Suggestions For Creating Video Content

I would second shabaz's suggestion that you should read through the "Tips for recording screen and camera".

Within that thread https://obsproject.com/  is mentioned.

I took up that suggestion and I must say it works very well for my needs. In particular, it provides a means for capturing video screenshots from Win10, adding voice audio from separate microphone sources and it also can grab visuals from windows applications rather than just the video monitor.

I still find that the microphone (or getting nice audio) is the biggest headache. So I rather like Sean's suggestion.

I found the audio most difficult too : (

I tried several USB mics (some Audio Technica one, and a blue Yeti? was silver colored..) that were advertised as Youtube-creation friendly with great reviews, and they were both pretty bad (for me) - I speak quietly, so the signal-noise was terrible. Either that, or I was too picky..

There was so much hiss, and Audacity clean-up is quite rotten.

Next on the journey I tried two handheld mics (Sennheiser) and two brands of lapel mics (Sennheiser and one I can't recall), but the recommendations from a couple of audio experts was in the $$$$ mic range! : ) so I tried some friendlier-priced dynamic mics (Sennheiser again) - only to realize that most consumer music audio interfaces (like Focusrite) that are in the $100 or so bracket, only have good SNR with low gain - they don't provide specs at the higher gain settings for the cheaper interfaces : ) and no good for dynamic mics.( I don't do much audio of myself facing the camera, so the lapel mic wasn't as essential for me.

Anyway, this was all turning out to be a terrible time-waste and money sink. I almost gave up. Surprisingly, the best value-for-money thing for me turned out to be the sub-$100 all-in-one Zoom H1N, i.e. has an in-built mic. I still have to speak deliberately louder slightly, but finally I was reasonably happy with it. It is quite small - fits in a small pencil-case incidentally - not that that matters.

I used it a lot. My little nephew liked it, so after a year or so I gave it away to him (so he can act as a football match reporter and interview his younger brother each time he misses a goal in the garden), and bought a more expensive Zoom product, but it wasn't perceptibly better. In comparison I feel the lower-cost H1N was the better product for easy audio recording, so if I had to do it all again, I'd just get that. The H1N is handheld, but has a thread for a stand (or can use a mobile phone angle stand, which is nice).

Also, maybe Youtube audio processing has improved too - compared to a couple of years ago, today if stuff is recorded with slightly poorer quality sound, it seems to sound better after a few hours on Youtube (this is subjective, I've not really investigated). So maybe it is becoming less important to faff so much on the audio side : ).

I found the audio most difficult too : (

I tried several USB mics (some Audio Technica one, and a blue Yeti? was silver colored..) that were advertised as Youtube-creation friendly with great reviews, and they were both pretty bad (for me) - I speak quietly, so the signal-noise was terrible. Either that, or I was too picky..

There was so much hiss, and Audacity clean-up is quite rotten.

Next on the journey I tried two handheld mics (Sennheiser) and two brands of lapel mics (Sennheiser and one I can't recall), but the recommendations from a couple of audio experts was in the $$$$ mic range! : ) so I tried some friendlier-priced dynamic mics (Sennheiser again) - only to realize that most consumer music audio interfaces (like Focusrite) that are in the $100 or so bracket, only have good SNR with low gain - they don't provide specs at the higher gain settings for the cheaper interfaces : ) and no good for dynamic mics.( I don't do much audio of myself facing the camera, so the lapel mic wasn't as essential for me.

Anyway, this was all turning out to be a terrible time-waste and money sink. I almost gave up. Surprisingly, the best value-for-money thing for me turned out to be the sub-$100 all-in-one Zoom H1N, i.e. has an in-built mic. I still have to speak deliberately louder slightly, but finally I was reasonably happy with it. It is quite small - fits in a small pencil-case incidentally - not that that matters.

I used it a lot. My little nephew liked it, so after a year or so I gave it away to him (so he can act as a football match reporter and interview his younger brother each time he misses a goal in the garden), and bought a more expensive Zoom product, but it wasn't perceptibly better. In comparison I feel the lower-cost H1N was the better product for easy audio recording, so if I had to do it all again, I'd just get that. The H1N is handheld, but has a thread for a stand (or can use a mobile phone angle stand, which is nice).

Also, maybe Youtube audio processing has improved too - compared to a couple of years ago, today if stuff is recorded with slightly poorer quality sound, it seems to sound better after a few hours on Youtube (this is subjective, I've not really investigated). So maybe it is becoming less important to faff so much on the audio side : ).

shabaz  wrote:

 

I found the audio most difficult too : (

I tried several USB mics (some Audio Technica one, and a blue Yeti? was silver colored..) that were advertised as Youtube-creation friendly with great reviews, and they were both pretty bad (for me) - I speak quietly, so the signal-noise was terrible. Either that, or I was too picky..

There was so much hiss, and Audacity clean-up is quite rotten.

...

If your computer supports audio in, an old-school headset-with-micro (the ones that hava an extra contact on the connector for audio) can do a better job than a usb microphone.

This is the very cheap one I use: a Trust from a discounter shop.

I've forced myself to speak louder while recording - without shouting. It helps reduce hiss and get better pronunciation (you don't mumble when you force yourself a level higher). The downside is that it can sound a little forced.

I used to have one of those for web-conferences. I didn't think of trying that, that's a good idea. For now I'm happy with the Zoom method, it meets my needs. Hehe yeah the speaking louder is a real solution : )

I forgot to add one more product I attempted along the journey to the list.. a Panasonic USB handheld mic for dictation.. no good, but probably fantastic for its intended purpose though! : )