“Look At Me Play Guitar” Video on an iPhone

Friday, February 3rd, 2023

I usually shoot my videos with a set of Panasonic Lumix GH series cameras and record audio on a separate device, then I edit in REAPER and Edius to create the final clip. But I thought it might be interesting to see what I could accomplish with an iPhone replacing all the other hardware.

I have found that mic placement is really critical for decent audio recording and the built-in camera mic is rarely in the best place, so a separate mic or two really improves the quality of a music video. I’ve tried a few different gadgets that connect external mics to the iPhone and I’ve settled on the iRig Pro Duo for that purpose. It has decent mic preamps and a/d conversion and provides phantom power if needed.

After capturing the performance in the iPhone I used iMovie to edit the clip. Here’s a look at the setup and the editing process:

Just in case you’re interested, here’s the completed video that I posted on my slack key channel:

I must admit that I didn’t totally enjoy the process of editing on the phone, I expect to continue using my laptop, Lumix cameras, and separate recorder for my videos, but at least I now know that I can create content with just a phone, an interface, and a mic or two.

This entry was posted on Friday, February 3rd, 2023 at 2:11 pm and is filed under Audio, Guitar, Recording, Tutorials, Video. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.


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About the Blog

    Howdy, my name is Fran Guidry and this is my Homebrewed Music blog.

    I play Hawaiian slack key guitar and recorded my solo acoustic CD at home. Most of the recording information I find on the internet seems focused on bands, drums, multitracking, and so on but my main focus is recording solo acoustic guitar. Lately I’ve been enjoying video recording along with audio, so that shows up in the blog as well.

    I’m also a guitar nut. I love big ones and little ones, handmades and factory guitars, cheap ones and expensive ones. So I’ll be sharing the fun of exploring guitars as well, along with the challenges of amplifying acoustic guitars for live performance.

    Welcome!

Philosophy

    My recording philosophy is pragmatic, skeptical, not super critical. After all, the performance is by far the most important component of a track, and every aspect of any recording is a matter of taste.

    But I do like to know “about stuff.” Back in hifi days I learned about double blind testing. I learned that we humans can easily hear differences that don’t really exist. The more I’ve learned about our human auditory system, the more I’m skeptical of what people say they hear, especially if they claim that a particular microphone or preamp or cable has some magical property.

    I’ve only been recording since 2001, and when I started I found the usual places on the internet. I sought advice and accepted it, thought I would improve my recordings by using more expensive equipment. It didn’t work.

    Two things that did seem to lead to better recordings were experience and room treatment. Getting an appealing sound is the combination of many small details, and learning those details only comes from experience. Amd the sound of the recording space is obviously a big factor.

    I’ve only recorded seriously using digital technology, but I remember trying to record rehearsals and gigs back in analog days. I don’t have any nostalgia for analog recording and playback systems at all. I think even low end digital systems can capture marvelous recordings. So when I look at gear, I look for good specs: low noise, broad flat frequency response, wide dynamic range, low distortion. I’m not interested in colorful components, mics and preamps with a sound, I want the sound to be the sound of my guitar.

    But the last word is that I’m just learning and I hope you find something useful in my posts.