Hey @hannahm!
If you set your camera audio settings to Manual (just clarifying myself), I don’t believe you will have any way of quickly changing them once you press record. Personally, I shoot on a Canon (and Nikons confuse me!) so I can’t give you any step by step directions on how to best set your audio meters. However, I do know that there is no way for me to change my audio settings once I press record on my 60D.
Can you describe what type of static you’re experiencing? Is it sort of an underlying hiss that gets louder when you stop talking? Like “Hi HannahpsssSSSSSSSWhat’s up?” If this is your problem, you have your camera audio settings on Automatic.
Or is it just an underlying hiss” Like “Hi Hannah!ssssssWhat’s up? Or is it distorted? Like… HKIK HANNAKH! KWHAT”S UP? but if I whisper instead of talk normally it’s fine” I used ks because I couldn’t find a better way to show distorted audio…
I use my camera mainly when we do specials at church, so when the notes of either instraments or voices get higher, the noise on the camera also expresses that,and therefore it doesn’t sound crispy clear.
So when the singing/instruments get louder, your audio gets worse. I think your audio meters in Manual, and are set too high. For what you are doing (recording stationary musicians and singers from a fixed distance away), it might be best to keep your camera audio settings in Manual—if you want to learn how to use it. It’s a little like learning to shoot pictures in Manual mode.
I’m looking at an online tutorial right now for Nikons, so I might be able to help you a bit. To use Manual audio settings, find in your menus somewhere the settings for the audio controls. It looks like it might be underneath something called movie settings (I need to switch my camara to Movie mode before it gives up these settings). There should be a submenu underneath that called “Microphone”. Switch it to Manual sensitivity. You’ll need to do this at your church while the singers are actually singing (or practicing, as long as the loudness/softness is the same) to get the right sensitivity. When you click Manual sensitivity (not Microphone off!), I think you should find a number or something that allows you to adjust your audio levels (which you should see in the menu bouncing around as the singer sings). If you lower the number, the levels will logically not bounce so high. If you raise it, they will bounce higher. You want them to bounce generally just below the number 12 (so they don’t turn yellow). The yellow is just a warning for minor distortion. If the levels do about half the time turn yellow and go past twelve, I think that’s about where you want it at the loudest point of the singing/playing. So if you have a group, it will logically be louder than a soloist. Generally speaking, it’s better to set your audio meters a tad too low than a tad too high, because if they go higher than that and hit the 0 on the end, you will end up with distorted audio (which is the HKIK HANNAKH! KWHAT’S UP? type of audio).
I would also recommend you turn off the “Wind noise reduction” as you aren’t outside. If you were, keep it on at your discretion.
If you try these and you still get distorted audio, it’s probably your microphone. Internal mics aren’t winners for clean audio. If you want better audio, I’d consider—do your research—getting a shotgun mic. These are great because they are unidirectional—they will only capture audio from what’s in front of them (so you can point it at what you want and it won’t pay attention to much of your conversation with your friend behind the camera). This will record straight into your camera and you won’t have to do much post-production to get your audio synced up.
I need to sign off, let me know if this helps.
— Logan