Drum recording questions

beatsMcGee

Pioneer Member
I've been toying with the idea of creating a YouTube channel and putting up some drum covers. The only problem is I don't have a camera and I know absolutely nothing about how to record drum tracks and sync it with music.

Im obviously not going to be able to recreate some of the production value that I see on some peoples drum covers, but at the same time I want it to look and sound as good as possible without spending a ridiculous amount of money lol.

Has anyone dabbled in this? and if so any tips? what type of equipment do I need? How do I sync music to a video?

Im looking for the "best bang for my buck" (mics, camera etc...)

I do have a 15'' MacBook Pro...for what ever that will allow me to do.
 
The Zoom Q3HD seems to be the way to go if you're looking for bang for the buck. It has a line in, which I think can allow you feed a song in and a line out where you can hear it (and then the built in mic and camera will record you while you play along).

I just ordered one this week. It hasn't arrived yet, so I can't speak from personal experience yet.

Be advised that the Zoom Q3 (not HD) does not have a line in.

To get a sense of the quality, go to You Tube and search for "Q3HD drums".
 
cool, I was thinking that would be a good idea. any how would one make sure the song is synced perfectly with my playing in the video? (assuming Im playing in time LOL)
 
I did something like that, but it wasn't for covers, but I'd imagine you'd need a signal feed from a CD player or iPod to go into whatever you're using to edit [laptop, mbox-style thing].

I tried it once with my Canon 500D shooting the picture. I recorded sound with an AKG-C3000 set a little up and away from my kit towards the front, ran that into a mbox in ProTools, brought that into iMovie, synched the video with it and it came out pretty decent.
 
cool, I was thinking that would be a good idea. any how would one make sure the song is synced perfectly with my playing in the video? (assuming Im playing in time LOL)

Assuming the line in works the way I think it does, you'd be recording yourself and the song coming in at the same time (line in and built in mics both working at the same time), so the video will be in sync by recording in sync. The line out is how you will hear the song in order to play along to what's being recorded by the line in.

You will also need to have the appropriate cable for line in (which is a cord with a mic/earphone jack on both ends, not sure what it's called though).

I think the Q3HD also comes with editing software that would allow you to adjust any issues that come with the various tracks.

Again, I once I have mine I can confirm and/or deny all this.
 
The Mac Book Pro has a camera and recording software. Not the best but should work for YouTube
 
The Mac Book Pro has a camera and recording software. Not the best but should work for YouTube

I jut tried that yesterday. had some time to mess around and wanted to see what I look like while playing (I appear to do a lot of goofy things when I play). Anyway, the video quality isn't the best using the camera on the MacBook and the audio settings need to be really tweaked to make anything sound good.

I layed down a drumless track on top of the video portion and getting the two synced up was a major pain... perhaps I wasn't doing something right - wouldn't be the first time! I got there - or reeeeeeealy close!

I think investing in a Q3HD seem like a terrific investment - especially when dealing with the sound quality. +1
 
Assuming the line in works the way I think it does, you'd be recording yourself and the song coming in at the same time (line in and built in mics both working at the same time), so the video will be in sync by recording in sync. The line out is how you will hear the song in order to play along to what's being recorded by the line in.

You will also need to have the appropriate cable for line in (which is a cord with a mic/earphone jack on both ends, not sure what it's called though).

I think the Q3HD also comes with editing software that would allow you to adjust any issues that come with the various tracks.

Again, I once I have mine I can confirm and/or deny all this.

I got my Q3HD. To follow up on this, you can't use the line in and the built in mics at the same time. However, you can record yourself playing along to a song being fed into some earphones (say, from your laptop or mp3 player) and then sync that video to the actual song using, say, iMovie (assuming you've played well, that is).

Basically, the answer to your original question is that you need video editing software (like iMovie, but any that lets you plug in other audio files will do).
 
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