How to improve the audio quality in my YouTube videos?

Question

So, I'm a beginner in creating YouTube videos. So far, I've posted 9 videos on my YouTube channel. The videos consists of poems and comedy vines (in Hindi). I'm getting good response from the viewers in terms of content but what is lacking from the beginning is a good audio quality. I record video from my smartphone Redmi 5A. Earlier I used to record the videos using the default camera of smartphone and edited them in Inshot Video Editor. But after some research from YouTube videos, I recently purchased Boya BYM1 Mic and started recording videos using OpenCamera app by connecting external mic with it. But even after using all this, the recent video which I created using this setup didn't match the expectation. Volume was still low. Also, in one video, I tried recording the audio in another smartphone and did lip-syncing while recording the video and playing the audio in another smartphone at the same time. Although the volume was high, but the audio quality was still poor.

I also have an HP Laptop having the configuration of 4GB RAM (64 byte), Intel Core i5 processor and 500 GB Hard disk and currently using Ubuntu 18.04 in that laptop. I have read in many blogs that free edition of DaVinci Resolve is really good for video editing purpose but also read that the system requirements are quite high. I'm thinking of purchasing a new smartphone but I'm still not able to find out who is the real culprit behind this bad audio quality - my smartphone, the new mic or the OpenCamera app? Can someone please help me on how to improve the audio quality in my videos?

Answer 1

Basic steps to getting good audio quality:

1. Get an external mic. You've already done this. When you use the built-in mic in the smartphone while recording video, the distance between the mic and your mouth is usually too large. The result is that volume is low, and the mic picks up a lot of ambient noise (reverb from your voice in the room, but also any other sounds). With a lavalier mic clipped to your clothing, the mic is much closer to your mouth, which means microphone gain can be reduced and less background noise is picked up.

2. Check the audio level before you start recording. This requires that your recording device has a level meter and a way to change the level. The goal is to have the sound of your voice come through loud and clear, without clipping (=exceeding the maximum level your device can register). Try to get the peak level to -10 dB. Make a few test recordings to see if that level is satisfactory.

3. Keep an eye on sound levels during the recordings. You don't want big jumps in the level (music much louder than your voice, for example). Someone watching your video should be able to watch the whole video without having to change his playback volume.

4. Process the audio after recording:

   a. Check the level. If necessary, normalize the audio.

   b. Use a compressor to reduce the dynamic range. This will allow you to increase the average level without introducing clipping.