techman - Posted - 07/22/2025:  12:57:47

What's an easy way to create a video that has good sound quality ? I have an Acer Chromebook with a camera or an old iPhone SE 6. Which would be better to use to create a personal performance video? Or should I use some other method?
thanks

Old Hickory - Posted - 07/22/2025:  13:30:40

Plenty of people shoot more than adequate performance videos using their computers' webcams or their iPhones of various years. So no one here can tell you what you should do, or even what you should consider.

I'm happy share my limited experience and let you decide.

But first, I think you shoot test videos with what you have and see for yourself how easy or difficult it is and whether the results are good or not. Maybe your computer or phone will be all you need.

I've made only four self performance videos. They're on the videos page of my profile, mixed  in with other videos I did not shoot.

The oldest two performance videos -- On The Street Where You Live and Redwing -- were shot with a Canon DSLR with separate audio recorded to a Fostex digital recorder through an Audio Technica AT2020 condenser mic (visible in one video). I stripped out the camera audio in iMovie and substituted the recorder audio. The results were very good. But setup took time. And since I use this equipment so infrequently, I had to read instructions each time on how to do it. This became a disincentive to shoot.

Late last year I bought a Zoom Q2n-4k used on eBay for about half of list price. Came with everything usually included and worked fine. Maybe I got lucky. This has greatly simplified shooting. It's almost point and shoot. You make a few selections on the camera as to amount of zoom, quality of video, and maybe type of audio. There are also settings for various video effects or filters, which I don't use. The only drawback is there's no reversible screen, so you can't see yourself in the shot when you're in position. I have to start the recorder, get in my seat, play a few seconds, then get up, stop the recorder and look at the results. Once I like the framing I leave the camera as-is and only touch it to start recording.

I've compared this camera's audio to my external audio and it's very good. I am going to experiment some time with an external microphone plugged into the recorder to get a mic closer to the banjo.

But overall, this has simplified recording for me.

The videos recorded with this setup are Somewhere and the Celtic set. That's camera audio you're hearing. You can see that the framing is different in the two videos. I shot them weeks apart and didn't remember exactly where I put the put the camera and my chair.

I did test briefly with my iPad and liked that in selfie mode I could see myself on the screen. And I could reach the screen to touch the start button.  Audio was pretty good, too. I think file size was my concern. My iPad doesn't have a lot of RAM, so I can quickly fill it up.