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Found new use for my digital camera


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I've been trying to be more productive in writing songs and I'll come up with snippets here and there. Of course, I think I'll remember it later and most times I don't. Firing up the DAW is just too time-consuming when you have your creative juices flowing and kind of an overkill anyway. I wanted a quick way to record me singing with an acoustic. Before buying a cheap tape recorder, I started looking around at what I had.

 

I do have a 4-track multitracker, but even that would require setting up a microphone and plugging in my acoustic. Then I saw the digital camera I got for Christmas.

 

My digital camera can record video with audio and saves it as an .AVI file. I set it on a table, hit video record and play and sing in front of it. The audio is good enough and having the video is a big plus - I don't have to write down the chord progression in case I forget that, too. Also, my camera is already set up on my computer for transferring files so I can archive it easily.

 

Just thought I'd share :)

aka riffing

 

Double Post music: Strip Down

 

http://rimspeed.com

http://loadedtheband.com

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Videos from digital cameras are usually small, as far as the size of the picture and file size go. I bought a 128MB memory card for my digital camera. Digital cameras tend to come with very small memory cards, so expect to buy a bigger one anyway.

 

I can probably put a handful of songs on there but I mainly do snippets. Say I came up with a chorus I like - I take a video of it. This would only be 30 seconds or less anyway per video and if I need more, I download it to my computer and erase it from my camera.

 

In case anyone cares, I have a Canon Elph SuperShot SD100 with 3 Megapixels. I think I've seen it go for $300 at Best Buy and Circuit City. I've seen other cameras take sharper pics but it's still good. What I really like about it is how small it is.

aka riffing

 

Double Post music: Strip Down

 

http://rimspeed.com

http://loadedtheband.com

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Great idea.

 

slightly OT...you can also use a digital camera as a storage device to transfer files. Great for small audio files,mp3's, etc.

"When I look at the smiles on all the children's faces,,...I just know they're about to jab me with something." -Homer J. Simpson
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Cool

 

You could even take video while recording tracks- with better & faster computers and daw's these days, wouldn't it be cool to have a video track of, say, the drummer? Oh look, he's on the hat during this section... that tom was too loud, yep look, he really nailed it... etc.

 

slightly OT, but I just watched the dvd of once upon a time in mexico. Robert Rodriguez movies have great special features, he gives a tour of his nice editing/recording studio. He also talks a lot about his new digital cameras and monitors- the actors were amazed by the hi def monitors, they could see everything clearly, the way it would look in theaters, and could adjust their performance if needed.

 

If a band in the studio had a video track to watch on playback as well as audio, it could make things... I shouldn't say easier, but you could get a better idea about what you need to work on. Or what the drummer needed to work on. :P

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Originally posted by Rim.:

...I set it on a table, hit video record and play and sing in front of it. The audio is good enough and having the video is a big plus - I don't have to write down the chord progression in case I forget that, too. Also, my camera is already set up on my computer for transferring files so I can archive it easily.

 

Just thought I'd share :)

Thanks! What a great idea! I think I'll go try it... ... ...Wait a second!

 

:mad:

 

My Nikon 775 only records video sans audio! :cry:

 

(Newman, from Seinfeld voice:) Oh, the inhumanity!!! :eek:

It's easiest to find me on Facebook. Neil Bergman

 

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Originally posted by Brakka:

You could even take video while recording tracks- with better & faster computers and daw's these days, wouldn't it be cool to have a video track of, say, the drummer? Oh look, he's on the hat during this section... that tom was too loud, yep look, he really nailed it... etc.

Great idea! With the popularity of audio on DVDs, what if they include stuff like that on it? It could be one of the extra content that would add value to an album and make people want to buy it and not download it (which would be too big anyway). But then how candid would artists be if they knew the recording session video would be made available to the public? One can dream...

aka riffing

 

Double Post music: Strip Down

 

http://rimspeed.com

http://loadedtheband.com

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