recorded from the back of the room.
Five inputs, and what each is for
| Instrument | two, stereo, direct |
|---|---|
| Room | two small-diaphragm condensers, at distance |
| Teaching voice | one close voiceover microphone |
| Camera audio | sync reference only |
| Balanced afterwards | room, instrument and voice, independently |
The cost of every extra input
Why more microphones is not a better answer
Every extra input adds a path to the same source, another arrival time, another chance for two captures to fight. Beyond a point the noise floor rises, the phase relationships multiply and the setup time starts eating the shoot. The useful question is never how many, it is what each one is there to give the mix.
What placement is deciding
How much room comes with the instrument. How much instrument comes with the voice. How much of the recording can be cleaned later, and how much of it is already committed. Close buys clarity and buys plosives with it; distance buys the space and buys reflections with it. All of that is settled before anyone presses record.
The rig has to survive the room it is in
Ceiling height, floor covering, the lid of an instrument, a window, a fan. A setup designed on paper for a treated studio behaves differently in a rented rehearsal room with daylight coming in, so the design is confirmed against the first files that come back.
Keep the microphone count low, and still deliver the warmth of a proper studio capture to somebody listening through a tablet plugged into a living-room system.
The design brief, in the founder's own framing.
What changes for you
Files that arrive as three usable things instead of one compromised one, from a setup a crew can build without dreading it. Every decision about depth, width and legibility stays available to the mix, months after the room has been packed up.
Related: Phase alignment · Microphone setup · Audio mixing · Noise removal
Audio problems hide in plain sight because viewers feel them without naming them. The audit listens through recent videos and puts in writing what the sound is costing and what would fix it first.
Request your free audit.
Three fields, and a written reading back: a fit snapshot, two or three prioritised opportunities, and a recommended next step.
A person reads the channel and writes the audit by hand: a considered read typically takes three working days. That is the usual shape, not a promised turnaround. We use these details only to reply to you: no lists, no lurking.
What you will get
A fit snapshot: where your channel stands, and whether we are a match.
Two to three opportunities: specific, prioritised, yours to keep.
A recommended next step, even if that step is not us.
The audit is free and commits you to nothing: nobody follows up with a call you did not ask for.
The casework shows all of this done.
The case studies are the same work with the numbers, the sources and the dates attached.
See the casework →