Hi everyone! Today's blog post is about how to record flute performances and exam recordings on a budget.
The video quality on the modern smartphone is at an all-time high, so there is absolutely nothing wrong with using a smartphone to capture your video footage. On the other hand, the built-in smartphone microphones are not ideal for recording the flute sounds as a smartphone mic cannot show the full dynamic range and sound colours of the instrument. This is because smartphone mics tend to compress and equalise all the sounds it captures, so your performance can end up being the same volume the whole way through. This means you won't be able to demonstrate your sound colour or dynamic range in your recording, and that is not ideal.
If you are on a really tight budget and are only recording your performances to archive them, then it is not imperative to get a separate recording device. However, if you have the budget to spare, I would highly recommend using a separate device for capturing audio as it can make a big difference to the audio quality of your recording. Having better audio quality in your recording can definitely be an advantage if you are planning on submitting these recordings for video exams, competitions or auditions.
The only two things you need to make a decent performance recording if you're just starting out: a recording device and smartphone.
You can also use a USB plug-in microphone that records the audio directly into the video on your smartphone, however in my experience, it hasn't made a big enough of a difference to the audio quality so I prefer using a separate recording device.
An entry-level, budget-friendly recording device I would recommend is any hand-held audio recorder device by Zoom Corporation. In my experience, they capture the flute sound in a very flattering way and are useful in both big, spacious halls and small, acoustically dry-sounding bedrooms. These are recording devices you can just turn on and press record as they are battery-operated so they are very beginner-friendly. You'll just need to make sure to put in your own SD or micro-SD card to record onto.
Personally I'd recommend the Zoom H2n Audio Recorder as it can stand up by itself and be positioned on any flat surface. This makes it great for parents who are sitting in the audience and wanting to record their child's performance from a distance or if they want to record their child up close in a room (ie. for a video exam or audition). One thing to note is that these microphones are quite sensitive to whatever sound is coming towards them (from all angles), so I'd recommend just being aware of where you place the mic and what sounds might also be recorded unintentionally (ie. breathing noises, coughing, crackling, footsteps etc).
You will also need to make sure to adjust the recording volume so that the audio level stays below -6 to avoid the audio file peaking which creates an unpleasant breaking, crackling sound. If you have the option to select the sample and bit-rate on your recording device, selecting 48k and 24bit would be fine.
Zoom Q2n4k Handy Video Cam (I wouldn't recommend this one with the video capability as the video quality isn't as good as a smartphone camera)
When recording your video footage, I recommend (if you can) to just stick to using the smartphone's main lens instead of zooming in or out (using the wide-angle lens), as you can usually get the best video quality using the smartphone's main camera lens.
Once you complete your recording session and have the video footage from your smartphone and audio file from the recording device, you can then sync the audio file to the video footage using a free video-editing software like iMovie or DaVinci Resolve and then export the final file with the audio from the recording device and the video from the smartphone stitched together.
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