one mike recording

learnig

New member
I have one mike, an electric guitar my voice, and a point and shoot camera. I don't want to use the computer and associated software. How can I make a decently balanced video?
 
Hi there,
The easiest way, with one microphone, is always just to make the sound you want to record, and record it.
I know that sounds silly or stating the obvious but it's true.
Get the guitar and your voice to be well balanced in the room, and use the microphone a good few feet back to capture that, as someone standing there would hear it.

If you want to get a little fancier you could find out if the camera input is stereo and, if it is, you could McGuyver a way to record guitar on the left (direct) and voice on the right then mix later,
but you said you don't fancy using software so, yeah...

Mic a reasonable distance away; Sound good.

Easy. :p

If you have a say in the environment, that can help a lot. Try to choose a room that's well furnished or has a lot of dense material in it.
A living room a carpet, a full bookshelf and settees is most likely better than a tiled kitchen, for example.
 
I have one mike, an electric guitar my voice, and a point and shoot camera. I don't want to use the computer and associated software. How can I make a decently balanced video?
Are you at the point where you have the mic plugged into the camera and video shot with the camera is capturing sound from the microphone?

Assuming that you’re past that point, what are you planning to do with the video? Just watch it on the camera? Not sure how much more you can do without a computer.
 
Most point and shoot cameras don't have a mic input, if yours does, great. What mic is it. With no editing (on the computer), you basically have to set up in the room to capture the sound the way you want it, press 'record' and go.
 
As you'll find - recording good nicely balanced audio without all that messing around in a computer means you have to do much, much more work, make loads of mistakes and find a room that sounds nice to record in. which most simply don't. It also means possibly hundreds of small movements and tests - you record either a bit of the song, then listen without moving you or the mic, decide what needs adjusting, then you do it again, and compare the two - make more adjustments and so on. An assistant with decent ears, and a pair of sound isolating headphones they can plug in and then move while you are playing speeds things up no end. As most of us have found out. At first, the differences can be big, then they get smaller. Getting the electric guitar to sound nice through an amp, with a more distant mic is an art it itself. Patience, and possibly alcohol is a good important requirement.
 
Point mic at what you want to record , to much guitar point it toward the voice more, to much voice, point it to the guitar more. Try not to have to much distance variation between voice and amp. If voice is 10’ away, amp should be about the same distance. You don’t want the voice 10’ away, and the amp 25’ away.
 
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I have just had an idea for a gadget! As the thread tells, having a camera back far enough to get the shot (don't want to see up noses!) means the mic is way back in a usually nasty acoustic.

So, mic pre that send the signal down a wire to a transducer that clips over the video mic. Thus the vid mic is "fooled" into thinking it is a couple of mtrs closer than it really is?

Naturally said "transducer" needs to be of decent quality. I shall try to get around to some experiments with a cardboard box, a set of cans and a Fuji A180 camera.

But! Much easier to use a computer I would say. Can you do video work with Reaper?

Dave.
 
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