Best Video Camera to Record Music Performance

Here’s the best way to video record a music performance, be it guitar, piano or any live band. The tips can be applied to music videos as well. It’s important that not just the video, but also the audio gets captured nicely, just in case you decide to upload it on YouTube to share with the world.

Do you or someone in your family play any music instrument? Are you a singer and/or a guitar or piano player? Are you a music teacher or part of any music band that performs regularly?

Did you ever feel that you should be recording videos of your music related activities and sharing it with others? Or may be shoot a music video itself?

If you have, here’s how to go about it.

Easy to Make Videos

It would be really cool to make videos of your special talents and upload to YouTube.

You could do that to educate others or even to showcase your talent.

In fact, you can even do it for others, even if you are not any musician. You might already know people who do live music performances at local venues, and would be interested if someone could take videos of them and upload it to several sites. You could even get paid for doing this, and at same time honing your skills.

But then what sort of video equipment would one need; something that records not just good video but also retains the good audio quality? And without having to spend lots of money?

Consumer Camcorders Not Good for Audio

This is a fact! Most consumer camcorders are not good at record audio. They have small microphones and most can record only mono, not stereo. Also, there is not much you can do to control the balance and gain of the audio.

But for such situations, the audio quality needs to be good. So a better approach is to look for something that has a mic input, and buy a top quality microphone to use with it.

Ideal case would be to buy a camcorder with line in, a good condenser mic and a preamp, and you are all set to record excellent quality audio. But if you think this is too much of a hassle, you can go in for a simple video recorder, which comes with a built-in condenser microphone.

Using a recorder with allow you to balance the inputs and set the proper gain. And you can use more than one microphone (channels). It will give you good video but much better audio, and that’s what you want right? The audio and the video will be in-sync, and you can focus just on the performance.

Other Alternatives

The above mentioned solution is good for video recording musical performances, but there are other alternatives as well.

If you are going to shoot at home and already have a music production setup at home, you can also run a video recording application before you are ready to perform, and capture both on the same computer.

Alternately, you can take the video in the video editor, and if you are not happy with the audio, record your performance on top of the audio.

You can even shoot your video first, and record the audio separately and sync them together in your video editing program.

Whatever method you follow, it is important to remember that a less than appealing video will be acceptable if the sound is appeasing. But a great video with bad audio is very unappealing, especially if your purpose is to showcase the music performance.

In case you choose to buy a camcorder, you need to check the specification of the internal memory card; it should let you save decent sized videos. Also, you need to select a camcorder that is more suited to taking videos, than still pictures.

Read: More Music recording concepts

Zoom Handy Video Recorders

Zoom Q-Series Handy Video Recorders are compact camcorders let you capture hi-def video with high-resolution audio.

Handheld gadgets are popular nowadays, and although your smartphone may come with a built-in audio/video recorder, for certain occasion, you need something that captures better quality audio/video, and at the same time is easy to hold (for longer periods).

Zoom produces some of the best hand-held audio recorders in the market, but they now also have some cool hand-held video recorders that are perfect for recording music performances.

Zoom is basically a manufacturer of recording gear and now has come up with their line of Handy Video Recorders, made keeping the musicians in mind.

Their Q series audio & video recorders record HD footage with excellent sound quality, allowing you to capture professional looking videos with great sound content.

Perfect Camera For Musicians

Finally, musicians have a video camera that is easy to use and captures high-definition video with high-resolution audio, without having to compromise on creativity.

Zoom video cameras come with built-in X/Y microphone that allows you to create stunning stereo recordings.

You can now easily capture your music performances, shows, rehearsals, or other musical endeavors in high-resolution.

Users are already using the Q-series video recorder to record festival jams, live bands, indoor events, face-to-face interviews with music artists, uploading their songs on YouTube, indie film, music video to tutorial, video blog to streamed webcast, and more.

Use it to stream your performance, record on the road, produce music lessons, or produce a high-quality demo (accompanied by video footage).

The Zoom Q4 is perfect for capturing closeup shots of fingerings, bowings and other playing techniques.

Compact sizes make for perfect hand-held devices and allows them to be used in a variety of situations with ease. The small size also doesn’t attract lot of attention (in case you prefer it that way).

The ultra-compact size of these video cameras make them ideal for conducting video interviews.

Features

These video cameras come with a wide range of mounts that make it easy to shoot from any angle. This allows you to be more creative with your shots.

The end result is that you get videos that give your broadcasts/videos a creative edge (which most other cameras of this size simply cannot deliver).

The video recorder comes with various inputs: XLR/TRS combo inputs, stereo 1/8″ Mic/Line In jack, stereo 1/8″ Line Out/Headphone jack, mini-HDMI video output, USB port.

These allow you to make use of a wide range of equipment/devices to enhance your production capabilities.

Best Zoom Handy Video Recorders

The Zoom Q8 Handy Video Recorder: The Zoom Q8 Handheld Video and Audio Recorder comes with several useful features and is built for musicians. This one may not rival some of the most popular video cameras out there (in terms of detailed features), but it records HD and scores heavily on the audio side.

The Zoom Q8 Handy Video Recorder is a compact high-def camera made with musicians in mind. It allows interchangeable microphones, to let you augment your video creations with great sound. Now you can capture your video footage in high-resolution 24-bit/96kHz audio. Record video up to 2304 x 1296 pixels, full-color rotating LCD touchscreen.

Zoom Q4 Handy Video Recorder

The Zoom Q4 Handy Video Recorder is built to capture music. This is a compact camcorder that lets you capture high-definition video with high-resolution audio. Use it to record high-quality music videos, stream live performances, and capture the sight and sound of concerts, auditions, and band rehearsals. Capture HD video up to 1080p, plus 96 kHz/24-bit WAV stereo audio with the Zoom Q4’s on-board X/Y cardioid condenser mics. Comes with 130-degree wide angle lens.

These video recorders are ultra-compact, marry high-definition video with high-resolution audio to deliver pristine clarity.

Using zoom Q series camcorders, you can capture amazing videos with stunning stereo audio. These are the perfect video camera for music and video creators, musicians, journalists and videographers alike, who prefer to have a compact gadget for hi-def, hi-res portable recording.

Smartphone Tripod Clip

You have to promote yourself and your music to get noticed, and video is one powerful marketing tool. You don’t need fancy cameras, especially if you’re going to promote online; smartphones are capable of shooting high quality images and videos nowadays. All you need is stabilization, a mic, good lighting and you’re in business. Turn your smartphone into a powerful video camera using this tripod clip.