Posting a video of self

[John Adrihan]

Generally speaking what is a common way that folks record themselves and post a video and sound clip? do you use a smart phone like an apple or a video camera and recording equipment? just wondering how most of the clips that folks post with them playing a tune or such while sitting in their living or playing room are done.

[mbruno]

Smart phone is easiest but using my iMac with iMovie and nice mic are better quality (and easier to play with later).

[MikeZito]

My laptop has a built-in camera, and some very rudimentary (and easy to use) video editing . . . I have had good luck with that.

Here is a sample of what I can do: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCO-..._as=subscriber

[Hudmister]

I use a Sony Cyber-shot G 14 mega pixel camera, in movie mode. The camera has a scan disk that just pops out and I insert this into the PC to transfer the data and do whatever with it.

[Jersey Jack]

Can we expand this a bit to include software? As a (vain) singer as well as a mandolin player, I like to add some reverb, eq, compression, etc., but I have a devil of a time recording and processing audio separately from video. I have managed to do it using Logic and Final Cut, but it’s a significant hassle (though my less than adequate tech skills may be partly to blame). Working with video in Logic or with audio in Final Cut seems to require an engineering degree! If anyone adds reverb, etc., how do you do this?

[ABrown]

I'm interested in this as well. I have a MacBook Pro and haven't found a decent way to record a video. The audio on quicktime player, which is the default program, is awful which is probably more to do with the MacBooks microphone.

[Astro]

I just use my smart phone. Most local musicians do that for casual stuff but do something better for promo. My smart phone is one of the best for this. Its an LG with more sophisticated mic settings. Beats an iPhone. But then I got an irig pre so I could use my condeser mic through the cell phone. The beauty of the cell phone is that its a breeze to post to utube and FB. The down side is, like you, I cant for the life of me figure a way to add and reverb or compression. My condenser mic sounds harsh and dry without it. So now I've gone back to the smart phone mic which is just as good on this model or better. I can mix its two mics to give a hint of room reverb. But its not great and I too would love to learn of a better solution. Because my phone is android and my laptop is macbook pro, I cant download into Imovie and all the apple apps are a pain anyway (for me--not looking to start an argument here. Just for me they are less intuitive and I dont have time to take a course on imac).

[Mark Gunter]

I use iPhone for video (and sound as well, for quickies).

I use a DAW with an audio interface into my laptop when I want better audio and multi-tracking for vocals, guitar, multiple mandolin parts, etc., and either synchronize the resulting audio track with the video, or create a different video than me playing.

My DAW is Ableton Live 9 Lite, and my audio interface is the Solo Scarlett. My instruments are miked with an AT PRO 35 clip-on mic, and vocals go through the Shure SM58.

For processing video, I use an outdated software with few features: Windows Movie Maker

[HonketyHank]

My windoze PC does not have builtin camera or mic so I bought a Logitech C920 webcam, which is pretty good for a webcam with builtin mic. But I ended up buying a separate mic so I could have the mic up closer.

For software, I used moviemaker for a while, which is pretty good. I currently use Cyberlink's Power Director which I bought at a discount for buying a "last year's" version. It is now several versions out of date but nothing in the newer versions seems all that tempting to me.

I don't do any audio manipulation, so no advice there.

But if you are serious about GREAT videos and audio, the sky is the limit on both hardware and software. Me, I just make Newbie youTubes.

[mbruno]

Can we expand this a bit to include software? As a (vain) singer as well as a mandolin player, I like to add some reverb, eq, compression, etc., but I have a devil of a time recording and processing audio separately from video. I have managed to do it using Logic and Final Cut, but it’s a significant hassle (though my less than adequate tech skills may be partly to blame). Working with video in Logic or with audio in Final Cut seems to require an engineering degree! If anyone adds reverb, etc., how do you do this?

On my computer, I use Logic with a PG42 Shure mic (which I mount to my desk). I use a simple USB interface - I forget the name of the brand, but it's essentially a stick that has phantom power (a must for any interface IMO).

Logic is great - it's simple enough to understand quickly (especially if you've worked with GarageBand before) but can be as complex as needed (for a home studio). Cheap too.