Portable audio/video recording setup for shows

[Nephilymbass]

I went ahead and ordered the zoom q8. Supposed to be here Tuesday. Opening for Flaw next Saturday so hopefully I’ll get the basics down by then and can get some footage if you guys are curious about it. Looked into it a lot. Sound quality seems to be about as good as it gets in an all in one type of setup without a seperate device to record audio. Video is tough to judge because some people have some terrible looking footage and others actually looks pretty good. Def gonna make sure it’s updated before using. Probably won’t be using it to make music videos but I think it’ll work decently for shooting shows and doing some YouTube stuff.

 

[Badwater]

If you're shooting low light, a good video camera like the Panasonic GX85 with kit lens will do great for shooting low light. And with the ability to change lenses, you have a diverse set up for under $600 USD. But you'll need a good external audio recorder if you want high quality audio. Zoom makes a bunch of great little hand held recorders. And if you want to do full on great audio, a music editing software (not the free stuff) will complete your mission.

Here's a 4k video I did with the GX85 in low light.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

How to create a budget-minded, quality music video for YouTube

After you master the art of capturing great sound live (NOT with video cameras!), and after you master the use of multiple video cams for multishot imaging (either stationary or manipulated by people), then you'll get into the true time sink of producing videos: the editing process. The normal travails of editing audio are just the beginning. Editing multiple streams of video for typical 1 - 3 second clips in music vids can take dozens of hours for just one song. And, you'll need to synchronize final audio with all the video streams - especially for close ups of singers singing and instrumentalists' fingers doing their thing.

There is no fast way around this issue. No "app" will solve it. Takes lots of time and experience to do it well.

 

[Nephilymbass]

How to create a budget-minded, quality music video for YouTube

After you master the art of capturing great sound live (NOT with video cameras!), and after you master the use of multiple video cams for multishot imaging (either stationary or manipulated by people), then you'll get into the true time sink of producing videos: the editing process. The normal travails of editing audio are just the beginning. Editing multiple streams of video for typical 1 - 3 second clips in music vids can take dozens of hours for just one song. And, you'll need to synchronize final audio with all the video streams - especially for close ups of singers singing and instrumentalists' fingers doing their thing.

There is no fast way around this issue. No "app" will solve it. Takes lots of time and experience to do it well.

Looks good But I’m not really going for something like that with multiple camera angles and a bunch of editing. Just one big wide angle shot of the front of the stage and decent audio. We’ve made a few videos where we hired people to do higher level stuff. For more professional stuff we plan to continue doing that. The main thing I wanted was to have a very simple setup that I could just put up quickly, hit record, and go play, basically just something better than the bad cell phone audio videos (we play loud rock/metal gigs and most of the time the phones can’t handle the volume levels) the other issue is even when there is someone with a phone with somewhat decent audio they tend to only shoot their personal favorite songs and not the entire set. So if you’re friends with them on fb you’d think we only had two or three songs when we actually have 4 albums. And for us it’s mainly the covers and ballads that get shot (mainly by females) not the high energy originals that we’re really known for.

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

Looks good But I’m not really going for something like that with multiple camera angles and a bunch of editing. Just one big wide angle shot of the front of the stage and decent audio. We’ve made a few videos where we hired people to do higher level stuff. For more professional stuff we plan to continue doing that. The main thing I wanted was to have a very simple setup that I could just put up quickly, hit record, and go play, basically just something better than the bad cell phone audio videos (we play loud rock/metal gigs and most of the time the phones can’t handle the volume levels) the other issue is even when there is someone with a phone with somewhat decent audio they tend to only shoot their personal favorite songs and not the entire set. So if you’re friends with them on fb you’d think we only had two or three songs when we actually have 4 albums. And for us it’s mainly the covers and ballads that get shot (mainly by females) not the high energy originals that we’re really known for.

If there's just one camera, go for a super high resolution model. That will allow you to duplicate the file and isolate portions of the "big screen" simultaneously without losing clarity as you enlarge those cutouts. Close ups of a key singer or player, two together, that kind of thing. It would not be better than multiple cameras. But it would give you options in post. There is nothing more boring to watch than a single screen that never changes.

 

[Nephilymbass]

If there's just one camera, go for a super high resolution model. That will allow you to duplicate the file and isolate portions of the "big screen" simultaneously without losing clarity as you enlarge those cutouts. Close ups of a key singer or player, two together, that kind of thing. It would not be better than multiple cameras. But it would give you options in post. There is nothing more boring to watch than a single screen that never changes.

I play in a hard rock/metal band. Between the band moving around on stage and the crowd often moshing its a circus. It Would be a major pain to try to crop out a close up view of anyone other than the drummer because everyone’s always moving around. I will absolutely keep that in mind though. We do tend to play one ballad per show and I might be able to pull that off for that song.

Btw I ended up getting the zoom q8. I may also use my wife’s canon but I’m gonna see how it goes with just the zoom first. I might eventually experiment and try putting the canon on the tripod and just use the zoom for audio. We’ll see. Been messing with the zoom a little bit trying to get to know it. The zoom on the zoom is digital and the biggest view does have that go pro fish eye vibe going on. It is a 160 degree lens. The audio sounds pretty darn good though from what I can tell so far. I am trying to learn more about the audio options. It has a bunch of features not generally found on a camera. For example it has a compressor mode, limited mode, high pass filter options, there’s a 20 db pad and so on. Which explains the big variation in sound I was hearing in the videos I checked out on it. If it was a bass player the bass was big and powerful, if it was the guitar players channel they had the high pass filter neutering the bass and the kick drum sounded like someone bouncing a basketball lol

 

[N. Kentucky Bass]

There is another way to do this. I forgot about using a preamp/mixer just before the videocam/DLSR. That merges inputs from mics/DIs into one mixed signal path that goes into the cam already synched with the video. I don't use this approach anymore so I just put my preamp/mixer up for sale (shameless plug).

For Sale - JuicedLink camcorder preamp/mixer JL-CX431