Looking for help recording gunfire audio

**csmith** · December 23rd, 2011, 12:45 AM

Title says it all. I'm not looking to go out and spend hundreds/thousands on fancy microphones and other equipment. I have a cell phone camera and I have a digital HD camera available to work with. Thus far I have attempted placing the camera roughly five feet to my right on the range bench, and succeeded in capturing nearly perfect 22lr audio. The only problem is I was shooting a 44.

Does anybody have any tips to maximize the effectiveness of this kind of equipment or am I just SOL. I am open to buying cheap portable gear such as a new HD camera that is known to produce better audio recordings. What I'm not looking to do is cart another case or tripod to the range with me. I just thought it would be fun to make some videos to share with my boys when I come home from the range.

**PA Rifleman** · December 23rd, 2011, 01:02 AM

You might need to move back for louder guns, it might overload the front end of the audio equipment. Try using a newer sound recorder, many of them have actual audio input levels. I videotaped a 44 mag back in the VHS days, the blast actually made the write head skip.

or

Run your sound recorder on your PC, capture away.

AK-74, or AK-47?

**csmith** · December 23rd, 2011, 01:58 PM

Thank you. Hopefully I can get something that sounds half as good as those videos.

**Cherokee60** · December 23rd, 2011, 08:14 PM

The problem is too much "sound pressure" for your recording device. The EASY way is to use either "egg crate foam", gauze pads or cotton to protect the microphone from the excessive sound levels. This is much cheaper than trying to replace your gear. (I'm a professional camera operator...have been for over thirty years, and my $65,000 HDTV camera won't handle the report from very close, loud weapons.)

Try using a sound-dampening object like the foam, pads or cotton...you'll lose some low-frequency response, but you won't get distorted sound...and this'll make your boys and you happy.

Best of luck.

**PA Rifleman** · December 23rd, 2011, 10:23 PM

Originally Posted by csmith

Thank you. Hopefully I can get something that sounds half as good as those videos.

Thanks, if you'll notice, the video camera is to the rear and side of the firearm. It's also at least eight feet away from the muzzle.

Originally Posted by csmith

..., and succeeded in capturing nearly perfect 22lr audio. The only problem is I was shooting a 44.

....

I reviewed some videos, and the first detail I noticed is indoor shooting really trashes the sound quality (echoes, exhaust fans, etc).

You mentioned a 44 magnum, not sure if that's the primary gun of interest. Below are videos, you should be able to capture the sound with your computer and save as a sound file.

PM me if you want mp3 or wav files from the original videos (see my first post, below) for better audio resolution.

More youtube vids (not mine) of 44 magnums:

**csmith** · December 23rd, 2011, 11:56 PM

Placing the camera slightly to the rear like that is the #1 thing I want to try. I will definitely try out some sort of sound dampening device as well just to see how it works out.

I am doing my shooting outdoors so no worries there. The 44 is not necessarily the firearm of interest, it just happens to be what I was shooting the most on the particular day I tried recording. Most of those videos sound very similar to what I captured, which just lacks the deep chest pounding boom of the 44.