What camcorder would be best for capturing live music performances?

Question

I am primarily interested in uploading personal performances to Youtube. Price definitly counts

Answer 1

I'd go with the Sony DCR-HC38 MiniDV, If you want it I saw it on sale at the Ritz Camera site, they also got some promos at http://www.prioritycodes.com/Electronics/RitzCamera.com-Priority-Codes/index.html for a discount

Answer 2

Two options: get a super cheap camera without a mic port, or get a more expensive one with a mic port, and an external mic. What you choose all depends on your situation. If you have someone that is recording your band every time you play, then go with a cheaper cam without a mic port. If you have more money, don't have someone recording you, or want to save some time later, then get one with a mic port and perhaps an external mic. In the first case, have the person start recording and start your camera, and then clap your hands or make a homemade clapper (two rulers painted with zebra stripes) and clap it in front of the camera, while making sure the recordist picks it up as well. This is for synching the sound with the picture. The advantage of this is you can get awesome sound for a very cheap price, however, if your performance lasts longer than 60 minutes, the rest is up to your ears and eyes only, as you probably won't be able to synch again during the show. If you opt to go with the route of the camera with mic port, this can have many advantages. First off, picture quality will probably be better, as mic ports aren't available in the cheaper models. Also, if you can have the sound guy run a lead into your camera (you'll probably need some plug adapters), you'll still get the best quality audio AND you won't have to synch it up later. How cool is that? Or if that isn't possible, you could go with an external mic. This will cost some money, but will allow you to get WAY better quality than your camera can by itself. If you are on a tight budget, just go with a single shotgun, and it should do the trick. Rode has some fairly cheap shotgun mics- the videomic and stereo videomic. You can probably find the first one for around $150 on eBay, and the second one, $200, give or take. You'll get more natural audio with the stereo videomic, of course. And as for the camera, I'll recommend the canon elura 100 as a camera with a mic port. It goes for around $300-$400. If you're not planning on getting a cam with a mic port, I'm not going to recommend one because their features will be nearly identical. However, I will recommend the pv-gs150, which is a 3ccd cam, and can probably be found for around $250 on eBay. I'd say the quality should be comparable with these two cams, so either one is a good choice. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

Well, most Canon cameras allow you to use external mic or switch it to A/V which is HOME standard (0.775V at -3DBM) so you will need to pad down from the mixing board which is PRO standards (1.25V at +3DBV or almost twice as hot).

DO THIS WITH GREAT CARE as you can burn out the chip in the Canon if you feed the signal too hot.

You need to put something like a POT (L PAD) between the the 1/8th stereo mini plug and the XLR or 1/4 stereo RING tip goiong to the Mixing board and then experiment.

This is about the only camera that will do this

Otherwise you are using a $15 mic that doesn't work well past 10 feet to record your sound.

An alternative, although it's noisey, is to feed the PRO mixer to a HOME stereo amp (preferrably tube or discrete transistor) line in and then feed the stereo amps TAPE MONITOR OUT to your camcorder. Don't use a quality amp. Find one that works at a thrift store and experiment.

That amp can take the load better and will send a signal to the Canon that is within limits.

But you get some extra noise this way. Not a lot however.

What I'm trying to teach you to do here is IMPEDENCE MATCH. The Camcorder has silly little low voltage chips. The home stereo amp is more husky.

Pro amps (like at clubs for performaces) are PRO standard and twice the power of home stereo amps and your camcorder.

Better to burn out a $20 thrift store home stereo amp in experimentation.

The pro mixer should take the load with ease.

Tap off a spare output buss. A secondary out. A tape out. An effects send. A monitor fold back.

Don't tap off the primaries

You can also possibly tap off the headphone output using ALLIGATOR clips. This is under 1 watt.

It's the old fashioned way.

Put a set of headphones in, unsheild the jack, use aliagor clips on the three leads and turn the volume way down

Experiment.

Just not with your Camcorder until you know what you are doing.

Never go to the PA Mains. They are 30 volts at 300 - 500 watts. That's enough power to light up a house hold light bulb.

Anoterh way to do it is to send the output from the PA busses to a CASSETTE deck or REEL TO REEL deck and then turn down the LINE IN util the VU meters are never over -3

Then feed the deck outputs to the Camcorder.

This way you actually KNOW you are not over modulating!