Recording live: Audio and Video

[KrazzyJoe]

Hey, my band and I are having our first show in ages and we're really excited...there are going to be a few video cameras there and i'd like to tape it, cut it together nicely, and put some good-quality audio over it if it's possible.

My question is: where could I find a good site to give me instructions on how to record a nice digital audio...bootleg? Though it obviously wouldn't be a bootleg, i'm guessing that would be a good guide. I don't have any equipment really. Nothing worth mentioning, atleast. Can I rent it? I certainly don't have enough money on hand to buy it right now.

Ugh...kind of vague and i'm sure this has been addressed before but oh well.

I may just record the video and see which camera has the best sound, and cut that sound onto the whole cut together video...but i'd rather get as good as possible.

 

[FR5]

Hey KraazyJoe,

for good quality I would recommend recording a separate audio track, not using the audio from a video camera. Microphones on video cameras are usually self-adjusting, recording louder when the sound level is lower (and vice versa). And audio on consumer cameras (if that is what they are using) will probably distort when recording loud music.

You can record on a hard-disk, an MP3 encoding player or MiniDisk (where you can set a fixed gain level for the microphone). I prefer to use two good microphones half way the venue and directly record in stereo.

Just remember that video normally encodes at 48 Khz, audio equipment normally at 44,1 Khz. So you will have to adjust the length of the audio track and synchronize it with video track afterwards in your video editing software.

Find out what type of cameras they are using and how they normally record the audio, maybe they have some samples you can listen to.

Greetz, steven

 

[bigbeefdog]

Hey, my band and I are having our first show in ages and we're really excited...there are going to be a few video cameras there and i'd like to tape it, cut it together nicely, and put some good-quality audio over it if it's possible.

My question is: where could I find a good site to give me instructions on how to record a nice digital audio...bootleg? Though it obviously wouldn't be a bootleg, i'm guessing that would be a good guide. I don't have any equipment really. Nothing worth mentioning, atleast. Can I rent it? I certainly don't have enough money on hand to buy it right now.

Ugh...kind of vague and i'm sure this has been addressed before but oh well.

I may just record the video and see which camera has the best sound, and cut that sound onto the whole cut together video...but i'd rather get as good as possible.

How high-quality are you looking for?

Reason I ask is, you can scoop up a simple Minidisc setup for $150 - $200 that gives outstanding quality (recorder, mics and maybe a mic power/bass rolloff box). In fact, I saw a few decent Sony refurb Minidisc recorders on a Web vendor's site just yesterday for ~$75.

If you're interested to know how these setups sound, PM me - I'll give you directions on how to access our Yahoo briefcase, where I have some MD live gig recordings stashed.

 

[Droog]

OK, here is a potentially free way that will give you pretty good results.

Before the show ask the soundman if you can take a feed from the sound board. If he is cool with it have somebody set their camera up on a set of sticks near the soundboard. You will need some means of changing the line level signal from his board to a mic level 1/8" jack. If you don't already know, most consumer cameras have an external mic input in the form of 1/8" mini TRS jack. Try and track down one of these Invalid Link Removedor the like. Or if you know somebody who has a pro or semi-pro camera it will already have XLR inputs. Make sure who is running that camera has a set of headphones so they can monitor the recording in case the levels are too hot (or too low).

Now you will have a "Master" shot with good audio. Use that as the foundation of you video and pop in footage from other angles as you see fit, just don't use the audio from those cameras.

An alternative to same idea is to take a mono signal from the board and record that on one track of the camera and then setup a condensor mic in the back the room to capture the ambiance and record that to the other track. Then when you are editing, simply pan them both center and mix to taste, maybe add in some reverb to the "dry" mono mix from the board.