I use a Yeti (super capable mic, but it does take some experimenting to find the right setting, angle, and placement) and my phone to record the video. Until just recently, I used GarageBand and iMovie (both free on Macs) but found that I couldn’t sync the audio and video together as precisely as I wanted and on longer videos there would be a growing drift in time until it would look like a dubbed movie if you know what I mean.
It could have been solved by cutting to different angles and re-syncing the video to match the audio, but I’m only doing one camera and one angle (for now).
My wife needed to get a new computer for school and I bought the education bundle that was offered with it that included Final Cut Pro and Logic. The jump from GarageBand to Logic want so bad, but I needed to look up how to do stuff in Final Cut. They aren’t joking when they say these are capable programs used by professionals. I joined a couple FB groups to try to figure stuff out and learn the programs more so I can hopefully make better videos in the future.
Anyway, I recorded my latest video using Logic and Final Cut and it was fun to use a new system even if it was in the exact same way I was using GarageBand and iMovie. And I was able to zoom in close enough in the timeline to sync the audio and video perfectly. But you learn something new every time you make a video and this time I learned not to use the native camera app on the iPhone because it tries to stabilize videos and, if the camera is stationary and not a lot of stuff is going on, it makes lines go wavy. I was recommended a different camera app for the phone and it should be fixed for the next time I record.
Anyway, a good mic will help out quite a bit but I don’t think you need the expensive software - at least not at first. You can do a lot with stuff as you learn more about it. Just have fun and try to learn as much as you can as you make more videos.
-Luke