What kind of video equipment is best for recording a rock band performance?

Question

I've been using a a standard digital still picture camera with a video feature. I'm trying to make good quality videos of my bands live performances...sound is what I'm most concerned about.The sound distorts badly with the cameras built in mic sensitivity set to its lowest setting. I have a digital multitrack audio recorder(boss 1600) I would like to use it to record the sound and put it to the video that i am getting......can the recorded sound be synchronized with the recorded video on my PC.. if so what kind of software is best for a budget...i dont have a clue

Answer 1

Well hey, you have discovered that on-board mics and sound in general on those digital still cameras is horrible. Really horrible. What you might not know is that built-in mics on most camcorders aren't all that much better. They can be better, but when I do video, at the very least I'm using high quality mics on the XLR inputs of my camcorder (and that means a $2000+ camcorder, or adaptors), and even at that, if it's music, I'm probably also using another recording device or two: a PC with sound interface (I use a Tascam US-122), a MiniDisc recorder, or my Tascam DR-1.

So you REALLY want to use the Boss 1600. You have what, 8 simultaneous channels on that bad boy, and they're all going to be at least decent with some good mics. You can set up a mix, or tap off the soundboard if your band has a separate sound board.

It's not a big trick to synchronize sound and video. When they're from digital sources, the timing is accurate enough to be in sync for hours at a time. You can use the camera's crappy audio track to provide sync markers for synching up the good audio. Just about any video editor will let you do this... I use Sony Vegas, and started using it primarily because it was originally the only video editor that treated audio as a first-class thing.. because the first version of Vegas only did audio.

Professional filmmakers have shot audio separate from film pretty much since the days of the "talkies". If you've ever seen those old Hollywood clapboards, you probably noticed that they mark the scene, making it easy to find later. But also, that "clap" is used as an audio sync. That's the same basic idea with syncing audio to modern video, only you get that crappy audio track to help you out with the sync-up.

If you're totally overdriving the mics on that little camera, try to set up a sync point before the whole band kicks in. I've done this with a little staccato riff on a harmonica before the full sound kicks in. Just at the beginning somewhere, and it should be easy enough to find and get your video synched up in the editor.