What/how. Recording audio for youtube videos..

skunkwerx

Hi all. 

For a while I've been toying with the idea of looking into this problem. 

I make the ad-hoc youtube video, talking about my guitars or gear/doing lil reviews. Nothing massive or popular or professional. Its just me in my bedroom. 

The video aspect is fine. I use a Panasonic hc-w850 camcorder. It does 1080p and I film in mp4 mode, then do basic editing in Serif (which sucks because it caps the bitrate at 40,000 odd, half of what the camcorder films in). 

So once uploaded to youtube there is a little quality degradation, mainly the blacks look blockier and when panning its a little stuttery. 

I believe I solved this aspect when using a free trial of Adobe premiere elements (If memory serves), but I havent got around to buying the full version. 

Anyway back to the audio. 

Currently I use the camcorders built in mic. Not great but does the job. Doesnt sound very professional though. 

My first thought was to buy a Rode video mic, which is a mono type mic that I believe plugs directly into my camcorders audio in jack (looks like a 3.5mm socket but could be smaller). 

That should improve the audio quality I would imagine and be the simplest of options. Powered by a 9v battery and has some attenuation built in etc.

I've seen them sell for £150 approx give or take on various guitar websites. 

I should mention, I have very little technical knowledge of filming, recording or computers, and I struggle to learn on my own and also don't fancy attempting to put the trial and error and time in right now. My laptop is ok for handling the basic video editing though. 

So ideally I'm looking for as basic/simple as possible that an idiot can use. I'm not really interested in editing the audio after the fact, apart from maybe having to lower or raise the volume and cut and trim sections if I've fucked up or rambled. 

I hear of guys plugging their guitars into the computers and recording direct. 

I see a lot of youtube players have a computer behind them where its clearly recording the audio. 

It looks complicated but also I would rather plug my guitar into my amps and pedalboard (a katana 100 and a simple blackstar 10 watt valve jobbie) and just record the sound that comes out of them as it is in the room. 

I don't have to worry about an in the room mic picking up sounds such as planes going over or me dropping my guts, as I simply do not care lol! If its bad I'll just take another cut. 

I also don't really play at anything above bedroom volume, if that makes a difference. 

But I have little idea what I even need to do this. 

Do you just buy a recording box, and a microphone. Record the audio as you film, then import both audio and video files separately into the editing program, and somehow sync the audio up to the video? 

I imagine even that could get messy if I'm cutting video and audio loads then having to sync each trimmed part up. 

But also what if I wanted to talk then play then talk then play 'in the moment'? 

I could film myself doing the talking parts with the mic near my mouth, then film separately the guitar playing with the mic next to the amp, but thats a bit meh. I want to be able to talk, either as I play, or stop playing, talk about what I wanna say, then play some more. 

The more I think about it, the more the Rode camera mic seems to be suitable, as its basically the same as what I'm doing now but with hopefully better quality audio. But it would still be sat on the camera a couple meters or less (maybe even 1) pointed at my dumb ass face. 

Rode do 2 types. The stereomic and the videomic. 

From my basic understanding they are the same idea but one is stereo and one is mono? Stereo doesnt appeal too much as I might get imbalances left to right depending on how the camera is angled and where Im sat/moving. 

Restrictions of it being done in a bedroom! 

The mic would be mounted on top of the camera, nowhere else to put it and I don't fancy buying and storing a separate tripod just for it.  

To give an idea, this is the kind of thing I'll be doing, however sometimes the camera will be sat static pointing at me while I talk/play. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9dP69kgbHss

spark240

Err.....whats the actual question ;-)....Im using the Logitech c920 webcam, onboard audio is fine, when you pull the clips into Adobe elements it separate the audio and video so you can edit, you can record additional audio if you want with the same unit then delete the video, I dont do any actual narration on my music vids....but results are thus...

I am using a full DAW setup for recording the multi guitars, then mix and all a stereo WAV file into Adobe.

Note - Adobe is heavy on the CPU.

If you need any more help ...

poopot

For this I took an out from logic into my video pre and monitored the backing from the output of the video pre via head phones.

that way you video the take that’s captured by logic...

once the video is downloaded into Final Cut Pro you can strip out the audio and add the mixed audio tracked and mixed in logic.

https://youtu.be/g_B6_KVQj04 

Whistler

If you are using Serif, perhaps look at DaVinci Resolve. It is by Serif and may just be the upgrade you are looking for without starting the learning curve totally from scratch.

Regarding recording your voice and the guitar from the combo, my thought turns to the acoustic treatment in your room - how well balanced the frequencies are and how much reverb is under control without just having a muffled, muddy sounding audio.

hollywoodrox

poopot said:

For this I took an out from logic into my video pre and monitored the backing from the output of the video pre via head phones.

that way you video the take that’s captured by logic...

once the video is downloaded into Final Cut Pro you can strip out the audio and add the mixed audio tracked and mixed in logic.

https://youtu.be/g_B6_KVQj04 

You should do more jam covers ,they are quite enjoyable little Nostalgia time machines 

Chris_J

Another vote for DaVinci Resolve as a video editor, there's a free version which will be more than adequate for your needs.

You can also do quite a bit of audio editing in it, the majority of vst plugins work in it too.

spark240

hollywoodrox said:

poopot said:

For this I took an out from logic into my video pre and monitored the backing from the output of the video pre via head phones.

that way you video the take that’s captured by logic...

once the video is downloaded into Final Cut Pro you can strip out the audio and add the mixed audio tracked and mixed in logic.

https://youtu.be/g_B6_KVQj04 

You should do more jam covers ,they are quite enjoyable little Nostalgia time machines 

Erm...?.

lukedlb

DaVinci Resolve YES.
Expensive audio solution for guitar: ox box plus audio interface. Or guitar direct to audio interface with plugins, etc.
Voice mic: Rode wireless Go as a lapel mic, although a shotgun mic just out of frame pointing at your mouth will provide better quality. The guitar will pin you to your chair so you won't have any need to move out of mic direction.

BahHumbug

I’ve made a few vids of me playing acoustic guitar.  I used a single small diaphragm condenser through an audio interface into my DAW.  I’ve recorded the video using two phones.  To do a take I have to start the DAW and both phones recording before sitting down and starting to play.
i treat the audio with eq, compression and whatever in the DAW, then export a mix.
Then I import the video and audio into the Lightworks video editor and sync it together manually.

its not exactly world class but it’s cheap.