camcorder for music video's with stereo sound..?

[OMNICELL]

I am completely new to video stuff... Im just starting... any advice about what to read first.. or where to gather information would be great..!!

Im a composer musician.. Im interested in creating music video's.. These videos will be of me singing at the Piano or guitar... inside a large room...


Im not looking for pro level gear as Im just starting out.. I plan to put the video's on You Tube...


I need stereo sound.. and Im not sure how that works with Camcorders...

Im not really sure about any of this... I have a mac computer duel 1.8 , G5 , and can do some software stuff... If I knew anything .... I will learn...

So any over all suggestions on this subject..

I wasn't really interested in cheap sound and video.. I would rather have a step up from that... Yet.. Not pro level..

OK.. Thanks...

[greymalkin]

Hi Omni,

first as a general question, what's your budget?

Next, I don't know if you'll be happy with the audio recording capabilities of any onboard mic on a camcorder. You might want to mic up your piano and record it digitally to a laptop/etc. then have the camcorder on a tripod to capture the video. It's simple enough in the editing process to sync the good audio and video.

If your target audience is youtube probably any pocket camcorder would do...your source is going to be mostly stationary objects so the camer doesn't need to move or zoom...will you be recording in a dimly lit room?

[guns1inger]

Mic the instruments and run it through a small mixer to your Mac and use Garage Band to record the audio. Better still, record the audio for each instrument separately so you can do proper mastering later. Do the same for your vocals. Then video yourself playing along to the pre-recorded material and edit it all together later.

If you absolutely must record yourself playing live, record to the Mac for audio and add it to the video that is shot at the same time.

[edDV]

Do you have any audio recording experience? Do you have microphones, a mixer or computer audio software?

As you might guess, audio is going to be more of a problem than video.

[julitomg]

If you don´t have already a camcorder, make sure the one you buy, rent or borrow has both an external mic input (usually a 3.5 mm mini phone stereo jack) and manual audio control (preferably with audio level display). A typical camcorder´s stereo sound is not bad (at least in paper) but you really don´t want to use the built in microphone. Will you play without a P.A. or will you have a sound system with microphones, mixer, amplifiers, speakers, etc..? (you might want to connect your camcorder to the mixing console´s line output, but then you need a camcorder with line/mic switching or the adecuate adapter, usually XLR to 3.5mm phone, etc..) there are several threads in this site covering different audio issues, I hope you find somethin useful. Good luck

[OMNICELL]

I have all the audio equipment.. i would be running everything from mac software.. , and I have several ways of getting it out.. through digital xlr.. on mixer and synth...

I think at first I would be running everything through my synth.. My mic runs through the input of the synth... So it would all be going into the outs of the synth..

So its at the choice of camcorder , and possibly xlr boxes that I would be looking at... i think

Thanks everyone....