Engaging Subjects for Consistent Vlogging

Daily Vlogging Ideas: What to Talk about While Vlogging?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

Customize Your Vlog Stories with Powerful Video Editor

We’ve got a new eBook out!

It’s got strategies that have worked for other YouTubers, boiled down to simple action steps.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

Customize Your Vlog Stories with Powerful Video Editor

We’ve got a new eBook out!

It’s got strategies that have worked for other YouTubers, boiled down to simple action steps.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

Customize Your Vlog Stories with Powerful Video Editor

We’ve got a new eBook out!

It’s got strategies that have worked for other YouTubers, boiled down to simple action steps.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Every genre on YouTube has its own unique challenges, but daily vlogging is probably the hardest thing you could take on. Firstly because it means you have to do all the work of shooting and editing every day and secondly because it means you need to have something to talk about every single day. Even vlogging once or twice a week is tough.

How do you know what you should talk about in your vlog ? Some people are so comfortable in front of the camera they can just turn it on and start talking about whatever’s on their mind, but they’re in the minority.

Before starting your daily vlogging, you have to figure out one important thing ahead of time.

Do you have a niche?

You should have a niche. In a genre as broad as vlogging it is important to have some kind of hook that sets you apart from other vloggers. This can be an interest that you have, an industry you work in, or even a field of study you’re involved in at school. If you’re into technology, for example, you’ll always have a wealth of subjects to vlog about because all you’ll have to do is look at the day’s tech news and make a video reporting and commenting on it.

The other reason it’s good to have a niche is that you’ll be able to use keywords related to that niche in your video titles and tags. It’s hard to make it with a vlogging channel because nobody is searching for your content unless you are covering a specific topic like the technology they want to hear about.

• What are you watching/reading?
• Snapshots of Your Day
• Whatever You Need to Get Out
• What did you learn today?

Here are 4 things to talk about in your daily vlog:

What are you watching/reading?

If you’re really into a book or tv show, or if you saw a movie recently, then those are all good things to talk about (warn people if you’re going to spoil anything!). You do recaps, reviews, or just share a few thoughts you had. If you’re worried about alienating people who don’t watch/read the same stuff as you then you can keep it more general and just react to a few things from the media you’re consuming while also talking about your day. It’ll give you an anchor to build the rest of your video around, even if it’s not all you talk about.

By commenting on what you’re watching/reading you have a better chance of capitalizing on a trending topic people are searching for. You could also find yourself an audience by becoming involved in fan communities.

Snapshots of Your Day

Casey Neistat is the master of this. He is always ready with a camera on hand so that, when something interesting happens, he can capture it and build his daily vlog around it.

Carrying a camera around like Casey may or may not suit your lifestyle, but you can still pick out one story from your day to tell. It doesn’t have to be a major event, and you shouldn’t worry that it won’t be interesting to other people. It’s your personality they’re tuning in for, so even if you’re just talking about a funny thing your cat did it will keep your audience interested because a) it’s you talking about it and b) it gives them a bit of insight into your life.

Whatever You Need to Get Out

Flula is frequently puzzled by English expressions, like ‘Party Pooper’, and needs to get his confusion off his chest at odd hours of the day.

Ranting about people you know can get messy when people from your offline life see it, so maybe avoid that. However, if you’re angry about something in general – or really happy about something – then whatever it is you’re feeling strongly about is probably the thing you should be vlogging about.

It does not matter what it is that is making you have this strong reaction (unless, again, it’s an actual person who might see your video and cause problems for you). If you’re mad about a real injustice in the world then that’s a great thing to talk about – you might even raise some awareness for the issue – but you can also rant about your favorite flavor of yogurt being cut and that’ll be engaging to viewers too.

Alternatively: you could do a vlog about how happy you are to have gotten engaged or a vlog about how happy you are that it was sunny today, and your enthusiasm will carry your audience through either video with you.

What did you learn today?

Fun fact: The original lyrics Paul McCartney imagined for ‘Yesterday’ were ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs’.

You learn something new every day, right? Why not share that factoid with your viewers. Here a few facts to get you started:

Whales evolved from a land-based animal called a pakicetus.

The hagfish hunt by swimming into the mouth of a larger fish and eating it from the inside.

Crows live in family units, visit their aging parents, and have funerals for dead crows.

The puya chilensis is a plant that ‘eats’ sheep (sheep get stuck to it, starve, and end up as fertilizer).

Sea monkeys can survive in space.

EVERYTHING

You could also just flick the camera on and tell the full story of your day like you’d do in a traditional daily blog. What did you have for breakfast, how was school/work, did you talk to any friends, how was the weather – anything and everything. Generally, these videos can run a bit long and don’t have a lot of snappy editing. They’re faster to make, which is good if you’re doing them every day, but the unpolished nature of them won’t appeal to everyone. It will be exactly what appeals to some people, though.

Customize Your Vlog Stories with Powerful Video Editor

We’ve got a new eBook out!

It’s got strategies that have worked for other YouTubers, boiled down to simple action steps.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

A Compreranstive Approach to High-Fidelity Recording, No Mic Necessary

How to Record Good Audio Without a Microphone?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

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