After reading the book ‘Production Sound Mixing’ by John J. Murphy, I came away with many tips and consequent ideas on how to successfully record sound for moving image.
In reference to wind, what one might think is only a gentle breeze, that can’t possibly do anything to a recording, most likely will, rendering the recording unusable. Use wind shields, any type of shelter and ultimately try to avoid wind at all costs.
Another must is to Verbally ID every take and rename files something useful, thus saving loads of time later. At the beginning or end of each take, state the location, when it is and what you’re recording is key to avoiding confusion when going back over the recordings.
Also, it is good practice to always monitor with your headphones on while recording anything. You don’t hear what your microphone/recorder is hearing, so wearing headphones when recording anything is necessary in order to identify anything disruptive like wind or overhead noises, and also to see if your recording levels are set up OK. It will also help one identify interesting details in the sound environment that they might want to focus on more.
Additionally, always record in WAV (uncompressed audio) format, in stereo, in order to ensure the highest quality of sound. Whilst the file size may be bigger, it can always be reduced later, but the quality of a source recording if you’ve originally captured it as a low-quality mono MP3 cannot be increased.
Lastly, when watching recording levels it is better to have them set slightly too low than too high – one sudden increase in volume in the sound environment and the sound will start clipping causing digital distortion which is impossible to get rid of and will ruin the recording. If the sound is a bit too quiet, you can always boost it in editing later on.