Kanile'a/UU "Spread the Aloha" Ukulele Contest--MICROPHONE POLL

After viewing all of the great entries in the Kanile'a/UU "Spread the Aloha" Ukulele Contest, I've got a few questions I'm hoping y'all could help me with.

As I'm new to the ukulele and posting videos in general, I'd appreciate some input.

I've got three questions I would like the UUUniverse--specifically those who regularly post videos--to address:

1) Microphones
2) Video Software
3) Audio Software

Here's the first about microphones.

hey, if you do vote, please give tips/reviews/feedback on what particular equipment you use.

for example, if you have the usb blue snowball mic & you love it or hate it, let us know.

thanks! :shaka:

1) Audio Technica ATM61HE, dynamic mic, very good for vocals and guitars/ukes. Look for a cardioid polar patern, this means it concertrates on picking up noise mainly infront as apposed to sides and rear. I trialed a lot of mics before settling on this one, its very clear and has a very good range, I've tried Shure mics which shops often recommend but didn't like them for vocals and gutiars/ukes.
Its through a Toneport UX2 (don't need a soundcard with one of these), which is an extremely good and simple piece of equipment allowing you to plug multiple mics into your computer and multitrack them (record them to individual tracks in one session then individually adjust each track).

2) Vegas Movie Studio 9 Platinum edition (this links to the new version I think). Video software that works in a multitrack format, very good and fairly user friendly. If you have the money everything is going HD so it would be benificial to buy an HD camera. I'm using a Sony Handycam HDR-SR10. Handycams are great, but when you miniturise you make compromises, so they do suffer from a bit of a grainy picture, but I'm happy with it and they are fairly highly reviewed.

3) Adobe Audition 3.0, you can get this cheap as a student on those student software websites. It is (or was last time I checked) regarded as the leading multitrack recorder in regards to sound quality and sound editing techniques by many multitrack users.

4) Bits and pieces: I'm don't tend to mess about with audio to much anymore, the only thing I do always do is put reverb on everything, it gives it that polished proffesional sound and is always worth doing.
Always edit and adjust levels/sound through speakers not headphones!

In my experiences if I put the time in, I can get better finished recordings than the local (bearing in mind these are cheap recording studios) recording studios who have masses of racks and money spued into recording equipment. So I'm really happy with it as a home recording studio that does not require ££££'s

As for quality I'm afraid for me I don't enjoy videos that are uploaded in low quality (i.e. mobile phone uploads), and the same for audio, internal speakers, it often doesn't do justice to the talant of the person performing and can take away from the enjoyment.

These are just my opinions though, people will have alternatives that work just as well or better for themselves.

So far, I really love my blue snowball(usb). It works just fine for me with its 3 settings.

We used a Samson C01 with Apogee Duet Firewire connection recorded into Logic (Apple). The Samson C01U is the same mic with USB connection and it sounds exactly the same (no additional connection needed). For good audio with the camera, we always use an external mic. I used After Effects for the video, including lyrics and chord diagrams. I should have used Final Cut to edit the video, but I already had all the lyrics and chords in AE, and I didn't have time to jump between programs. After Effects is good for animations, composites and special effects. Final Cut is good for editing.
–Lori

We used a Sony HD video camera and its' built-in mic.

Nothing fancier than that.

Keep uke'in',

PS: search for "strum ukulele 2010" on YouTube for my entry.

RyRod said:

So far, I really love my blue snowball(usb). It works just fine for me with its 3 settings.

Click to expand...

Ditto to that. I love my blue snowball! Just plug it in and you are ready to go, it's as easy as that. Not to mention it sounds great.

Although I don't produce videos, I do record quite a bit. I tend to use a standard dynamic mic, with a common 3.5mm jack (I think it's that size - the same size as common earphones).

ahh, a topic I'm embarassed to talk about- because of my lack of equipment and the amount of work i put into each video to make up for it. I use a regular digital canon camera- that can also take video. and I use Windows Movie Maker to put all the sounds and videos together. Heres the basic order of events:
1. record a ukulele video and upload it
2. while listening to the uke video, add a vocal video
3. put those into Windows Movie Maker, time them up together, and publish as First Draft.
4. record another video- maybe percussion this time.
5. Time together in Windows Move Maker the "first draft" video and the new percussion video, calling it second draft.
6. Repeat a couple more times with more instruments til I'm satisfied.
7. upload onto youtube and wonder why on Earth I havent invested in a better system yet...

so windows movie maker can or can't do tracks? or do you just add/overlay that additional part to the existing version? interesting.

wondows movie maker has only one slot for video and one slot for audio. So technically it CANT do multi-tracking.

What I described above is sort of a way to FORCE multi tracking with WMM to work. Side effects may include poor video quality, poor audio quality, and wasted hours of your life.