Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Video recording

Hi all,
I have to record my playing on DVD.
The regulation is that
• Recording must be taken from a single camera without any editing, with no cuts during the performance of a work.
The question is
1.must not use microphone?
2.what type of file I have to place on DVD (wmv , mpeg4 or ??)
3.please suggest a video camera (sony,canon or??)
4.Can use the noise reduction?
Thank you

There are two ways of using a DVD. You can use it as a file storage medium, in which case you can put whatever you like on there - non-compressed like (I think) wmv, or compressed like mp4. Those files will be readable by any modern computer. The DVDs you might prepare for playing on a typical DVD player however, have a special format - VOB files I believe. If your operating system is recent, or if you're using dedicated software like Nero, it will be able to do either for you. You need to find out a bit more from whoever is requesting the DVD.

Personally, I wouldn't use the camera microphone. I'd record the sound separately using a decent mike and a program like Audacity. And then sync the audio with the video and prepare the audio-visual product in something like Windows MovieMaker (free) or Adobe Premiere (far from free).

Unless your room has a lot of extraneous noise, I wouldn't have thought noise reduction was necesssary.

As to cameras, I'd think about the format rather than the make. Is it capapble of HD? would be one question for a modest camera.

http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/q2hd

This will do the job.

I gather this is for a competition entrance qualification, or a school audition.

- The easiest way to achieve the recording is to use a good camcorder with an external microphone. See this link for examples of how to use an external microphone:

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/newsLetter/MiniShotgunMics.jsp

- You should burn a standard DVD of your performance, that is, one that's playable on DVD machines hooked up to a TV. Most camcorders come with software to let you burn standard DVDs.

- Make sure you (and your hands & fingers) are well lit and clearly seen.

- The audio doesn't have to be hi-fi quality but should have no defects, excessive background noise, etc. The intent is to give the judges a clear idea of your playing.

- Unless you already have experience recording video and audio separately and mixing them together, I would not go that route. If not done correctly, there can be subtle sync issues on long performances. Now it not the time to experiment.

- Depending on where you live, you could seek assistance from local recording studios. They often already have a good piano professionally mic'd up in the studio, so it would be a simple matter of feeding the sound to the camcorder. The fees are usually reasonable. This route will give you the best quality possible.

Also, a syncing issue might raise an eyebrow about whether the recording was doctored. I'd certainly make sure my audio and video matched exactly.

Personally, I always use Canon camera to record videos in .MTS file, a commonly used high definition digital video camera recorder format.

For burning I suggest AppGeeker DVD Creator, I have burned hundreds of DVD's using it. It converts any video file(x) to a regular DVD format and burns it. Converts everything like a champ and even creates a decent little menu with chapters and everything.

http://www.appgeeker.com/convert/burn-mts-to-dvd.html

For simple movies it is hard to beat Windows Movie Maker. It is included with the OS -Windows 7/Vista/XP, and with k-lite installed it should find the codecs for dealing with video formats. That, if nothing else, should give you some options on compression/quality before a burn.

I suggest a recent (few years old) video camera with stereo mic. It should be flash card based and have manual volume control.

I did use my Canon HF11 with decent results for about a year.

Flash card avoids noise while recording

Manual volume control is must-have because otherwise all your dynamics will disappear

Put camera three feet from the grand piano with lid full open. Make sure the cam can 'see' the strings - so it is on the open side of the lid, not at the back of the player or on wrong side of the lid.

Make sure you have manual volume on and set properly to not clip at your loudest notes. My HF11 has a 'VU meter' where I can immediately see the record volume even before I press start

Ah I forgot your other questions

> 2.what type of file I have to place on DVD (wmv , mpeg4 or ??)

As paulelliott says, use the MTS file directly and convert from VLC to a wav, mp3 or whatever


3.please suggest a video camera (sony,canon or??)
Canon HF11 works good for me

4.Can use the noise reduction?

I would not do that. It always gives weird artefacts, particularly with sharp transients in percussion (yes piano is a percussive instrument)