Looking to purchase a system for recording and editing video and audio
I am looking for information about recording and editing video and audio (think high-end podcast)
What are the system requirements and which of those requrements are most important.
Looking for the high end for a hobbiest.
Thank you in advance
Answers ( 3 )
Aside from having a good idea for a podcast. the most important thing for a basic podcast is quality sound. You want it to be what is usually referred to as "broadcast quality". With recent advancements in "prosumer" level gear, and concomitant cost reductions, there are quite a few options.
You need two main pieces of gear:
1. A decent broadcast quality dynamic (not condenser) microphone. One example is the Rode Procaster (which shoudl be around $200 USD give or take if you can find it). You can pay over $2,000 for a high end mic but you’ll barely notice the difference between that and a good prosumer level mic. In terms of accessories, you'll also want to get a stand and an XLR cable.
2. A broadcast quality digital recorder. A great option is the Zoom H6 (around $400 USD). This is one of the best and probably the most popular, and is super versatile. It’s also very portable - which is useful if you plan to do any recording on location rather than just in the studio or your home. It has 6 XLR inputs, which means it can record up to six mics on six separate tracks if you want ot have multiple guests or do any dramatic recreations, etc. It can also run on batteries if recording an interview remotely, and it records to a removable SD card.
In terms of putting your podcast together, you'll need to think about what editing software you want to use. They refer to this as a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). On a fairly basic level, the Mac program Garage Band isn't terrible, and you may have it alrady. A better one that is designed with templates specifically intended for podcasts is Adobe Audition. Theoretically, you could plug the mic into the computer and record straight to the DAW but this isn’t a great idea, because if the computer or software crashes or falters you can lose your entire recording. A better idea is to record to the digital recorder (Zoom H6) and then transfer the files to the DAW on your computer. It's also a good idea to keep a backup on an external drive and/or the cloud.
There is also a useful cloud computing option called Auphonic that you can upload your raw audio files to, and it will process them to legal broadcast specs, level out the sound, and beef it up to an FM Radio sort of quality. Auphonic is very clever and great value. You then download your processed Auphonic files which you use to edit.
In addition to the equipment, you'll also want to consider what platform you're going to use to host your podcast. There are quite a few options in terms of where your episode files can live and are distributed from. You usually don't go directly to iTunes / Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher etc. Instead, you use a distribution platform to host. One such hosting platform is Libsyn, which is around $20 per month.
Adding video is a whole other ball of wax, and can add many degrees of complexity. It's not just an "add-on". And while it certainly is done at many levels, you may want to master audio podcasting first, before biting off the whole new set of options and complexities that come with video. It's also hard to execute decent professional-level video podcasting without the help of other people. If you're just doing YouTube-style demo videos or selfie/webcam-style recordings, that's not very complicated. But if you plan to have guests and shoot coverage on both of you, you'll need multiple cameras and you'll have a lot of other considerations. I know many have started a YouTube channel or video podcast, only to eventually shift to audio-only podcasts so they can focus on doing that decently. Unless you have some essential reason to be visual, it’s a lot more work for usually very little return. And it's also less user-friendly, since it limits where your audience can consume your content. You can listen to a podcast in many situations where you couldn’t watch a video, such as while driving, exercising, commuting, cleaning, etc. At that point, you're seeking a captive audience and are competing with television, streaming and many high-level content platforms.
But all that said, here are some basic considerations on video. In addition to the camera(s) you use, you'll probably want at least one monitor to be able to see that you're rolling and what is being captured. Cameras that have a flip-up screen on top could also be useful. But the most important thing will be that the cameras have auto-focus, since you probably want to shoot while also being on camera. Both Sony and Canon make some cameras specifically targeted at bloggers that do this pretty well.
At a very basic level, you might even be able to get away with using a few iPhones on tripods. The camera quality in the new iPhones is really impressive, and their autofocus is quite good. The dedicated blogger cameras would probably be one step up from that, and purpose-specific. But with those, you'd have to edit the product after you shot in order to create something watchable.
On a more advanced level, a company called Blackmagic offers very good cameras, with really advanced specs for the price. They have a new product called Atem that's geared towards inexpensive multi-camera shooting. You can see more info at: https://www.blackmagicdesign.com/products/atemmini. This would offer the capability to do some switcher selection, so you could decide which camera was doing what in real time. But that would probalby require that you have someone directing who isn't on camera. Their switchers allow you to live switch a bunch of HDMI inputs from various cameras, which is useful if you have more than one guest. You could also do this on a Mac with the free OBS software and a few $20 HMDI converters you can buy from Amazon. This would allow you to cast and edit in real time rather than editing it together after the fact. So it would be more like a low budget version of an in-studio TV show/interview.
Good luck and hope this was helpful!
I co-host a podcast (audio only) and we've been able to do it on the cheap. We like the Rode NT-USB microphone for a decent plug and play mic. (not sure if the version we have is still sold). And after we have recorded audio-streams we use Audacity (free & open-source) to splice the audio together, make edits, etc.
It's not so much for editing as raw streaming, but I use OBS Studio (also free) for video capture in the situations where it's necessary.
Hope that helps. If you need any more help or advice with podcasting feel free to ping me on Twitter @marcus_thesmith or check out our Founder's Forge Podcast, where we also have an episode where I talk about it.
Stephanie Foo, a professional in the radio/journalism/podcasting industry, says:
I think http://Transom.org has the best lists of options for everything, from small to big price points!
You could ask her @imontheradio if you are on twitter - tell her I sent you!