Recording test: Olympus LS-20M

[BoneDigger]

Just a quick sound/video test on my Oplympus LS-20M. I have not modified this at all. It's a straight recording and transfer to Youtube.

Let me know what you think. Overlook the crappy playing and singing...



Todd

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

…Let me know what you think.

Hi Todd…

Striking a good balance between vocal and guitar, and capturing them with adequate fullness is a challenge with small digital recorders. It's sometimes necessary to reposition the recorder, and move a bit closer to eliminate the room's reflective sound if you can't dampen it. I realize I was using an ancient Zoom H4, not an Olympus, but digital recorders capture pretty equally. I'd think your Olympus can outperform the older H4.

Here's a partial solution I've worked out for mobile recording of guitar-n-vocals in a single take with portable digital recorders.

This is a picture from the take (in our living room) of a friend singing a song he wrote to use in the wedding of his daughter, and the recording is included below. I tricked him into thinking it was just a scratch track to use in studio later.

I Go With You - CliCk



I positioned the recorder about head high on the camera tripod, about 14-16 inches from his mouth, and aimed it down at an imaginary point on the front of the guitar ½ way between his lips and the bass string. I put in ear buds and moved the rig around while he played and sang to get the balance I hoped for. Tripods are light, easy to carry, and don't make people as nervous as mic stands (they feel more casual).

All I did to it was trim and fade the ends, and add a tiny bit of reverb in an inexpensive audio editing program (Amadeus Pro).

The original sounds better, but SoundClick compresses everything to 128kbps…

My encouragement to you is to experiment with your recorder while wearing headphones to monitor what it's hearing, to find where the sweet spot is where you think it strikes a good balance between the vocal and guitar, and optimizes the tone.

[BoneDigger]

Thanks! Yes, I agree. I made that to post to a Guild group on Facebook so I positioned it mostly for the guitar. My vocals was more of an afterthought. I will be playing around to get it all setup right.

Todd

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

Thanks! Yes, I agree. I made that to post to a Guild group on Facebook so I positioned it mostly for the guitar. My vocals was more of an afterthought. I will be playing around to get it all setup right.

Todd

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk

Hi Todd…
And your Olympus captures both video and audio at the same time, so it's a different ball game as to where you aim it to get something sensible on camera.

All of mine are just audio. When I want to do live video/audio, I capture the audio separate from the video and combine them when I mix down.

[GHS]

Nice. I have an older model Olympus LS-10, audio only recorder. I used it internal mic only for a long time. Just got into recording using mixing board and internal recorder system on the unit. These little recorders do an amazing job for the size. I am still working on the sound balance and have had some distortion/clipping problems that members here helped me solve. This may be obvious but try going thru the internal record system while using the video. This made a world of difference for me.

[Fran Guidry]

Todd, I'm curious why you chose a 4x3 SD video format. Although it looks fine, I'm sure used to 16x9 HD these days.

Fran

[BoneDigger]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

Todd, I'm curious why you chose a 4x3 SD video format. Although it looks fine, I'm sure used to 16x9 HD these days.

Fran

I need to check that see if it's a setting. I'm still learning this recorder.

Todd

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[tbeltrans]

Originally Posted by GHS

Nice. I have an older model Olympus LS-10, audio only recorder. I used it internal mic only for a long time. Just got into recording using mixing board and internal recorder system on the unit. These little recorders do an amazing job for the size. I am still working on the sound balance and have had some distortion/clipping problems that members here helped me solve. This may be obvious but try going thru the internal record system while using the video. This made a world of difference for me.

I also have the LS-10 and think they did a great job on it. However, I got the Sony PCM-D100 recently, and it sounds a lot "bigger"/fuller somehow, so that is what I am using now.

Tony

[Archtop Guy]

Pretty much everything on my YouTube channel is recorded with an LS-20. I really like the sound and the video quality.

ArchtopGuy@YouTube

I use a couple of tools on my PC to clip the beginning and end (to eliminate the button pressing sights and sounds), and to fade in and out. When I'm feeling ambitious I even extract the audio, do some dynamics processing, then add it back to the vid. Titles have been my latest lesson / addition! Learning these tools is pretty fun and they are low cost or free and easy to use.

[BoneDigger]

Today I purchased an adaptor to be able to use a boom mic stand with the recorder. That will give me a lot more options for camera location than a standard camera tripod.

Todd

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[GHS]

Way to go with that!! Should be some interesting videos coming up!!!