Recording for YouTube

Tonyd · Dec 13, 2009

I've had a few friends and contacts ask me to post up a vid to show how my practice is going, and being a complete newbie to recording myself as well as playing I have lots of questions. Even though I don't intend to record loads of vids, I still want it to be watchable and ok sound quality.
If anyone has any advice I'd be very grateful.

What software do I need ? Is there a free/cheap option as I won't be recording all the time.
Do I need to buy a mic. or will the built in laptop mic. be ok ?

And any advice at all that you think might help.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

seeso · Dec 13, 2009

Are you on a Mac or PC? What kind of laptop is it?

Some people get fine results from a digital point and shoot camera. If you've got one already, that would be the cheapest option.

I don't know how your laptop mic sounds, but I'm sure it would be fine. There's only one way to find out. Try it.

Ken Middleton · Dec 13, 2009

seeso said:
Are you on a Mac or PC? What kind of laptop is it?

Some people get fine results from a digital point and shoot camera. If you've got one already, that would be the cheapest option.

I don't know how your laptop mic sounds, but I'm sure it would be fine. There's only one way to find out. Try it.

I agree with Seeso, a point and shoot camera is really fine. All of my videos are done this way. People who watch YT have come to expect video quality that is clearer than you get from some built in web cams though.

Try your computer mic first. If the sound quality isn't good, perhaps borrow a mic from someone and try it out. If you do buy a mic, it does have to be expensive though.

For Audio. I use Audacity on my PC. It is simple and free. Garage Band on the Mac works well too. I use the free video software too.

grammy · Dec 13, 2009

what seeso said. just try it.

if you have a camcorder or a digital flash cam then the mics built in will be good enough and the picture will be fine. it does depend on your laptop for the mic if you want to use a web cam, built in web cam mics are made for voice audio and aren't great for music, unless it is a mac who seem to use great quality for mics. but just try it and see.

some web cams have a built in mic but again these are not fantastic for music and in my experience give a lot of fuzz and background noise.

Something you should know though is that everyone 'cheats' with the audio they use an audio editor, usually sound forge, to clean up the sound, fill it out and generally make the sound closer to what they hear when they play ( cos recorded stuff is never like what you actually hear when you play live) i am not sure how much sound forge costs, i got mine free, but it is pretty simple to use if you can get it.

sebi · Dec 13, 2009

I agree with all the above.

Just try to record with your computer's internal mic. You can always delete the file if it's not good at all.

Friends of mine recorded an acoustic session for Youtube by simply using a Sanyo and a Canon digicam and it sounded just fine. I suggest, if you have a digicam laying around at home, just try recording a couple of samples with that as well. Also, some cell phones have video recording applications on them, which could work out as well. I've seen a couple of Youtube videos by Baron recorded with an iPhone that sounded perfect to me.

Looking forward to your first video

grammy · Dec 13, 2009

yeah the paper planes track that won the hip hop contest is done on a phone, but it think he did he audio track separately and synced.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrNYygKcyWQ

thatguywiththeukulele · Dec 13, 2009

ah yes...the joy of recording...as for software i use audacity it is a free program. you should defiantly check that out for audio editing. As for microphones,i suppose a built in one would be ok, but the quality is not going to be great..i personally use the blue snowball mic (costs 100 USD) hope this could help!

SweetWaterBlue · Dec 13, 2009

With all my vast experience (I have made one YouTube video), I just use my Logitech Pro 9000 webcam and its built in microphone. Its a great video camera, and the microphone is fine for voice on Skype, but I am discovering its not so good for music. I am getting some pops and crackle if I turn the mic volume up past about half-way, so I keep the recording volume low. I chose that particular webcam mainly because it works on Linux Skype out of the box, and my mom likes to see me when she talks to me.

For software, I use the video recording software that came with the webcam when I am running in Windows. I haven't tried recording with in it Linux yet. I am currently searching for a good microphone, but so far I am balking at paying twice as much for a mic as i paid for my uke. My son has a Zoom H2, which he has offered to let me borrow. I know that one gets great reviews here.

Ken Middleton · Dec 13, 2009

SweetWaterBlue said:
... My son has a Zoom H2, which he has offered to let me borrow. I know that one gets great reviews here.

It does give great results, but it is a real pain to use. You need a microscope to see the screen. Actually, I think the word "screen" is somewhat of an exaggeration.

However, as I said it does give excellent results. It is fine if you don't have to fiddle with it too much. Use it as a USB mic or record vocals on a mic stand and it is fairly simple. But it is not exactly intuitive.

On the positive side it is light, small, easy to transport, not too expensive and gives very good results.

Tonyd · Dec 13, 2009

Thanks !

Loads of great advice. I have a camera I can use, so I'll try that and have a play around trying the laptops mic and built in web cam too and see how the quality is on that.
I'll get there with some playing around, especially with the advice given. I'm a lot clearer now on how to start trying things out.

I'll definitely post up a link when I record something.

HaileISela · Dec 13, 2009

I got a Samson G-Track USB condenser microphone not too long ago and the results I get with it are incredible. I would suggest everyone to get it since it features direct monitoring and mixing. and it's only about 109 €.

here's an example of how it sounds: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r7sF3lEYqZE

Tonyd · Dec 13, 2009

I had a try with my built in web cam/mic just now, the camera was ok but the mic couldn't handle the Uke and lost most of the sound.
I then tried my Samsung digital camera and it's spot on, great picture quality and good sound too

many thanks again for the help and advice, much appreciated.

euchre · Dec 14, 2009

Ken Middleton said:
However, as I said it does give excellent results. It is fine if you don't have to fiddle with it too much. Use it as a USB mic or record vocals on a mic stand and it is fairly simple.

Yeah, the screen is definitely miniscule. Luckily though, once you've set the recording bitrate, type, etc you really only have to worry about the mic setting--hi, med, or lo. So you're basically using it as a point and shoot recorder. For transferring the audio files to the computer it's easier to just pull out the SD card and pop it into your pc.

Ken,

Your videos are excellent quality. I was suprised to learn you used a compact digital camera. Does it record to mpeg? What resolution are you using? I'm using pretty much the same setup--Sony CyberShot with H2--and when I convert to a manageable avi the quality decreases dramatically.

Any tips you could share on the video end would be appreciated.

Tom

SweetWaterBlue · Dec 18, 2009

Ken Middleton said:
It does give great results, but it is a real pain to use. You need a microscope to see the screen. Actually, I think the word "screen" is somewhat of an exaggeration.

However, as I said it does give excellent results. It is fine if you don't have to fiddle with it too much. Use it as a USB mic or record vocals on a mic stand and it is fairly simple. But it is not exactly intuitive.

On the positive side it is light, small, easy to transport, not too expensive and gives very good results.

I borrowed my son's H4 tonight to play with for awhile. To say that it is a pain to use is an understatement so far. I could not get the drivers to install on my machine, but finally got both the recorder and the mic to work. The sound is simply wonderful. One big problem is that when I record with my webcam, my computer tells me there is no volume control for this mic. Still, I can see its potential. I want to try to figure out how to do a multi-track recording and have downloaded the manual.

Recording for YouTube

Tonyd

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