Sunday, April 28, 2013

whats a cheap video camera that would give good sound if i recorded a concert?

Q. i want to record my band practice... what is a video camera that would give good results sound wise? im looking to spend less than 200 dollars on ebay.

A. i have a flip video maby you could get it its not the best sound but its not expencive


What is the difference in audio recording quality between tape and hard drive video cameras?
Q. I am searching for a new video camera so I can record live concerts for my band. Audio set up will be 2 condenser mics on an 8 foot boom patched into a single 1/8 inch mic jack on the camera. Would tape or hard drive be a better option to record to as far as quality? I am aware that hard drives hold more data. I am only concerned with audio quality.

A. The recording media (in this case tape vs hard drive) is irrelevent. They are both digital. HDD camcorder compress the vido (and audio) more...

You did not tell us what sort of music. If it is loud, your bigger issue is that hard disc drive camcorders can be impacted by the vibrations from the loud audio to the point of parking the hard drive heads to protect the platters. Neither miniDV tape nor flash memory based camcorders have this vibration issue.

It is also possible that the loud audio - even if it does not shut down the hard drive because of the vibrations - can be loud enough to oversaturate the audio track resulting in a muddy sound - and what seems to be static. This is because the camcorder's auto mic gain can't handle it. This cannot be fixed when editing and will happen with any mic. You need to control the audio gain.

Some consumer Sony camcorders have a "MicRefLevel" setting for "Normal" audio gain and "Low" gain for high volume environments. This is rudimentary, but will work. Better is the more granular manual audio control used by the Canon HV30 or HV40.

Hard drives might be able to hold more TOTAL data, but consumer hard disc drive camcorders generally record to much more highly compressed MPEG2 standard definition or AVCHD/MTS high definition files. Your goal for "better quality" *should* be less compression - not more.

Most decent condenser mics are XLR based. In order for them to be used with a consumer grade camcorder with a 1/8" (3.5mm) stereo audio-in jack, I would suggest using an XLR adapter like one from juicedLink (CX231) or BeachTek (DXA-6). In addition to more granular control of the audio gain, they can also provide phantom power to the condensor mics. Use of XLR-to-1/8" "tails" is not recommended - the jack is too easy to break in the camcorder. The XLR adapters are set up such a way that do not stress the jack/plug as much as those cable tails do. Also, if the mics are on a boom then they are likely to be using a cable longer than about 15 feet - which means you need to use shielded - balanced - cables... which means XLR.

If you insist on going the path with a 1/8" tail, be sure it is to two XLR jacks that provuide you with some left/right audio separation. Again, this is not the recommended path.

You should consider reading up on "X-Y mic placement" at wikipedia for optimizing the stereo separation with the mics you plan to use - or take a look at a RODE stereo mic or the design of the Audio Technica AT-822 or AT-825... or the Shure VP-66. The mic capsules are set up in the X-Y pattern making the mic head housings look fat.


How do I upload a video from my video camera?
Q. I have a Canon DC330 and I just got back from recording my band and I've already downloaded the two cds that it came with. Now I've tried plugging the video camera into the computer and I felt lost. Then I tried just sticking the cd into the computer and I was still clueless. Somebody help me out please!

A. Try the free software from stashspace. It lets you record video directly from your camcorder onto your computer. Then you can stash your video for secure online storage or share your video. Check them out at http://www.stashspace.com





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