How I Record & Edit My YouTube Videos
I get this question a lot, and now that I finally have a setup I’m pretty happy with, and got asked again, I thought, “Okay, this isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last.” So I’m posting here what I wrote in my most recent response, for future inquiries!
…
Well, I just got a new mic!
That’s why, in my newest video, my guitar doesn’t sound like a muffled piece of crap, and my voice actually comes through the way it actually sounds!
That’s thanks to my shiny new Samson C01 condenser mic. Costed me about $70 + shipping (which is cheap as far as condensers go).
Before, I was just using a crappy no-name dynamic mic, which sucked. And since that didn’t pick up the surrounding sound (like my guitar) I was using a guitar pickup for that, and it sounded like utter crap.
What I plug the mic into is a “M-Audio Mobile-Pre USB” preamp (since I don’t have a good soundcard on my computer that could handle a mic or guitar signal). That’s plugged directly into my computer with a USB cable. That cost me about $150.
I use iRecord (webcam software for mac) to record the video, and the webcam is just a cheapy low-end Logitech one. Any webcam will do.
I use Amadeus to convert the sound from mono to stereo (but it’s a trial version, which expires soon, and I’m cheap, so I’ll have to find another free program to do that soon. I think Audacity will do it).
Then I import the new stereo-ized file and the original video file into iMovie and play around with them there, then export it all as an .m4v file when I’m happy with it (or have given up trying to be happy with it).
Then I upload it to Youtube (which, I notice, is now a much faster process, as of this week. Hopefully they’re fixing the comments system while they’re at it, too).
And that, my dears, is the crumbly cookie of it all.
Any questions, just have at ‘er in the comments!
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21 Responses to “How I Record & Edit My YouTube Videos”
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What do you mean by “convert the sound from mono to stereo”?
I haven’t had great experiences with Audacity, at least interface-wise, but it’s functional. Get the stable version, without the newest experimental features.
Tracktion only cost me $150, by the way, if you get ambitious and need a step up without selling the farm.
OK, now to see if my hyperlink tags work here…
Oh Keith, so much to learn… let me try and bring this down to ‘your level’… ;) What I mean is that I take a mono signal (which is all I can get from the mic) and double it in order to ‘fake’ a stereo sound. How I do that is a rather complicated process of performing various chanting rituals to evoke the spirit of the dead composer, Joannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (aka Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart), and, if he’s in a favorable mood, he will quite magically and impressively turn my mono track into a stereo track. If you prefer the more straightforward route, though, you can download the program - which has been aptly named after him - ‘Amadeus’, and open your video file with that. There will be 2 tracks but only one with anything in it. Copy that track and paste it into the empty one so you have two identical tracks (left and right), save that under a slightly different name (so you don’t overwrite your original video file), and then import that and the video file into iMovie or whatever equivalent you’re using, and go from there. Any questions? :)
PS: Thanks for the question. I knew I didn’t explain that part well in the post.
So when you say “mono” you mean “stereo with everything in one side only”. Do the two mic inputs on your whatchamageezit always go to left and right respectively?
Funny fact (in a dark way): Everything on YouTube is in mono, whether it was in stereo when you uploaded it or not.
That said, if you only have content in the left when you upload, your volume will only be 50% of what it could be, so it’s not a *total* waste of time.
I guess the reason the language is confusing is because a file can be “stereo” but not “*in* stereo”.
weird. so if I didn’t do anything to it, just left it so I can only hear it in one ear, but say cranked the levels to compensate in advance for it only being 50% as loud on youtube, then I uploaded that to youtube would I be able to hear it in both ears and would it be loud enough?
Not an ideal solution — you would distort it that way.
If you could convert it to an *actual* mono file — i.e. only one channel, period — then it would automatically be treated like a stereo file with the same content in both channels, i.e. you could drag that mono file into iTunes and what you hear would be what you get. It’s trying to boost it too much while it’s only in one side that might cause distortion in the interim. Plus, who wants to listen to what they’re working on in just one ear! Only a fool! Play it safe. Don’t give drugs to kids.
I’m confused. How would I convert it into an *actual* mono file? And then what do I do with it from that point? Sorry, I’m a technological simpleton.
