GoPro Audio Options

Quite a few people ask about audio for a GoPro, without I am guessing, much knowledge of how audio works. In short, a lot think a microphone is a microphone is a microphone.

(During my stint at the local Jaycar store this was also evident from the general public as a whole, with customers simply asking to buy a “microphone” without even thinking there may be different types for differing tasks).

Secondly, you also pay for what you get; a $20 mic from an overseas online seller is NOT going to give you anywhere near the quality of a decent mic from a reputable manufacturer experienced in audio such as Sennheiser, RØDE etc.

In terms of the GoPro, you have a number of options to gather audio. The first of course is to simply use the onboard mic, and indeed, if you intend to put the camera anywhere near water as in snorkelling, swimming etc, you have no other choice, especially if the underwater housing is used. (The exception to this is yoiu have a GoPro 4 as Sennheiser made a special waterproof mic for this model. If anyone wants one, I have a spare to sell).

The second way is to get the GoPro MediaMod and use its built in mic.

Each of these options means you don’t need to actually buy a microphone, but in practice, the GoPro mics are not overly brilliant at recording decent audio

The third, is to get the optional mic adaptor unit from GoPro (AUD$80 approx) which converts the camera’s USB port into a 3.5mm mic port, but of course, then you will need to get hold of an external mic and find a way of mounting it.

If you own a GoPro 12, you have one further option which is to use the Bluetooth functionality to capture audio from a paired Bluetooth device such as Apple Airpods, Jabra Elite, Pixel Buds, Samsung Galaxy buds and so on (a complete list of supported devices is at https://community.gopro.com/s/article/HERO12-Black-Bluetooth-Headset-Support

The best way in my opinion is a combination of the MediaMod and an external mic, as this way you have the luxury of using either an add on mic that will in the MediaMod’s cold shoe, or better (depending on your needs), a genuine radio mic system, as against the limited operability of Bluetooth.

I have tested a lot of external mics with GoPros and my choices for mics range around Sennheiser, RØDE, DJI, and Hollyland.

In Part 2 I’ll run through which models I have used and recommend,