Record audio and or video? Im sure somethings better than the old phone cam lol.
Theres certainly more expensive ways!
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Hey Scott,
Many options here. Depends on how far you want to go and what you want to spend.
Many great recordings here with just a phone. Many use audio interfaces as a central element, along with various types of video/ camera setups.
Eg. I use a Focusrite audio interface into a computer, amp sim software (SGear) outputting audio to studio headphones and speakers. So, no amp all. Camera is Logitech PC camera. Others use amps, and various other audio/ video combinations. Its a massive topic. The good news is there’s plenty of experienced knowledgeable people here who can guide you.
Do a search in this community posts, or the wider web, get an idea of whats what, then go from there. Come back with some questions that may be specific to your situation, and I’m sure the community here can help you out.
Cheers, Shane
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Some suggestions here:
Cheers,
Keith
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I’d argue that most modern phones take pretty good video and will be hard to beat without an expensive rig. Some sort of audio interface would probably the way to start. After that I’d say spend some money on your environment rather than a high end video camera. If the lighting where you record is bad then fancy video equipment won’t solve that
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This is a good point. Youtubers, for instance, usually spend a lot of time and money on their lighting and room setups.
Cheers,
Keith
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Currently I’m happy using an Audio Interface (Behringer) into my laptop running Reaper and my video is via my IPhone plugged into my laptop via Droid Cam and both audio and video into OBS.
It sounds complicated but it’s really not and all are either free or cheap.
It works for me currently until I dig deeper and upgrade a few things.
I don’t record myself, but have done loads of photography (and a bit of video) in my time, and the one thing I have learned is (as pointed out above) to get the lighting right.
Studio lights can be found on Amazon etc, and are nowhere near as expensive as they used to be, being LED panels. You don’t even need anything fancy, just position the lights (2 of them) at roughly 45 degrees to you, and have one half as bright as the other.
I think Justin covered his setup once, so search for that video.
If you don’t have 2 lights, get a sheet of card and support it so it bounces light towards you to fill in any shadows (that’s the point of 2 lights)
We used to use (still do) anything from card, foil, polystyrene and anything but the kitchen sink to modify the lighting.
Sound is usually best done separately to the camera work (into your DAW via an audio interface of one sort or another), just because it is so much easier to isolate the sound you want from your neighbours shouting and next door’s dog barking etc.
As for equipment, you are spoiled for choice.
Any camera capable of at least 30 frames per second (FPS) at 1080p or higher should be fine. Just have a look at photo and video forums for any specific advice.
The second hand market is flooded with decent stuff, as cameras come out more often than the sun.
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Helpful stuff thanks. I brought up lighting because where I practice in my living room is an absolute disaster when it comes to lighting. On a grey day it’s simply too dark to get good video and at other times there’s bright sun coming in either through the front or back windows depending on time of day. Fortunately the only video I record is just of me practicing so I’m not fussy about how it looks but for sure if I ever get good and want to post some videos then I’ll have to address this.
I occasionally dabble in photography and that’s also why I’m aware of lighting. Take the same photo at different times of day and you can go from having a really average image to something of a masterpiece.
I think ultimately buying new gadgets is more exciting to us than some lights or reflectors and that’s why people immediately jump towards a new camera or audio interface. As Keith said above, there’s a reason that a lot of YouTube videos look great and it’s got very little to do with the camera that was used
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An easy way is to get a decent USB microphone, a web cam and set up a free Zoom account. You can save the recordings to your hard disk and you can share the recordings with a Zoom link.
You can do the same thing with the Windows camera app and record video/audio and then save it locally. You can still use an external mic/camera. I was doing this with my Surface tablet the other day with it’s built in camera and microphone to listen to some practice sessions.
So … more expensive. (add AI, laptop and DAW etc) ?
I thought I’d be a bit more descriptive than your original post Rob 
. Having said that, most people would have a basic lappy or PC and I run it all on an old Lappy so nothing fancy. DAW you can get for free, AI, well, small investment for good return I reckon. 
My main point was you’re unlikely to find something more reliable than just hitting record on your phone!
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Another vote for your phone camera here.
I think it’s important to think about why you are recording yourself. It’s an immensely powerful learning tool to record and listen / watch yourself back. So I try and do it a lot. The more complicated your set up, the less likely you are to do it. There’s nothing easier than propping up a phone on a coffee cup and pressing record … just do it … a lot!
Now, if you want to record your magnum opus with great quality audio, multiple angles etc, then sure the phone isn’t going to be the best option.
Personally I do both - I record often (mostly for personal use, but not always) with my iphone, but if I want to do something higher quality then I set up the AI, external mics, DAW, editing software etc.
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The tool a lot of people use for this, including myself on occasion, is OBS Studio, which is a free application available for Windows, Mac and Linux.
It allows you to record audio or video from a webcam, audio interfaces, or from a phone camera over wifi.
It also allows you to record multiple sources, such as additional cameras, or your computer desktop or a window, by constructing scenes.
If you do want something more than simple phone camera recording (which, these days, can be very high quality) then I wouldn’t, personally, recommend Zoom, as this is probably going to give you a worse result than recording directly to a phone using it’s built-in camera: Zoom is set up for streaming and, as such, compresses the video and reduces the quality compared to recording directly to your computer hard drive.
Once you have recorded with OBS or (as you suggest) Windows camera app, or iMovie on Mac, or something like Cheese on Linux, then you can edit it and upload it to YouTube very easily.
Free video editing tools I recommend include kdenlive and DaVinci Resolve but there’s also iMovie on Apple Mac.
I would also be a bit careful with USB Mics: yes they are cheap and easy, but the reason they are cheap is often because they’re not very good. Bear in mind when you are purchasing a USB mic you are buying a microphone and audio interface in one package. If the cost of the USB mic is significantly less than the cost of purchasing a similar analogue mic and cheap USB audio interface, then there has to be some cost-cutting somewhere.
They are also less versatile than a standard mic and USB audio interface.
From the Ardour FAQ: https://ardour.org/faq.html#say-no-to-usb
If you do go for a USB Mic, I would steer people towards something like the Audio-Technica ATR2100x-USB which is a Dynamic mic which has both USB and XLR, so it can be used as a normal mic into an audio interface. It also has a headphone jack so you avoid monitoring issues, especially with DAWs which tend to not allow you to use more than one audio device at a time (for quality reasons).
I picked up one of these a while back and the mic is pretty good, although not as good as some other mics I have (and the stand it comes with is a bit 
).
Cheers,
Keith
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I’m using a Røde VideoMic ME to get slightly better audio on my phone. I got it really cheap on sale and I’ve used it on both my recordings in AVOYP. It’s more directional than the built in microphone, so it filters out background noise better.
So far all of my recordings for acoustic guitar, have been on an iPhone, which does have good video and reasonable good audio. I did find that a cheap plastic tripod that I purchased via Amazon, helps with positioning the iPhone when you don’t have a table or desk in the right location or a location with good lighting. I am just considering combining iPhone recording with FocusRite and R0DE microphone, so the suggestion for trying iMovie (which I’ve never used before) on my Mac laptop is timely. I’ve never tried OBS, since I have GarageBand on my Mac. I have the Ableton Live 11 Lite software that came with the FocusRite, but GarageBand was a lot easier for me to learn using YouTube videos.