Skip to main content

Alright. Hopefully there is someone who has a knowledge of recording and would love to share. Here is my situation:

I currently record a lot of guitar + vocal covers using a Canon Vixia HV30. After noticing the sound quality was lacking, I purchased a RODE Videomic which was definitely a step up, but still was not at the level I was expecting.

Canon Vixia HV30: http://www.amazon.com/Canon-HV30-De...&sr=1-1-catcorr

RODE Videomic: http://www.amazon.com/RODE -VideoMic...03176086&sr=8-1

I use a fairly cheap program, Nero, to record directly to the computer using a firewire connection. Nero is a fine for rendering videos, but doesn't really have any editing features for audio, so I'm looking to expand towards a better program for doing so. Nero also will not let me record from different units, such as the USB mic that I currently own (Samson CO1U) and the video camera at the same time. When recording with just the USB microphone (no video), the sound quality is much better even though this is just a mediocre microphone. Another piece of equipment that I have but have rarely used (even though I'm sure it would work wonderfully) is a Yamaha Audiogram6.

Samson CO1U: http://www.amazon.com/Samson-CO1U-U...03176446&sr=1-1

Yamaha Audiogram 6: http://www.amazon.com/Yamaha-Audiog...&sr=1-1-catcorr

So here's the challenge. I'm looking for a high-quality program that can record video, preferably through the firewire from the HD camera while recording audio from a high-quality microphone through either the audiogram unit or some sort of pre-amp setup. If there is no program that can do this effectively, I am looking for a program that can take video and audio and sync them together so there is no lag between the audio/video. I have attempted to do this with Nero and I've never been able to successfully align both tracks. Also, whether this is within the same program or not, I would also like to have some software in order to do some editing on the audio.

Of course, probably a system where I can record them together, but edit the audio separately and sync it back up to the video would be perfect.

Also, I have a PC and not a Mac.

With this being said, if I can find a decent setup that this will work with, I would also like to purchase a new microphone.

So let's say I limit this to $500. What would you suggest I do in order to achieve my goals and get the best quality hardware/software?

Let's say I increase this limit to $1000. What would you suggest then?

Thanks for your feedback. Feel free to question anything I may have left out.

-Riley

Topic Tags

Comments

dvdhawk Mon, 04/18/2011 - 20:24

Hi Riley, Welcome to RO.

I use something like [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.markerte…"]this interface[/]="http://www.markerte…"]this interface[/] to get good audio into the camera and on tape, then firewire or whatever you have into the computer. It's just a passive box, so it can only attenuate the mic's signal - so you need a mic with sufficient output.

In your case, your mic should plug right in to the camera without any interface, I'm a little surprised you're not getting a decent recording. Are you setting the audio recording level on the camera manually, or on some Auto / AGL sort of setting? And don't under-estimate the importance of having a decent sounding recording space. Are you doing mostly electric guitar or acoustic? How loud?

In your $500 price range, I might look for last year's version of Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas Pro. Neither is like a full-blown DAW, but they are both capable of cuts and crossfades - along with limited audio signal processing. And both are obviously excellent for video editing.

whoanonstop Tue, 04/19/2011 - 00:24

dvdhawk, post: 369182 wrote: Hi Riley, Welcome to RO.

I use something like [[url=http://[/URL]="http://www.markerte…"]this interface[/]="http://www.markerte…"]this interface[/] to get good audio into the camera and on tape, then firewire or whatever you have into the computer. It's just a passive box, so it can only attenuate the mic's signal - so you need a mic with sufficient output.

In your case, your mic should plug right in to the camera without any interface, I'm a little surprised you're not getting a decent recording. Are you setting the audio recording level on the camera manually, or on some Auto / AGL sort of setting? And don't under-estimate the importance of having a decent sounding recording space. Are you doing mostly electric guitar or acoustic? How loud?

In your $500 price range, I might look for last year's version of Adobe Premiere or Sony Vegas Pro. Neither is like a full-blown DAW, but they are both capable of cuts and crossfades - along with limited audio signal processing. And both are obviously excellent for video editing.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. Yes, the RODE Videomic plugs directly into the camera. I expected this to work quite well myself and it did until I realized how well even my USB condenser microphone picked up. I've messed with the settings in the camera and there isn't much that can be done to receive the higher quality sound I get through the other microphone. Although I could through on the XLR box and buy a nice microphone for the camera, I've been thinking buying a Condenser microphone to run through the Audiogram unit (one mic for vocals, one on the acoustic guitar) and then recording the video and audio in different programs and syncing them. This seems to be the best bet for me. However, what would you suggest for a vocal microphone? Similarly what has a good reputation to pick up an acoustic guitar? I've had a few suggestions from some people but want to see what other opinions I can add in. Of course, once again let's set a price range of ~$500 for both microphones together. If there is something much cheaper that has nearly as good a sound as a $300 microphone then of course, mention that as well.

-Riley

MadMax Tue, 04/19/2011 - 05:11

I would suggest that you sort of rethink your logic on the instrument/vocal recording method... If you only have two channels of audio, then you only have left and right.

Unless you have a bit more of a mixing set up/POST capabilities, it usually sounds rather "unbalanced" with too much separation of vox on the left and guit on the right. What I would suggest as an intermediate method of recording, is something like the Zoom H2. They're dirt cheap, reasonably good stereo recording quality (it's excellent for the price point) and you'd have a well balanced stereo image of the performance.