What do I need and how much do I need to be able to record music in my house?

best video camera for recording music image

skysky

I would like to start recording music w/ a laptop (singing + guitar + occasional piano). I've always heard of the macs and how great they are for musicians....but I'd like to hear some more opinions. Would buying mics/ video camera/ etc be better and more affordable? suggestions please.

Answer
There are so many answers to this question, but the first question to you would be how professional do you want your recordings to be and how big is your budget? A video camera is going to give you a very low end recording. There are a zillion software recording programs to use with computer recording. Probably the most popular right now is Pro Tools, but there are many others, each with it's own learning curve. There are also hard disk recorders that you can use independent of your computer and then transfer it to your computer is you like for editing. Many of these come with a built in cd drive in which you can master and burn a cd directly from the unit. Again, much like cars, there are the bare bones models and then there are the ones with all the bells and whistles. One thing for sure is that you need a really good mic and you need a fairly soundproof place to record vocals. A good mic can make or break a good recording. I have always been a pc person, though I have friends that swear by mac. I think it depends on what you are comfortable with because you can get great software for either. Do a little research before you invest a lot of money. You might try starting out on some used gear. Try ebay or your local music store. Good luck.

What are the best laptops for recording music/video?

skysky

I would like to start recording music w/ a laptop (singing + guitar + occasional piano). I've always heard of the macs and how great they are for musicians....but I'd like to hear some more opinions. Would buying mics/ video camera/ etc be better and more affordable? suggestions please.

Answer
Wondershare Streaming Video Recorder is a powerful online video downloader which supports all popular protocol, such as HTTP, RTMP, RTSP, and MMS. Video sites like Yahoo, Google,MySpace, CNN, PBS, etc are all supported.

This Streaming Video Recorder can download online videos, online TV shows, online movies, live sports and other streaming videos. The built-in converter let you convert downloaded videos to MP4, 3GP, WMV, AVI, MOV, MPG for your iPhone, iPod, Cell Phone, etc.

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What is the difference in audio recording quality between tape and hard drive video cameras?

best video camera for recording audio image

Slim Slurp

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.

Answer
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.

What video camera has the best sound recording capability?

Ross

I'm looking for a video camera to record some videos of myself playing the piano. I honestly care more about sound quality than picture quality, yes, I would like to have a very good quality video, but sound is more important in this case. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Answer
If you can swing it, take the audio feed from microphones into your computer's hard drive and take the video feed from the camera into the computer's hard drive and record them simultaneously into an appropriate program. Most modern camcorders have CD quality sound now but you could get even better quality sound if you do it this way because it allows you to use superior microphones, external equalizers, and other sound processing gear to get your sound. This is how the professionals do it and there is a reason for that. Good luck to you!

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