How do I best capture music on my MiniDV camcorder?

Question

I am doing a cover of a song with the instrumentals playing off my (really good quality) speakers, with my voice also amplified by those speakers.

Somehow my recordings of myself listening to music in my car sound GREAT and loud and full, BUT my rendition with professional speakers, and microphone is coming out very very distant and just weak volume all around no matter how high I make the volume on my home theatre system.

Is there a reason for this? What can I do?

P.S. I have a Canon Elura 100 if that helps, and no I can't just soundtrack the sound, its important I capture a live rendition.

Thanks

Answer 1

There is two main common issues that normally cause this kind of problem when listening to any type of music on a professional sound system. Your car audio system is automatically equalized and compressed so that you do not need to do any equalizing for music in your car to sound good. A professional sound system does the complete opposite, it separates the audio into stereo then compresses it and amplifies it by thousands of times to pump it out of the speakers. So the audio bored needs to be equalized according to your song. Also you may need to set the board to mono instead of stereo. For any help with doing this talk to the Audio Technician who runs the system.

Answer 2

Hi Ms. XBronze !

I suppose you have previously tried adjusting gain setting  amidst LOUD music/ video recording with your vcam,

... and also tried using an external microphone attached to vcam (may be better vs. built-in mic even w/adjusted gain).

The 2 options above would gather direct  'noise' from surroundings, i.e., on top of the same 'noise' gathered by the audio system microphone. This will distort your beautiful voice (200 pts for this compliment, huh). This is why a recording studio is sound-proofed to eliminate this surrounding 'noise'.

An alternative would be to try to directly connect your PC/laptop audio line-in (mic) to the audio out of your prof. audio system (much betterer if from audio mixer, if there is).

May use audio recording software like audacity. Initially do trial & error to check the sound quality... whether your beautiful voice is now clearly enhanced, heard and appreciated. IF all is well, record video via vcam and audio thru PC in sync.

During editing, just mute the video and insert the dubb (the recorded sounds).

If the sounds turn out to be perfect, yet your singing is not well appreciated, you have to repost in 'Entertainment' as we are just on the technical  side..he he. (minus 300 pts)

Music recording inside a recording booth w/professional audio mixing would be best.  Avoid recording music audio  in the camera. You should marry the audio & picture together during video editing.

Hav fun !