Most fast and painless way to make videos for my guitar students.

[tronus]

Hey all!

I'm excited. My first post here. Now I find out if I jumped the gun and broke some rules I wasn't supposed to.

Anyways. I want to crank out some supplemental videos for my students. I have a setup at home with a set of two loud P.A. speakers that I blast backing tracks through and then enjoy my tube amps at decent volumes, allowing me to make it sing and such.

I own the big Scarlett 18i20 recording interface. I have a Sennheiser Pro Audio E906 Microphone and some old cheap "soda-can" condensor mics that came with an old recording interface from around 2001.

I don't want to have to think about it. I just want to sit down, hit a button, crank out a video and send it to them. I don't care about close micing and prefer the room sound to be honest.

What would be the best way to record video on my phone and capture the audio of the room (PA and my guitar amp) at the same time.

I'm thinking my Android phone hooked to the focusrite and the phone jacked into my computer running OBS. Then just hit record on the phone's video app and go.

Will those Condensor mics in the room be good to capture my PA speakers (stereo) and my amp? It doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect.

Also... I can build this rig in a empty room thats a larger living room with fake vinyl hardwood floor. If that isn't ideal, I could set up in a much smaller carpeted dining room. I also have little larger carpeted bedroom upstairs that's over a garage.

Thank you SO much for your help. I'm excited to a get configuration setup so I can help my students as best as possible while still getting to crank the hell out of my rig and make it sing lol

EDIT: My side of things, as far as the rig goes, will change from rock/blues/whatever on my Boogie Mark V 90 Watt down to jazz on my hollowbody and Polytone Mini Brutes. I have tube amps of varying wattages from 90 down to 5. So when I say crank, I guess I'm trying to clarify that my goal isn't to blow out the mic or make things impossible to record. I just want to be able to push it to that point where the amp takes off.

[sonics]

What would be the best way to record video on my phone and capture the audio of the room (PA and my guitar amp) at the same time.

It seems as if you're keen to keep things simple. The easiest way is a modern phone with decent recording quality. They do exist. Have you tried the one you already own? Next up would be a video camera of some sort, either with the internal mic or an external one if it has the facility and sounds better.
Point and shoot, and move it around a bit to balance the audio.

If you want simple, I wouldn't get involved with a computer for recording.

P.S.
Welcome to the forum!

[tronus]

EDIT: On top of everything I said below. I'm setting this room up regardless of the video and recording capabilities. It would only take 45 more minutes to put the two mics on stands and the computer is already there. If I can just slip in that piece of software that makes it stupid fast (for now), then it would be the perfect practice room because I could extend it out to my students.

OK, great. Thanks for your insight. I'm all for a simple phone right but I absolutely hate phones. I'm a computer nerd since 95. I build computers for fun and have way to many. I could whip up a silent, watercooled recording PC with a way to powerful cpu (12900k) and a watercooled nvidia GPU for video editing. I have all the parts laying around and could have it build in 45 minutes. I own all the speakers, mics, stands, cables, interfaces etc... I've never gotten to use them. The reasons I bought them always fell through but I kept them around. I just want to hook them all up in such a way that I just press a button and it captures it all in one fell swoop.

But, I'd love the room to grow and learn to be more advanced and create better quality videos for the studio as a whole and not just private videos for my students. SO I'd have room to grow just by siimplay using what I have. I've been reading about room mics and I have a couple mxl 990 condensor mics. I think that would be plenty fine to capture the room and allow me to ensure I have good levels on my focusrite. If this Focusrite to phone works, then I'd be a good start.

I'll look into your suggestion though. I just want to play at my home practice/fun volume and I'm afraid I'll just clip the hell out of my phone. I'm trying to get the best of both worlds. Easy peasy "just go when I'm inspired functionality," paried with the infrastructure to be able to support my rig the way I want to run it.

I'll look into android and apps that let me manage the sound a bit. Maybe pad the input when I'm going at it but return to normal level when I need to talk at the students.

[Sam Spoons]

Since you seem keen to 'do this properly' and have good computer skills I'd suggest that you do go down the PC/DAW route. It will take some time to set up and optimise the system to do what you want and consolidate the audio and video. I can't help with the video side but there are a few people in here who will ba able to.

WRT the audio I would set up a dedicated PC with the Focusrite and install Reaper DAW. Then set up a template that allows you to load your backing track* to a stereo track in Reaper and a single close mic on your chosen guitar speaker. The PC need not be anything super powerful for the audio but once video editing is involved then the faster the better so if you already have a suitable PC set up for video editing a lower spec but silent machine could be used in the recording room though if close miking a loud guitar amp I doubt even the loudest PC fans are going to be heard.

Then record the video on your phone and transfer the raw file to the PC for editing either in Reaper alongside the newly recorded audio or in your chosen video editing program with a stereo mix of the Reaper audio copied across. Re-recording the backing track audio in the room with the live guitar is going to give pretty horrible results but recording the guitar (and voice if required for a teaching video?) directly to Reaper as an overdub to the backing has the potential to sound very good indeed.

And don't forget all the usual stuff like a handclap in vision before starting playing to allow you to sync audio and video.

* If the backing track is available as raw multitracks it may make it easier to make the guitar overdub to sit better by using the same reverbs and other processing on all the instruments, a premixed stereo backing always seems to make the overdubbed lead instrument stick out a bit IMO.

[sonics]

Okay, so you don't really want to keep it simple!
I understand, you want to use that gear you have. In that case get a decent camera to record the video into your computer and set up a system that way. Add a mic for your voice (that you can turn on and off if you are streaming live).

Have fun!

[ef37a]

If I might make a tiny suggestion? I am staggered by the picture quality I capture with a 15 quid USB camera* Using such a camera keeps the recording setup "all in the same box" and I would guess Reaper would make a decent fist of the job? In fact the camera came with some recording software which might work for the OP?

*I got it because Skype kept 'losing' the internal laptop camera, that never happens with the external one.

Dave.

[James Perrett]

I would guess Reaper would make a decent fist of the job? In fact the camera came with some recording software which might work for the OP?

Unfortunately Reaper doesn't capture video currently so the OP would need a separate program to capture the video but they could import the video into Reaper for editing and audio tweaking afterwards.

[Sam Spoons]

I guess what we are all saying is that you can have simple or good. You have implied that you have the ability to set up a suitable PC based system, that will take time and effort but if you are prepared to spend some time and effort you can have 'good' at minimal cost. If you really need simple then a phone may be the most practical solution (and use your 5 watt amps for the 'loud stuff'). If you do the latter your room is going to be the limiting factor.

[tronus]

Hey everyone. Thank you so much for all the input. I also called sweetwater today since they sold me the interface and got their opinions. Basically, everyone is leaning towards doing it right. I have the gear.

So here's what I'm going to try. Record video on my Android phone. I hope I can dump it over to a computer as it records just so that I always have enough hard drive space.

I have a 13900kf build with a 6900xt that is my personal fun/build... It would handle all the work without issue. However, it's in a different room. I build itx and mid size computers left and right for a hobby though so I can whip up a 12900k machine (with iGPU) and nvidia gpu (3060 enough? All my beefy cards are amd). It will be water cooled. I already happened to be a silence freak so I have a collection of radiators tuned for sub 800 rpm fans and a collection of fans that just happen to be the type of fan these radiators are looking for. You don't hear a peep and since the fans run off coolant temp, they never really spin up.

So I'll record to a DAW through my Focusrite and then I'll find some sort of video software and learn to clap/slate sync later.

Question is... do I dump video (realtime) to the same computer that's capturing the audio live (simultaneously) or use one of my many itx builds to just fit the role of "live video injest machine."

After all this is said and done, I can transfer over the network at 10gb, the files captured. I can send them over to the 13900kf rig or do it all at the 12900k build in the workstation. Also, I built a nas 60tb (32tb useable) that will take in data at 10gb for backup.

I have the little focusrite interface as well, with two inputs. I can hook this up and my studio monitors at my comfy 13900kf rig for putting it all together later.

I will be jamming loudly on my boogie along with my two bluetooth jbl partybox 101 speakers. They are all wireless and join together stereo pair. I got them because they are the same loudness (maybe more) than the PA I used to practice to... that died. If latency is an issue, I can chain them al together with cable.

I can close-mic my boogie with my E-906 and I don't think it'd pick up the loud speakers really (since it hangs right against the grill cloth_. In order to get the track I'm jamming to, I'll just download it off youtube and import it into the DAW. I should be able to blast that back out through the JBL loud speakers as I record the guitar and jam/demonstrate to the loud speakers in the room right?

I really don't know how to get a good close mic sound and prefer the live sound. I wish I could just capture the room sound properly. The E-906 mic is the only one I've ever liked the recorded sound of my guitar later on. I'm horribly ignorant and inexperienced so take this with a grain of salt but... Close mic'd guitar amps to me sound dead and clinical. I'm used to "jam-banding" with friends and have become accustomed to the sound of everyone participating together. That's why I was leaning toward capturing the room.

Should I also catch the room with my two MXL 990 condensor mics and add those into the mix?

I have a million more questions so I'll try collect my thoughts asap and get back to you guys. Please let me know where I should go based of this info here.

Thank you sooooo much!

[Drew Stephenson]

If you want to try and capture everything simultaneously I'd have a look at OBS.
It will allow you to take your audio feed from the focusrite and the video feed from your android device and bring them together.
Alternatively find a video editor of your choice and stick 'em all together in post. It all depends on how much editing you're going to want to do.

[Sam Spoons]

Our ears, and brain, are very good at filtering out the sound of the room and focusing on the music/speech or WHY, microphones simply don't have those filters and without the environmental clues we pick up by being in the room listening live our brains no longer filter out the ambience. Plus, if the listener is listening on loudspeakers the recorded ambience will be added to his room sound. Try recording a friend speaking while standing close to the mic listening 'live' then replay the recording, in most rooms you will clearly hear the ambience that you did not notice while listening live. And very few domestic rooms have an ambience that enhances the wanted audio.