What's in Your Sound Kit?

If you’re shooting a digital video production or a television production that has a very tight script you’ll likely have planned your equipment needs right down to the last cable, adapter and microphone clip for every day of shooting.

If, however, you are shooting documentaries (where you often have no idea what situations you’ll be faced with) or corporate training videos (if your script is less specific) you’ll want to have a good all-around set of equipment in your sound kit. This also applies to your camera kit and your lighting gear, but let’s just concentrate on audio.

Here’s the most important things to have for most shooting situations:

1. A Selection of Microphones. A selection of microphones is nice if you can afford them. It’s a good idea to carry one wireless and two wired lavs. Also, a hand mic. for street interviews and a shotgun - which can also be used as a hand mic. Wind socks for these microphones are also good to have.

2. Shotgun Mic Equipment. If you have a shotgun, you should also pack a pistol grip shock mount for it and a boom pole (often called a fish pole).

3. A Small, Battery Operated Mixer. A small, battery operated mixer will allow you to plug several mics into one input on your camera. A good one that should be sufficient for most situations is a mixer that accepts four sound sources (either microphones or line inputs from playback devices) about the size of a standard, red construction brick (although a lot lighter).

4. A Supply Of Mic. Cables. Of course, if your microphones are not wireless you’ll need a supply of mic. cables. Always take one or two more than you’ll need. You never know when they’ll break down and fixing them is time consuming. One more tip - if all your cables are black, you can identify them by sticking a different color of electrician’s tape on the end of each cable so you’ll know which end goes to which mic.

5. Be Prepared to Fix a Cable. OK - I just suggested that you shouldn’t take time to fix a cable if you can avoid it, but sometimes you have to. Make sure your sound kit includes a small tool kit that has wire strippers, a small soldering iron, solder, electrician’s tape, pliers and a small screw driver set.

6. Bring Spare Batteries. If any of your microphones or mixers use batteries, take several spares of the proper kinds with you.

7. Tying Material. Some sash cord or velcro strips for tying up mic. cables are also good to have.

Try to think of what else you might add to this list, especially if you are going it alone and figuring out how to make videos by yourself.

You can read more about digital video production in my ebook!