Recording live

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:15 pm

All of you have helped me in the past, and I thank you for it.

I play in a small band each week at the local VFW post.
We have recorded with elcheapo recorders and video cameras, and have gotten everything from crap to lots of crap.
Question
How can we (inexpensively) get a video with decent audio???
(Video is not the problem)
Thanks again,
Walt

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:26 pm

harpster wrote:

We have recorded with elcheapo recorders ... How can we ... get ... decent audio

AFAIK, El Cheap-oh in = El Cheap-oh out.

Just a blind stab in the dark, but iZotope makes some pretty good software for cleaning audio. It might be worth a try.

How about some more detail? recording device? bit rate? sample depth? microphones? placement? instrumentation? genre of music?

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:02 pm

Geckomusic,
Thanks for the reply.
As far as "recording devise" goes, so far it's been the video camera.
I guess that would be one of my questions, what would you recommend to use in conjuction with the video camera?
Bit Rate, I have no idea???
Sample Depth, I have no idea???
Mics, are just general vocal and instrument mics. All of the instruments are through a mixer and into 2 "6ft high" 12" speakers, spaced about 14 to 16 ft. apart.
The accordian and one guitar have their own amps.
Instruments are
* Drum machine & Bass (Played by the lead guitar)
* Rythem guitar
* Lead guitar
* Accoridan
* Banjo
* Harp
*VocalsThe genre of music is pretty much contemperary, country, pop, polka, you name it...!
we're just a bunch of old foegies that like to play music.

Being I really don't know what I'm talking about when it comes to tech talk, it's hard to ask, if I don't know what to ask.

I have had help from a lot of you in helping me understand basic home recording.
I use "Audition 2" and "Sonar" as my recording software.

I hope this hepled some.
Walt

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:15 pm

ohh... You want to know how you can do it differently to achieve better results. I thought you were looking to clean up what you already have.

The easiest solution would be to get a field recorder, and put it on a microphone stand in the front row.

If you have someone that can run the mixer while you are playing, then you could use a couple of AUX sends as a recording mix and send that to a laptop to record.

If the mixer has inserts, you could connect an audio interface to all of the channels and mix it at home.

Or do you want to make a music video? I can't do much besides confuse you if that is the case. Smile

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 4:06 pm

A m
"music Video" is probably the best discription of what I want to accomplish.
I probably should have said that to began with, sorry.
As far as the info you gave me, it won't go to waist, I have built a portfollio for all the tech stuff I get from you guys.

I will be satisified with a "You Tube" quality music video.
Thanks,
Walt

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 4:17 pm

How good is the audio section of the video camera? We got one a couple of years ago that recorded audio in 16 bit. We bought one of these Rode stereo mics that fit on the cold shoe. Vast improvement in sound quality. Used it for outdoor concerts, marching band, etc. Dead easy and good enough for YouTube.

Posted: Tue Oct 07, 2008 8:10 pm

Here is exactly what you need to to make a quality LIVE MUSIC VIDEO. Now this is different from a "Music Video" which is produced the same way as a movie is produced. But both elements can be utilized as well.

You need to take a feed off of your PA Board. This can be a simple stereo mix to a 2 track digital recorder capable of at least 44.1kHz, 16-bit. Flash type, CD, laptop, etc.. 48kHz @24-bit, would be preferable for TV purposes. If you have the ability to plug in a multitrack recorder such as an HD 24, all the better.

Next, your camcorders. You'll want at least one wide lockdown go to shot, from the back on a high tripod. Then you'll want perhaps one person with a tripod off to stage left or right. You'll want a third camera guy to go handheld. You'll need to use digital video camcorders that preferably use mini DV tapes. These will work out better since they are considered uncompressed even though they utilize a 5: 1 compression scheme. DVD, hard disk drive & flash based camcorders present more of a synchronization, editing & conversion headache.

You'll want to start all of your camcorders within at least 30 seconds of each other and leave them running continuously until end of set. There is no reason to play with time code, and/or stopping and starting for these types of shoots.

Once you have captured the performance, you'll need to transfer everything into a capable computer. Lately, I've enjoyed utilizing Sony's Vegas software since it is both a video editing software & multitrack audio software. But make no mistake, I'll frequently treat the posting as 2 separate Vegas projects. That is, I'll mix the multitrack audio first and create a stereo mix. I record & mix at 48kHz since DVD release is generally 48kHz. Up sampling from 44.1kHz is not a problem but why bother?

Once I have my stereo mix, I'll insert the set to the multi-camera project. I'll edit my picture to sound utilizing the camcorder audio as my reference for tightest synchronization. In the last stages, I'll frequently take some of the camcorder audio and mix it under for the ambience but certainly NOT at full volume. That usually sounds like amateur hour or even worse.

You then render the whole production out to a final .AVI, which later can be further manipulated & mastered to a menued & Chaptered DVD. You can also compress your .AVI master into a MPEG-4 stereo video file to upload to You Tube, My Space, etc.. I've got years worth of rock-and-roll shows that I produced this way. It's a lot of work since the editing process of the video is frequently around 15: 1. Most of this will hold sync fairly well but not always. That's when it's the biggest pain, having to synchronize each and every song! But the end results of editing in this manner is a preemptive way of editing so you never get a lousy looking shot. You already know what you want before it happens since it's all done after-the-fact like multitrack audio mixing.

Oh, and you might want to build up a Crane as it will make your video look like HOLLYWOOD! That's what I've been doing for the past few years. It's unbelievable looking!

If you need further assistance, drop me a line and I'll clue you in.
Ms. Remy Ann David

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2008 5:39 pm

You "could" do what a previous poster detailed or, you could just get the PreSonus "Mega-Studio Audio/Video Creation Studio". Brief information from the PreSonus WEB-site is shown below:

COMPLETE AUDIO AND VIDEO CREATION STUDIO

The MegaStudio Producer gives you everything you need to record your music, create your videos and distribute and sell your music worldwide!

Included with the MegaStudio Producer are more than FOUR HOURS OF TUTORIAL VIDEOS showing you step-by-step how to produce professional-quality recordings and videos taking the mystery out of music and video production.

MegaStudio Producer features the award-winning PreSonus FP10 (formerly FIREPOD) FireWire recording interface, more than $2,000 worth of music and video production software, 5 free uploads to iTunes from TuneCore, as well as free BroadJam.com membership and a complete “Go Pro” guide with tons of information on sharing, distributing and selling your music and videos.

Here are a couple of links that will take you right to what you need:

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=42

http://www.presonus.com/products/Detail.aspx?ProductId=8

And, the stuff isn't as expensive as you might think!!

Best of Luck!!

JBWilliams

/

This topic sponsored by: