DAW software for editing, is free software as good as purchased software?

Winfred

Member
Hi!

I just splurged money I saved for a year and now coming in the mail as I write this is a Zoom q8 camera $400 plus $50 with 2 yr Square Trade damage protection, Zoom LBC-1 battery charger $35, Zoom AD-17 AC to DC adapter $19, Zoom BT-03 battery $23, SanDisk 128GB Extreme Pro Memory Card $40, SanDisk UHS-I SD Card Reader $22 (because my old business grade Hewlett Packard Elite 8000 micro-desktop with 3.0Ghz CPU, and 8GB RAM, 2.0 USB port, I bought used... doesn't have a card reader), also on the order is a Magnus VT-300 Video Tripod $80. The grand total was $716 with tax, basic shipping FedEx ground is free. All is from B&H Photo in NYC, and successfully boycotted Amazon that has been horrible to their employees...

With all that said, does it seem my technology will do a good job?

My goal is to post videos of my original and cover music on YouTube to see if it is very well received or not. I was going to do this by playing in coffeehouses for the first time only now suddenly with CoVid19, I can't play in coffeehouses, something I was just going to start trying out when the virus hit. I hope for nice quality videos and will use two large diaphragm condenser mics via the q8 camera in hopes my audio is as good as it can be due to what I have. The other expense (besides a "synchronization license" for one cover song), is good editing software.

I guess they call video editing "mastering", right?

I feel to put my best foot forward in presenting my music to the masses is to have the best quality I can get on a low budget, and with the best yet most user friendly software. I'd spend $200 on good user friendly editing software. I'm not at all tech savvy, so user friendliness means a lot to me too and best quality I can get. I heard about Vegas. There's a lot of others out there some might know about.

Is it always true that purchased editing software is better than the free editing software?

At first all I plan to do is create a slight reverb and just post a cover song in hopes to attract viewers to my original music that I'll later post. At first I'll do the minimum video difficulty and have just a shot of myself. Later, besides presenting only a boring shot of me playing my guitar (I'm also not much to look at ha), is to add in maybe country scenes or relevant clips in synch with my lyrics, or maybe use a green screen and have scenes behind me as I play. All I plan to video is just myself playing guitar, singing, and also sometimes with a harmonica.

What editing software, free and compared to purchased software, would be best to use?

How much do the different brands cost too if you might know?

Thanks for any advice, and about my equipment. I am grateful to all!

Carpe Diem!
Winfred
 
I use Vegas Pro 14 (they're up to version 17 now) for music recording, mixing and mastering, and for video editing. I do live performance videos with as many as seven cameras and twenty or more tracks of audio (though I usually finish the audio in a separate project and drop a stereo track into the video edit to reduce load on the processors). It's nice to have one piece of software that does both audio and video. The actions of moving and cutting clips and adding effects is pretty much the same for audio and video so I don't have to have two programs and two sets of habits, just one set and some minor variations between audio and video.

That said, I hear you can do some basic video editing in Reaper, which is a pretty good DAW for only $60.

I also hear that the free version of DaVinci Resolve is pretty good, and there's another free (I think) program called HitFilm.

I suspect in the long run you might find it more efficient to use Vegas Pro for all of your audio and video production.
 
Get yourself a distrokids account for simplicity of publishing audio, but forget the sync licence if you don't want to generate money. YouTube just ad your video and give the money to the rights holder. If you licence direct it costs and you then have to collect money and YouTube will still put ads on your video.

Two things jump to mind for video music. Still ten times more frustrating than recording just audio. You can fix mistakes in your audio recordings by rerecording, dropping in and comping. If you are shooting video these techniques really really make video editing difficult. There's no equivalent of a drop in. It visually jumps so you have to use cutaways or cuts to prevent the sudden two chords from take six jarring. Ideo editing is happy with dozens of full song length takes. Snippets of songs wreck video and take real time.

Mastering is an audio process. The nearest video process that's similar in purpose is when you give your finished product to a colorist. You give your audio masterpiece to a mastering engineer. Video editing is NOT mastering.

Resolve is a very popular free editor, but like in audio, you tend to use whatever you always used. I use cubase and premiere pro because I always have and am comfy. Vegas and protools appeal to many. I'm too familiar with mine to even try.

If you want to snag and strum a guitar live then two mics and a camera will work. This is streets away from shooting and editing with a DAW and a video editor. Making anything other than a single camera live recording is very complicated and time consuming!
 
Right, I was also going to clarify mastering. Mastering is preparing an audio product for a specific distribution format. It has come to include a certain amount of aesthetic work in addition to meeting technical requirements. The same concept could apply to video though the term mastering might not be used. But what you're talking about is generally just called video editing, the actual assembly of different bits of video and audio into a single product.
 
I use Vegas Pro 14 (they're up to version 17 now) for music recording, mixing and mastering, and for video editing. I do live performance videos with as many as seven cameras and twenty or more tracks of audio (though I usually finish the audio in a separate project and drop a stereo track into the video edit to reduce load on the processors). It's nice to have one piece of software that does both audio and video. The actions of moving and cutting clips and adding effects is pretty much the same for audio and video so I don't have to have two programs and two sets of habits, just one set and some minor variations between audio and video.

That said, I hear you can do some basic video editing in Reaper, which is a pretty good DAW for only $60.

I also hear that the free version of DaVinci Resolve is pretty good, and there's another free (I think) program called HitFilm.

I suspect in the long run you might find it more efficient to use Vegas Pro for all of your audio and video production.


Hi Bouldersoundguy!

You helped me before! Thanks for your much appreciated advice! You must be some kind of genius with seven cameras and twenty tracks! It's only myself, my old nylon string guitar, and sometimes I wear a brace around my neck and play harmonica too. I will have only 2 mics both with pop screens and shock mounts, one mic for my voice, and one for my guitar. I have a matched pair of Studio Projects B3's. They're large diaphragm mics I bought 18 years ago, back when I had at least some money ha! They haven't been used in 17 years after I recorded my solo acoustic piano music, but carefully stored very well in original boxes and in a very heavy duty case I found at GoodWill, "Anvil Cases" of Rosemead, CA and even a Serial No. on a riveted steel tag. You could drive a truck over it... of the type I think actually used by top touring pro musicians. I always wondered who might have used it. Have you heard of those?

Now I've been back to the "big city" I've played first time ever guitar and sang in public. I've gone to open mics for 2 yrs and very surprised people liking my music, enough I'm taking my present step. I was very near to having some coffeehouse gigs set up then the CoVid19 hit. Instead I'm going to try YouTube and see what happens, probably nothing ha! Just see what the general public thinks. I want to put my best foot forward, but on a low budget...

I really wonder with editing software, and a lot of things, do you get what you pay for? I think Vegas is $300. It means not eating as well for a month... and reaching for my dusty bottle of multiple vitamins too ha! The other thing is about user friendliness. You're some kind of a tech power house doing what you do! Do you have a sound engineer at your performances and later doing your mastering? I'm going to try to find your music. I'm going to only have 2 tracks.

Also, costing more... how is Vegas better, or not better than the others? Would it at my level of engineering, be overkill? I will later instead of having the camera just on me playing (plus I'm nothing to look at ha) go to maybe outdoor scenes, or relevant visuals in synch with the imagery and metaphors in my lyrics so my editing will be progressive as time passes, well that's if things "progress" in my cas ha! I have an Anvil Case, at least that looks pro ha! Thanks for our attention or from anyone out there in homerecording land.

Top of the Day!
Winfred
 
I've been looking at Davinci Resolve 16. Its a free video editor, and looks to be very capable for basic editing. The interface looks fairly intuitive as well. Once you get your Zoom running, you might want to download a copy and see how it works for you. Since it doesn't cost anything, if you don't like it, you can just uninstall and get your hard drive space back. It may not have all the effects that the high dollar programs have, but for stitching together a half dozen video clips for YouTube or a DVD, it is certainly capable.

When I was looking at video editing programs years ago, I tried a few (didn't know about Davinci back then), and ended up with Cyberlink's PowerDirector 14. I did one upgrade to V15, but haven't done any more since. I think a Lifetime license is about $100 now. They also do a "365" version for about $50 a year, that gives you access to a bunch of stuff that I personally don't use (video plugins, etc). Its probably more complex than Davinci. I liked the workflow a lot better than some others I looked at (Corel, and a few others). In the years since I got it, video editing has gotten a lot better and more capable. I had trouble finding things that would handle my H.264 files back then. Now everything is gearing to 4K video.
 
Most likely any decent video editor will do what you want, two or three video tracks, a couple of audio tracks. What I like about Vegas Pro is that it's pretty easy to get started with but it's not limited. You can just drag a file from a folder onto the timeline and go. There are one or two video file types it doesn't like, but for the most part you can use whatever, even mix and match. But when you want to get serious it's ready. It's got a chroma key plugin for green screen. It can do pretty substantial color correction.

You can try the demo, and there's Vegas Pro Edit for $250.

I should add that video editing takes a pretty beefy computer.

Yes, I remember Anvil cases. That's a name that goes back, possibly to the 70s.
 
I've been doing some good cause editing during the Corona crisis = and 1980x1080 is ideal for these. Still tough on the computer with 40 odd timeline tracks. 4K is for me, still rare. None of my clients (when I had some!) want 4K and as I'm not producing for broadcast there's little point when YouTube and Vimeo mangle 4K so much. 4 times at least more power needed. I can do 3 multi-cam streams in 4K, but not 4, as it glitches. I could upgrade the video card which would take the load off the processor, but they're lots of money for 4K boards.

Practically all the editors do similar things in slightly different ways. I have colleagues who love vegas, and a few running the free Resolve, which integrates well with the other BlackMagic software that is NOT free. For me the choice was because of the integration with After Effects and Audition, so I can zap into Audition, do some audio processing, then it updates in Premiere - the same with After Effects.

I like multi-cam in Premiere - it kind of works like I work. Like audio software, it's just how well YOU integrate with the software, not really the software.
 
As I've mentioned in other theads, I've grown so accustomed to the way that audio software works that I find most video software very unintuitive. That's why I do much of my video editing in Reaper. If you want more advanced video features but with a similar way of working you will probably find Vegas useful. However, my 8 year old son is happy working with Da Vinci Resolve so it can't be that difficult to use if you are prepared to be flexible. Resolve also includes Fairlight audio processing.
 
Most likely any decent video editor will do what you want, two or three video tracks, a couple of audio tracks. What I like about Vegas Pro is that it's pretty easy to get started with but it's not limited. You can just drag a file from a folder onto the timeline and go. There are one or two video file types it doesn't like, but for the most part you can use whatever, even mix and match. But when you want to get serious it's ready. It's got a chroma key plugin for green screen. It can do pretty substantial color correction.

You can try the demo, and there's Vegas Pro Edit for $250.

I should add that video editing takes a pretty beefy computer.

Yes, I remember Anvil cases. That's a name that goes back, possibly to the 70s.




Hi bouldersoundguy!

You say with Vegas, an editing program you purchased... "You can just drag a file from a folder onto the timeline and go." that you mean overall it is more user friendly than the free programs?

You also mention you mostly use Reaper for video editing, then why do you own Vegas? I was formerly thinking those programs allow you to also "master" your audio too. Thanks for making the distinction between "mastering" and "video editing". The programs that all are talking about then are "video editing" programs and that they do nothing with audio "mastering", right? So this means I'll have to have 2 different programs, a mastering program and a video editing program? Wow! That alone is a lot of money if I want user friendly nice quality programs. Also are the free programs of lesser quality than the purchased programs?

I'm wondering if once I make a video to take it to someone who does that professionally and pay them... only I suppose such a service is very expensive, right? If I would have spent $300 on the pro version of Vegas I wonder how much pro editing I could have done for $300.

I suppose if hiring someone to do it was cheaper musicians would be doing that instead of buying a program, right?

In 2004 I learned to use ProTools with my M-box by Digidesign I had, but I wasn't making a video. I hired with my CD manufacturer, Oasis CD Manufacturing, their sound engineering service to do the mastering that I think he did with the same ProTools program. Their engineer said I did such a nice job he hardly had to do anything with my recording. He did, if I recall correctly, limiting, compression, equalizing, and put in a slight reverb. I'm too nervous about trying that myself... but due to my budget I might have to.

I have a cheap digital recorder, a Tascam DR-05 that I sent some of my music to some friends who are involved in the arts etc and wish I could've taken out some of the muddled sound and clarified it, or added slight reverb. I'll be recording with the Zoom q8 now coming in the mail, and using my 17 yr old large diaphragm condenser mics I bought back when I had money and nice XLR cables, so I'm thinking my audio will be very nice... at least I hope, and induce some slight reverb. It has to be nice quality as my cover song is by Joni Mitchell and I might have to send my video to EasyLicensing.com so they can watch it and let me know what licenses I need. So far they say I will need a "synchronization license" but that some other license is very expensive and hard to get... I think the mechanical license but forgot. Late last night I did a trial run and with my guitar etc went to a rec room in the corner of my high-rise basement a room with table games and puzzles, a pool table, all that no one ever uses, and it's amazingly quiet. I played with my full voice and picking my classical guitar and playing harmonica. There's a false ceiling and above that concrete flooring. The walls 2 are outside walls, and other walls to empty rooms at night. It's as quiet as anyone could ever want. I'm very happy about it. I think I'm going to have very good recording results and hopefully not need much mastering... only that remains to be seen. Talisman, above, mentions Davinci Resolve 16, Corel, you mention Davinci too. Do they include the capacity to work with a green screen? I might only do that later. Is my computer the Hewlett Packard Elite 8000 micro-desktop with 3.0 CPU, 8GB RAM, I think 170GB hard drive, powerful enough for some of these editing programs? Thanks for all!

Carpe Diem!
Winfred
 
As I've mentioned in other theads, I've grown so accustomed to the way that audio software works that I find most video software very unintuitive. That's why I do much of my video editing in Reaper. If you want more advanced video features but with a similar way of working you will probably find Vegas useful. However, my 8 year old son is happy working with Da Vinci Resolve so it can't be that difficult to use if you are prepared to be flexible. Resolve also includes Fairlight audio processing.

Thanks Jamesperrett!

It seems you answered it all! Why did you choose Reaper over Da Vinci? Why are they free? Is there some way they end up charging you at a later date? How do they exist? So for someone who is simple like me, then I don't need Vegas and expensive editing programs? Is the quality very good? So you're saying they are all user friendly? I'm going to spend a lot I think on a license to play a cover song, so I need to save. I thought a neat idea is to work with a green screen. Is that easy to do, and does that work with the two programs you mention?

Thanks!
Winfred
 
I've been doing some good cause editing during the Corona crisis = and 1980x1080 is ideal for these. Still tough on the computer with 40 odd timeline tracks. 4K is for me, still rare. None of my clients (when I had some!) want 4K and as I'm not producing for broadcast there's little point when YouTube and Vimeo mangle 4K so much. 4 times at least more power needed. I can do 3 multi-cam streams in 4K, but not 4, as it glitches. I could upgrade the video card which would take the load off the processor, but they're lots of money for 4K boards.

Practically all the editors do similar things in slightly different ways. I have colleagues who love vegas, and a few running the free Resolve, which integrates well with the other BlackMagic software that is NOT free. For me the choice was because of the integration with After Effects and Audition, so I can zap into Audition, do some audio processing, then it updates in Premiere - the same with After Effects.

I like multi-cam in Premiere - it kind of works like I work. Like audio software, it's just how well YOU integrate with the software, not really the software.

Hi Rob!

Great magnanimous deeds working with the CoVid19!! Here I am trying to promote "me" and meanwhile with the stay-at-home and probably no money spent on at least finding a quick test for the virus so businesses and small factories can be safe and operate, so then our economy crashes. One example of carpet bagging is CVS and Walgreen pharmacies now buying up the small family owned pharmacies... sad. Also heard of a small meat processing plant in Nebraska, 47 employees getting the virus and closing down, and many workers with no protection or very little. I better stop being political here... and sorry about that.

Anyways, wow, great about 4k because I thought I was really missing out with the q8 not having 4k. I have about an 8yr old computer I bought used, Hewlett Packard 8000 Elite, 3.0Ghz CPU, 8GB Ram, "Intel Core Duo Inside", also a sticker..."Windows 7". I installed Windows 10 Pro, or maybe the charity I bought it from did. Is that extremely old?
Will I run into problems? I was told it is a "business grade" computer. It has worked very well for all 4 yrs I've owned it. Is it easy to do green screen, and do the free programs have that capacity?

I thought if I'm playing "Both Sides Now" by Joni Mitchell and hearing that listeners like to see the musician so they can know what chords they are using... but I'm nothing to look at. To make up for that I thought I could have interesting backgrounds, like with that song a background of big clouds, sea birds in flight, hopefully free clips of that etc. Maybe with my q8 yet to come in the mail I can video butterflies, bees on flowers etc and us that too. Can I do that with my old computer?

Thanks for your help!
Winfred
 
To clarify, I've never used Reaper to edit video. I've been using Vegas Pro for so long it has changed names several times and parent companies twice. I started on Sonic Foundry Video Factory which became Sony Vegas Video 3, Sony Vegas 6, then Sony Vegas Pro 13, then Magix Vegas Pro 14.

Not having used much else for video editing I can't say for sure, but my impression is that it's a bit more streamlined that some. For audio recording and mixing I find it far friendlier than Pro Tools (on which I'm quite competent).
 
To clarify, I've never used Reaper to edit video. I've been using Vegas Pro for so long it has changed names several times and parent companies twice. I started on Sonic Foundry Video Factory which became Sony Vegas Video 3, Sony Vegas 6, then Sony Vegas Pro 13, then Magix Vegas Pro 14.

Not having used much else for video editing I can't say for sure, but my impression is that it's a bit more streamlined that some. For audio recording and mixing I find it far friendlier than Pro Tools (on which I'm quite competent).

Hi!

Thanks so much for your response! Something I never asked before, and foolish I overlooked it. If I just use the q8 and make a video using my large diaphragm condenser mics, one near my guitar and one for my voice, and simple shot of me playing, do I need any video editing software? Also, if I post that to YouTube can I later go back with the same video and add maybe a background besides the room I'm in with one of the video editing programs, or is it too late to do that? Also, is it a simple task to put a green screen behind you (are green screens cheap?) and then put in some background that kind of relates to the lyrics. "Both Sides Now" uses a clouds metaphor and I thought I'd put in a video of big clouds, and maybe a seagull flying and waves, like that. Is that an advanced task and also needing expensive editing software?

Thanks!
Winfred
 
Thanks Jamesperrett!

It seems you answered it all! Why did you choose Reaper over Da Vinci? Why are they free? Is there some way they end up charging you at a later date? How do they exist? So for someone who is simple like me, then I don't need Vegas and expensive editing programs? Is the quality very good? So you're saying they are all user friendly? I'm going to spend a lot I think on a license to play a cover song, so I need to save. I thought a neat idea is to work with a green screen. Is that easy to do, and does that work with the two programs you mention?

I already use Reaper for most of my audio work so that's why I have it. Reaper isn't free but the trial continues to work even when the trial period is over and it is only $60 to register if you want to get rid of the nag screen. The video and audio quality are as good as your microphone/camera will allow - provided you don't over compress the video and audio. I work on commercial releases for record labels so the quality has to be good. I've not used a green screen but it appears to be possible in Reaper.

Da Vinci Resolve is free because they are trying to attract you into buying their hardware and more advanced software.
 
Hi Rob!
...
Anyways, wow, great about 4k because I thought I was really missing out with the q8 not having 4k. I have about an 8yr old computer I bought used, Hewlett Packard 8000 Elite, 3.0Ghz CPU, 8GB Ram, "Intel Core Duo Inside", also a sticker..."Windows 7". I installed Windows 10 Pro, or maybe the charity I bought it from did. Is that extremely old?
Will I run into problems? I was told it is a "business grade" computer. It has worked very well for all 4 yrs I've owned it. Is it easy to do green screen, and do the free programs have that capacity?
...
I used my Core 2 Duo (2010 MacBook Pro) for audio editing and I'd guess you'll be fine if the computer is optimized (junk processes removed). You should be able to to do light video editing, but your render times can be painful if you start using a lot of effects because you don't have any spare cores to do background processing. At least, that's what I found. And you probably don't have a video card, so forget 4k anyway. Even my older i3 really ran out of gas doing video. But, if all you do is take a video file, and maybe trim the ends and stick a title on it, that should handle that.

The one advantage I've heard about shooting in 4k is that it gives you a ton more flexibility in cropping, even if all you ever produce is 1080 or even 720. I use that (720p render) fairly often because I always end up cropping something in the 1080 video and it rarely matters in the kind of stuff I fool around with. (Cropping and rendering to a format other than the original "footage" can also take time.)
 
Hi!

Thanks so much for your response! Something I never asked before, and foolish I overlooked it. If I just use the q8 and make a video using my large diaphragm condenser mics, one near my guitar and one for my voice, and simple shot of me playing, do I need any video editing software? Also, if I post that to YouTube can I later go back with the same video and add maybe a background besides the room I'm in with one of the video editing programs, or is it too late to do that? Also, is it a simple task to put a green screen behind you (are green screens cheap?) and then put in some background that kind of relates to the lyrics. "Both Sides Now" uses a clouds metaphor and I thought I'd put in a video of big clouds, and maybe a seagull flying and waves, like that. Is that an advanced task and also needing expensive editing software?

Thanks!
Winfred

If you keep your source files you can always go back and re-edit them with the same or different software.

I don't know the details of what Reaper can do with video but I would imagine for a casual single camera project it would be adequate.

Green screens are pretty simple but you do have to light things properly for optimum results. The screen has to be lit thoroughly and evenly for the software to detect the precise shade of green that is to be removed.
 
Hi Rob!

Anyways, wow, great about 4k because I thought I was really missing out with the q8 not having 4k. I have about an 8yr old computer I bought used, Hewlett Packard 8000 Elite, 3.0Ghz CPU, 8GB Ram, "Intel Core Duo Inside", also a sticker..."Windows 7". I installed Windows 10 Pro, or maybe the charity I bought it from did. Is that extremely old?
Will I run into problems? I was told it is a "business grade" computer. It has worked very well for all 4 yrs I've owned it. Is it easy to do green screen, and do the free programs have that capacity?

Winfred

You do have to watch the specs - but there are a few things to watch for that do matter. 4K is a real killer for slower processors, average video cards and slow spinning drives. 4K shooting is probably used by many to allow you to pan and scan around the frame - 1980x1080 frame but you can use the bigger 4K frame to allow selectivity - BUT - reducing 4K data quantity down to the HD size means real time processing, and this can choke your system up. Even in HD, if you do lots of scaling and processing, the load increases greatly - playback gets jittery. So you have to render the timeline, and it's a shock when it tells you this will take an hour! Just to be able to play the file without stuttering. Getting data off the drives means SSDs are more effective than slow spinning hard drives. Just moving your sources files can take ages. I popped the card out of my camera today and realised there were loads of files I'd not ingested. That took nearly five minutes. The slower your computer, the more annoying it gets. Moving files from machine to machine is a real pain, and I do audio on one and video on the other, and just this transfer is too slow. Old computers seem to be slow on everything - USB2 instead of 3 can kill you, and Adobe likes users to have specific video cards that can take the processor load of the PC main chip. Annoyingly, I have a bright read warning top left that reminds me my two video cards are no longer up to it. Every time I start premiere, I get reminded my cards are not good enough, and do I wish to risk instability? I click yes - and save often because sometimes, with an fx heavy timeline and lots of tracks, pressing play can occasionally freeze it. Video seems so simple - but it's not.
 
I already use Reaper for most of my audio work so that's why I have it. Reaper isn't free but the trial continues to work even when the trial period is over and it is only $60 to register if you want to get rid of the nag screen. The video and audio quality are as good as your microphone/camera will allow - provided you don't over compress the video and audio. I work on commercial releases for record labels so the quality has to be good. I've not used a green screen but it appears to be possible in Reaper.

Da Vinci Resolve is free because they are trying to attract you into buying their hardware and more advanced software.

Hi jamesperrett! Thanks as I might try Reaper over Da Vinci Resolve. So Da Vinci is not good because of their trying to sell you more and maybe not offering much to start? Is their product very expensive? I might put in free clips I find of beautiful scenes for my first debut video on YouTube. I tried to use my Zoom Q8 to capture a beautiful sunset and moon rise here 2 evenings ago and it was a joke, very poor quality, i.e. the moon was big to the naked eye, but a tiny dot with the q8, and the sunset was beautiful red but just a bright almost colorless light and clouds instead of beautiful reddish were just gray, and all appearing much farther away, even with full zoom. I know now I'll have to find free clips of beautiful scenes to maybe patch into my video. Will that be real difficult? Have you seen any good video tutorial about the Zoom Q8 and how to use it, meaning with musician's applications? Zoom only has instructions for using it like a web cam, or what is presented as instruction tutorial is just advertising how great the q8 is. Thanks for you input!

Kindest Regards,
Winfred
 
You do have to watch the specs - but there are a few things to watch for that do matter. 4K is a real killer for slower processors, average video cards and slow spinning drives. 4K shooting is probably used by many to allow you to pan and scan around the frame - 1980x1080 frame but you can use the bigger 4K frame to allow selectivity - BUT - reducing 4K data quantity down to the HD size means real time processing, and this can choke your system up. Even in HD, if you do lots of scaling and processing, the load increases greatly - playback gets jittery. So you have to render the timeline, and it's a shock when it tells you this will take an hour! Just to be able to play the file without stuttering. Getting data off the drives means SSDs are more effective than slow spinning hard drives. Just moving your sources files can take ages. I popped the card out of my camera today and realised there were loads of files I'd not ingested. That took nearly five minutes. The slower your computer, the more annoying it gets. Moving files from machine to machine is a real pain, and I do audio on one and video on the other, and just this transfer is too slow. Old computers seem to be slow on everything - USB2 instead of 3 can kill you, and Adobe likes users to have specific video cards that can take the processor load of the PC main chip. Annoyingly, I have a bright read warning top left that reminds me my two video cards are no longer up to it. Every time I start premiere, I get reminded my cards are not good enough, and do I wish to risk instability? I click yes - and save often because sometimes, with an fx heavy timeline and lots of tracks, pressing play can occasionally freeze it. Video seems so simple - but it's not.

Hi Rob! Do you know of any online tutorials on how to use the Zoom Q8? I just received mine and the instruction manual isn't very good. All I find on YouTube are rushed short videos on how they use the touch screen without much explanation. I saved almost a year to get this camera and other things needed that should have come with the camera and also a tripod etc and some things I bought in January. I'm ready but took a long time for me to decide on a camera for my recording guitar and my singing for YouTube debut of my music. I in a way foresee a big anthill at YouTube... I guess I chose too popular of a cover song to attract attention, "Both Sides Now", by Joni Mitchell, but I think I got rare permission just 2 days ago from Sony Music, an okay to use the song and not violate any rules as they are Joni's publisher. Others post the same song, in fact dozens... and that's okay, their choice, but I like to go by the rules and also by what the songwriter wants.

I'm the kind that likes a tutorial, but I'll have to read the tiny manual over and over before I have confidence to record. I recorded 3 representative videos so far, meaning of my playing, but not of the highest quality audio and video that I must learn how to set right. I have 2 nice large diaphragm condenser mics I plan to hook up. I bought them 17 yrs ago back when I had money and recorded some of my acoustic solo piano with them. So I'll be able to make my audio much better than the small mics that come with the camera... but with my inabilities, who knows, I'll probably make it worse ha! Any ideas of where to find some kind of tutorial let me know. I've done keyword searches on the main web. Zoom has only advertising like blurbs on how good the Q8 is that appear like lessons, and instructions for companies that use the Q8 for Webinares etc. but not for musicians. I think I'll try a thread in that regard in here at the homerecording.com site and see what advice I can get. Thanks very much for your help, and to all here!!

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Winfred
 
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