Basic video+audio recording: what's the minimum to get something worhwhile?

Snags

The context is doing something for my own amusement that may get shared so ideally slightly higher quality than just propping the phone up. However, being under no illusions about my talent, time, or wealth, I also don't want to throw heaps of cash at the problem.

In the first instance probably just looking at recording stuff webcam stylee for upload to a private YouTube channel at most.

Immediately available kit:

• Surface Pro 4 laptop with built-in camera/mics (+ dock, + 2 x 24" 1920x1200 monitors)
• old MS LifeCam 3000 webcam with integrated mic
• Alesis iO2 audio interface (2 channel)
• Zoom H6
• couple of Samson Q7 mics
  
• Reaper
• any bundled video editing apps with Win 10

Obviously guitars, amps, pedals etc. as well.

I've had a quick go with just the LifeCam for audio and video, and the audio is very muted - I was just playing acoustic and singing, no amplifiication.

I've used the interfaces and Reaper for doing audio-only stuff in the past, but obviously for video don't necessarily want mic stands stuck front and centre.

I'm beginning to suspect that the correct answer is, after all, just to prop the phone up somewhere and use that (Samsung S9) but somehow that feels ultra low-rent, rather than just skinflint bodge, which is more my normal level.

I have absolutely no intention of going out and buying an old Canon 5D body or similar (although do have an ancient 30D but that doesn't do video, IIRC).

Just stick with the phone, or can a genuinely modest outlay up the result somewhat?

oaf

Record video with phone, audio through the gear you've listed then sync after the fact?

Clap before you start to give yourself an obvious sync point and record your audio at 48kHz.

You can manually line up the audio/video easily enough in Reaper or use something like Resolve (free version) too. If you record long sessions then you might find the audio/video start to drift but over a single song you'll probably be fine having the two separate.

I think you could get a good result with what you have/a few free utilities, e.g. I used ffmpeg to combine the (mixed in Reaper) audio for fretfinder's isolation tapes songs. I think he shot those on an iPhone with a Shure external add on/mic.

rico

I have almost zero experience with video and only marginally more experience with audio. Your samsung phone probably has
a good camera so experimenting with lighting will be the best way to make the most of the video quality. If you have a bright room, use that and then bodge up some other lights with LED torches/other phone torches and sheets of white paper in front to diffuse them.

Depending on the content of the video, mic stands could add some artistic production value?!

The Alesis interface with Reaper will be absolutely fine. Since you are recording video with your phone, you could use the audio tracks to add some 'room' feel to the audio tracks with a bit of EQ and moderate compression.

Have a play around!

Whistler

Use the sound from the webcam simply as a place-marker for the real audio which you can record with real mics.

The Alesis iO2 is of high enough quality that your audio will be good enough.

You may find that the video editing software will be a limiting factor. If so, then is the time to find something more capable.

The webcam is not high quality (it's 720HD) but that will be good enough until you have got used to editing multi-track videos and are ready to up the video quality. In other words, I suspect that lack of ability and experience will be your first to upgrade, so get playing and then upgrade other bits of kit as you need. It is amazing what a capable person can do with poor wuality kit compared with an inexperienced person using top notch kit.

Jalapeno

For lockdown singalongs, a laptop with camera/cameraphone is fine.

Next good mics/interface

Then better camera than your phone/laptop

Finally simple video editing

... all this assumes you're live recording +/- playback in the room

Then shit gets serious, you'll need Reaper or another DAW, and a decent video editor to synch sound and vision.

Snags

Thanks all. @Whistler is absolutely right that my own crushing ignorance will be the limiting factor at the start of the process!

I did wonder about doing the two separately, but wasn't sure about linking it all up. I'll go have a look at the Reaper side of things for that, as I'm reasonably content doing basic audio recording into Reaper - it's what I used for slightly more polished song ideas/'demos' when sharing stuff with the band/collaborators and have more time than just grabbing an idea on the phone.

oaf

Have a go then come back with questions/if/when you get stuck.

midlifecrisis

Just been messing around doing very similar thing myself, useing reaper for audio , for video i tried resolve but it seemed too complicated even on installation telling me i was missing certain files (on win 10) so i tried Videopad, which has a free 7 day trial and is not expensive( and not that im condoning there are plenty of youtube vids giving the key codes away). 

Snags

Initial experimentation is going OK just using the Surface Pro camera (which is better than the external one) and recording the audio directly into Reaper. If i get into it I suspect the next step will be an old SLR body (but newer than the one I own) and a mic that can be mounted more discretely.

Not that the world particularly needs to hear my music, let alone see my ugly mug performing it. But it might come in useful as a threat.

spark240

Guys here's my method....record all audio to DAW to whatever you are using, generally play back and play along with the audio track whilst recording video ( Logitech 920) , do these a few times to capture different changes, lead riffs etc....I then drag audio and video into adobe Elemet editor, but I believe Movie maker works also, and sync up, editing video to suit...I have no click or sync tool, I just watch and listen and line them up.....result as you have have seen.....

Snags

If I was going to do that I'd definitely need to do it to a click, and would have to be much more disciplined with my vocals - on originals I have a tendency to vary them each time, which would look odd, potentially.

However, a quick experiment comping up a video feed from the phone with vocal/acoustic into Reaper, then sync'ing the video with the audio appears to be a success.

Now I need to do something about the immediate environment, find a slightly better place to mount the phone, lose some weight and get some talent

spark240

Now I need to do something about the immediate environment, find a slightly better place to mount the phone, lose some weight and get some talent 

Indeed.....the right camera angles and lighting can be more time consuming than actually recording the stuff !

Snags

Things I have learnt so far:

• clap sync is easy, and your friend
• videoing the audio take is super easy (see above)
  
• recording the audio separate to the video is an absolute nightmare, purely in terms of trying to get the vocals to look 'right' (largely because I don't quite sing things exactly the same each time). The guitar work looks fine, but even with everything in sync, subtle differences in vocal performance show up hugely. I have a renewed grudging respect for people who lip sync
• Reaper produces HUGE video output files

I'm assuming the latter is because although you mute the video audio, it doesn't strip it from the file, then it adds loads of other stuff on top.

Is there a freeware/similar-to-Reaper priced video editing tool that would produce less offensively large output files?

mrkb

Yes, but When do we get to see it!?!

Snags

Shit, no-one gets to see the first one, it's proof of concept!