audio/video recording questions

d_dog
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Joined: Wed Nov 18, 2009 12:41 pm
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Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:58 am

Mark I forgot to mention in my ridiculously long post... don't discount the option of buying a regular XLR type mic and using an XLR to 1/8" adapter to plug it into your camera or computer, I have one and use it quite often for this purpose. This opens up your options for microphones greatly.
Here is a link to the type of adapter I'm talking about, works great.
http://www.zzounds.com/item--HOSXVM49

The only type of mic you'll want to stay away from in your case is a condenser mic, these mic's require phantom power and won't work plugged directly into the camera or computer, unless of course you buy a phantom power supply or pre-amp to run them through first.
But other than that, a good dynamic cardioid mic will work excellently.
Can't go wrong with a Sure SM57
http://www.zzounds.com/item--SHUSM57LC


sws626
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Joined: Sun Jan 03, 2010 1:00 am
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Wed Mar 10, 2010 7:38 am

Hi Mark,

Great questions. I'm no kind of expert, but can share some of what I've been experimenting with.

As a starting point, I should mention that my guitar (Martin 000-28EC) is not especially loud and has no internal electronics; my video camera (JVC Everio) is pretty basic with no input for an external mic. For a quick, spontaneous recording and upload to YouTube or this site, the internal mic on the camera of sufficient quality to solicit feedback from other forum members. The camera needs to be pretty close to the guitar, but for simplicity, it can't be beat.

To get better audio quality and more flexibility, I recently started using a Zoom H4n portable 4-track recorder with its built-in stereo microphones and two external mic/line inputs. Similar equipment is available from Boss, Tascam and others. The internal stereo mics are quite good for either vocal or acoustic guitar. Depending on what I'm trying to accomplish, I can run either previously recorded audio tracks from my laptop, an external mic (Shure Beta 57A, in my case), or an electric guitar lead into the external inputs. I mix the tracks on the Zoom and synchronize with the video using AVS.

The sound is a lot cleaner than using the internal video camera mic or than running a mic into my laptop, but it is so much more hassle to set up and post-process that I only do this is for special projects or when I have a lot of time on my hands (i.e., rarely).

- Stuart


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