Recording gigs

Snograt

Snograt

Snograt

Associate
Joined
18 May 2008
Posts
1,495
Location
Norf Lahndahn
Do I really need to shell out the best part of a grand for a half-way decent camcorder?

Backstory: My son's band has started gigging and I want to get the word out - hopefully getting a singer intertested to boot. Recorded the latest gig on my Galaxy S2 (yeah, I know) and the footage was awesome 1080p goodness - but the sound appeared to be recorded via my lower intestine.

ALSO - it turns out 1080p footage is around a gig a minute >.<

Now, there are great camcorders at reasonable prices, but they all have built in mics that suck. There are also great handheld digital audio recorders but, obviously, no video.

Any reasonable options for me? I suspect it's tricky/impossible to marry the sound from one of these Olympus LS-5 with video recorded on another device.

SO - spec me an A/V gig recording solution that won't require a remortgage. The council wouldn't be too chuffed if I did that.
 
Not really, the video below was filmed on a JVC handheld camcorder by a friend of mine. I think it was this model JVC Everio GZ-HM30.


e: actually that sounds fairly bad. ignore me.
 
Hard to tell with that as I wouldn't know if that's a good rendition of that type of music or not :D

They're playing covers at the moment, last gig was Ace of Spades, Since You've Been Gone, Crazy Train, Highway to Hell and Sweet Child O' Mine.

Singer came out clear enough, but the guitar sounded like a bass underwater.
 
Not a specialist in any way but I would think that recording the audio from the desk would be the best bet, then you can combine the camcorder video and the desk feed when you edit the footage.

It's not tricky to match audio & video, it's how talkies have been made from day one.
The easiest way is with a clapper board, or even anything visually obvious that makes a sharp response in the audio waveform.
In the case of the clapper the frame upon which the clapper hits the board is matched to the moment of attack in the audio waveform.
 
Check out my You Tube Channel and concentrate on the Green Star ones near the top where we're doing lots of ACDC.
This was recorded on a Sony HDR-CX115 that cost £399 in May 2010 so a lot cheaper now.
I quickly found out that HD was pointless unless I wanted to make Blu-Rays.
 
Hmm, that's encouraging, Dimple - not half as bad as I expected. If I CAN stretch to one with an external mic option, then it should be magnitudes better than that.

@BloodyL - you're undoubtably correct, but the idea of merging multi-gigs of video and music terrifies me. My laptop's hard drives have just wrinkled up and retracted into its body at the thought :D
 
Snograt said:
Hmm, that's encouraging, Dimple
Click to expand...

Recently I had two young original material bands ask me to look at their videos and promotion stuff on the Web (through their Dad's) and the videos especially were awful and would do nothing but put a prospective gig landlord/manager off.
They both recently borrowed my camcorder and because they were in rehearsal mode, I told them to record something quick and then take a TV with them plus headphones and listen back to what they had done and keep experimenting until the mix was spot on.
I haven't seen the results yet but the Dad's are over the moon with the sound.
 
Shameless bump - I finally got round to uploading a short clip of the gig. The whole 20 minutes would have been a crime.
So now you see why I need proper gear ^_^
 
Snograt said:
Heh, the looks exchanged between you and the bass player were priceless :D
Click to expand...

You ought to see a proper full gig.
Me & Jase have been together for 12 years over and 'new' fans think we hate each other.
We have mock arguments on stage calling each other out and we stand behind each other making roll-eyes faces and if you've never seen us before it can look awkward.
Of course the lead guitarist is also in on it and he knows we make yawning signs when he goes off on a lead guitar frenzy or we look at our watches.
You can bet after every gig at least one person will approach one of us and make a comment about the hatred in the band and 'I thought you were going to fight' :D
 
My son went down to Brighton yesterday, just for a laugh with his mates. Just "happened" to walk into the GAK - the shop behind the country's largest musical instrument retailer.

Remember that ridiculously expensive guitar he got? Well, apparently it's not "the best guitar in the world" any more. Oh no - now, apparently, it's the Ibanez Universe UV777.

WHY DOES HE ONLY LIKE GUITARS THAT COST 2 GRAND?

Grr.
 
You'll be best off trying to get a feed from the desk, and overlaying the audio on top of the video recorded on the S2, will be cheaper. But it depends on the venue if they will allow it for free. For example, the venue we use for gigs charges an extra £50 just to get the feed from the desk!! But then the venue is dirt cheap to hire, so they need to make up the cost somewhere :p
 
Yeah, that all raises another point: Amplification.

All this money spent on guitars and effects (which he doesn't even use live...) yet he's got no proper gig-worthy amp equipment yet. All he has is a rather good Epiphone valve combo that is really just a practice amp suitable for small venues like pubs, I'd guess, but not much use in a hall.

I'm too scared to bring up the subject because I'm sure there will be big names like Marshall and Bogner and so on mentioned. To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start in this field - just a quick glance at the desk at the last venue and I needed a lie down. Nothing in nature needs that many knobs.
 
Snograt said:
Yeah, that all raises another point: Amplification.

All this money spent on guitars and effects (which he doesn't even use live...) yet he's got no proper gig-worthy amp equipment yet. All he has is a rather good Epiphone valve combo that is really just a practice amp suitable for small venues like pubs, I'd guess, but not much use in a hall.

I'm too scared to bring up the subject because I'm sure there will be big names like Marshall and Bogner and so on mentioned. To be honest, I wouldn't know where to start in this field - just a quick glance at the desk at the last venue and I needed a lie down. Nothing in nature needs that many knobs.
Click to expand...

I can't be any more specific than brand names, but Marshall and Blackstar Amps seem to be the favourite between the bands I work with,
 
Sigh - I'm two grand poorer again. Told the boy it's the last guitar he will be getting from me, "proper" amps will have to be discussed later. Much later.

7 string guitars - why?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom