audio equipment

so i have a project coming up, and i think i would need a decent audio equipment to pair it up with my 7D. what do i need? shot gun or lavalier?
i don't even know what these are, i just heard a lot of it lol.
i appreciate your time and your help for helping a fellow newbie:o

In audio, you have...
1. Recording device. This is what your sound is recorded in/on.
2. Input device. Usually microphones.
3. Stuff in between. Effects n' stuff. Rarely used in video production.
(4. output device. Speakers, headphones, etc.?)

in hollywood-caliber productions, the audio team is two principal positions: the recording engineer, who operates the "recording device" and any stuff inbetween, and the boom operator, who makes sure the "input device" is getting the correct inputs. Typically, the input device is a shotgun microphone (it's a very long microphone that picks up sound directionally. Think of it like a telephoto lens) but occasionally actors will be rigged up with "lavalier" or "clip-on" microphones. Now, as budgets and other constraints shrink, the equipment used and the number of staff decreases. If you are trying to be a recordist, boom op, camera op, and director all at the same time, it's quite a bit to handle.

So, the first place to really start is,
1. How many people do you have on your production team?
2. How important is the quality of the audio capture?
3. How much budget can you allocate to audio equipment? (This should be a reflection of #2, btw)
4. What is the subject material you're trying to record?

questions 2, 3, and 4 are all interrelated... for example the equipment needed to record four people simultaneously speaking is different than the equipment needed to record the ambient sounds of nature is different then the equipment needed to record a football game.

wow, i haven't thought of all that. looks quite confusing.
but mainly it'll be just like outside interview and inside interview and only one man team.
audio quality, as long as its clean and crisp should be good.

budget?

nothing too fancy. i don't like to say the numbers:o
as low and efficient as possible

well, on the cheap is like an azden camera-mounted mini-shotgun for like $100, but something that sounds good is multiple times that... ball park?

500

all right, you can do pretty good for $500. You could get like a Juicedlink DS214 interface, which will allow you to record onto the camera and defeat AGC plus give you a headphone jack. Then you could get a video mic pro that you could mount on the hotshoe mount. Depending on how close to your interviewee you are, that will get you a fantastic result. (on your 7D, anything 60mm or less should be close enough, but the closer the mic to the subject the better.) This leaves you with plenty of budget room to get some great monitoring headphones plus a bit of leftover change for mounting hardware.

That's pretty close to what I'd consider a "minimum" quality interview audio setup.

can you guide me through the whole thing? i'm pretty much a newbie in this audio world.
so i get the juiced link and what ? plug my camera to it? would it be difficult to do if i were to do it outside?
so when i mount the mic pro on my camera it just eliminates the noise right? would i need to get one of those small invisible mics on the interviewees to make it better?

as for the headphones, i don't think i need it because i think i'll stick with my bose headphone for now

Hmm... ok, time to get back to audio basics.
The VideoMicPro is a shotgun-style microphone. What this means is that it picks up sound straight in front of it very well, and rejects sound to the sides, meaning it's very "directional" -- think of it like a spotlight but for sound. You point it at the person talking, and it converts the sound waves to electrical waves, which shoots out of its output.

From there, you plug the VMP into your juicedlink box. This box is sort of like an amplifier. It gives you a "gain" knob that you can use to turn up or turn down the volume of your mic signal. From there, the signal goes to your headphone jack AND to an output cable that you run to your 7D's "Mic IN" or "line in" or whatever-it's-labeled jack. This way, you are using the camera to record the sounds that the VMP picks up. The Juickedlink box also has a "AGC Kill" mode which lets you override the 7D's "auto gain control." If you listen to the video you record with the on-board, do you notice how when a loud sound happens it gets quieter, and then when it's quiet it turns louder again, all by itself? That is Auto Gain Control trying to make everything the same volume. If the AGC system was instantaneous, then it might work, however it has a significant delay which is what makes it sound so weird. The Juicedlink box has a mode that sends a constant-volume tone through one channel so that the AGC sensor thinks it's always at the same volume, meaning the AGC doesn't fluctuate the volume at all, giving the control of the volume to you. The juicedlink box also gives you a place to plug your headphones into, since the 7D does not have an audio out.

Plugging it all in would take all of 10 seconds after you do it the first time and get it figured out.

The "invisible mics on interviewees" are called Lavalier, or clip-on, or "lav" mics. They would sound better than the shotgun because they are closer to the subject, but they are also quite a bit more expensive. Also, affixing a lav mic in such a way that it is not seen on camera can be somewhat tricky, and hiding the mic underneath clothes will degrade the sound quality. The shotgun mic like the VMP will get you a decent result quickly; the lav will get you a great result slowly.

awesome, thank you so much for your time.
so what you're saying these equips you suggested is pretty good already without a lavs?
if i were to shoot outside would i have to lug the juicedlink box as well? do i have to sync the audio? or is the audio already recorded in the video i shot?

The juicedlink box is pretty small, and I believe it can be mounted underneath the camera to the tripod screw. Not sure on that. But yes, you would have to lug it around -- though it's really not that big. On the product page is a picture showing it mounted on a 7D for an idea of size.

You won't have to sync the audio, as you're replacing the 7D's internal microphone with the signal from the VMP.

And this setup will be leaps-and-bounds better than the internal audio, but not quite as good as a proper lavalier setup. However, for a proper lav setup it's going to cost you a bit more money.

what would you recommend for the lavs one? if i get the lavs would i also need the shotgun?

If you want a wireless lav system, then you'd need something like this, one per person talking in your scene. From there, you would then need a way to record it, either via the Juicedlink DS214 like above, or a separate recorder like a Tascam DR-100. If you use a separate recorder, you would need to align the signals in post.
If you don't mind having wires in the scene, then you could use like a Sony ECM-55B, one per person talking. Then you'd need to route the signals to a recorder like above.

If you're recording your subject via lav mics then you probably don't need to also record over a shotgun mic.

yeah, i'll stick with the shotgun for now. again thank you so much, you are definitely the best!
it'll suffice with just that right?