When I was young, I grew up on a dairy farm. One thing I’ll never forget, as my sister, my cousins and I walked around in the cow pasture, was being told that the cows were more afraid of us than we were of them. That was reassuring, but of course it has nothing whatsoever to do with your questions. Oh wait, yes it does — I was going to say I’m as confused as you are.
Question (I’ll assume the “shoot”): What kind of file are you importing into Amadeus? And what kind of file are you saving? I mean, are you importing an .avi or .mov or something and then exporting audio only (.mp3, .wav, .aif)? Or is what you’re exporting also an .avi or .mov or whatever? And if what you’re exporting is a video file, then why do you have to load both that one *and* the original one into iMovie?
Haha. :) OKay, the video file I import into Amadeus is a .mov file. Amadeus I guess only handles audio, so while it re-saves it as a .mov by default, it only saves the audio. That’s why I say to change the name, otherwise it’ll overwrite the original .mov file but the video part will be gone. And that’s why I have to import both the original .mov (with video) and the new .mov (with no video, but the audio in ’stereo’). Does that make any sense?
Yes! That does make sense to me now. So why is it recording to only one side in the first place? My guess is that one input on your USB thing goes to the left and the other goes to the right.
um. no. changed my mind. i was about to interject here & bombard you both with a few technical questions i had pertaining to Cam/Mic/PreAmp/&PC interdependency when i quickly realized how much of the required vocabulary is actually dancing merrily & mockingly from just beyond my grasp. i’m really just a simple caveman. i think maybe i’ll just proceed with my original recording plan & build my equipment completely out of chicken wire, melba toast, a 9volt battery & some magical sea monkey mix (twice blessed by my local shaman) that i keep carefully sequestered away beneath my meditation stone.
so uuuuh…nevermind then. as you were. :)
boo
Boo: if it’s any consolation, “whatchamageezit” is not actually a real word.
P.S. Bless ‘em all you want, they’re brine shrimp. I’m so sorry. Someone had to tell you eventually.
Faith-based delusions, like rules, promises and capoed D-strings, were meant to be broken. thanks for pulling the rug out from under my pagan ritual, Keith.
the party ran out of dip a long time ago anyway. :)
This conversation is taking a peculiar turn for the funnier. :) But Keith, to answer your sort-of-question, yes, it seems the USB pre-amp thingy records only to the left or right, depending which of the two inputs you use for a given channel. So should I keep doing what I’ve been doing, or should I convert it to ‘actual’ mono, and if the latter, how would I go about doing that? Boo, I’ve got to hear whatever recordings come out of your melba toast setup. It’s highly unorthadox, or should I say, highly.. brilliant?
Maybe you can “cheat” thusly: if the USB pre-amp has line ins and line outs, you could: 1.) plug the microphone into mic in left, then 2.) run a short guitar cord from line out left to line in right. (So, yes, the unit would be feeding back into itself, but to the opposite channel, so it wouldn’t make a loop.)
Heyyyyy… I am so trying that next time I record! Thanks genius man. I’ll let you know how it goes.
oi , eu sou a julia e gostaria muito que vocês colocassem o vídeo do supernatural.ok um super abraço,tchau.
Hi there broke - thanks for sharing it :-)
From denmark by the way :-)
I bougt myself a soundking Condenser studio-mic and a ART Tube MP studie preamp (with cables and mic-boom). Got it for like 180 us dollars total.
I use a program called mixcraft (pc) And i then write my own material and record it through that program .. it got it all .. you can pan your sound - ad drums etc .. I have made 4 of my own songs through it with my les paul - korg guitar pedal and my new mic .. all it took was a line to my soundcard (mono) but with mixcraft you get it in real stereo due to you go an endles amount of tracks in one track (and then pan it).
Sorry if im rambling on and on :-)
Well anyways when i heard your little red riding hood i got an urge to write a new song using some of the chords from it - and so now i have :-) Just mail me if you wanna hear and ill send you mp3
cheers from denmark
Hi again - Did you recieve my mp3 yet .. i sent it friday by email???
Brooke, why don’t you get yourself a Mixer, and another mic?, then record at least 2 tracks and you could have more control over your final recording, seems to be many out there that have a ton of features and effects all in one unit, and won’t break the bank, I was looking into some made by Yamaha, Soundcraft, Alesis, and some others, but it’s hard to make a final choice. They are awesome and you don’t need so many little box thingy’s, lol.