My husband plans to interview his dad about his life. I’d like to record the interview onto my computer so that we can refer back to it.
I have a standard digital camera and I’m headed to Radio Shack to buy a microphone. I’ve never tried to do anything like this before, and I’m unsure how to integrate all this together to make one recording with picture and sound.
I need to do this as cheaply as possible, so I will want to use either some software I already have (windows 7) or something I can download free.
Any advice? Thanks!
First, make sure your camcorder has an input for an external microphone. Your camcorder is digital, so you should be able to connect it to your computer and using windows moviemaker (I’m assuming you have a windows machine) you should easily be able to combine, edit and save your project.
Good luck!
Thanks, but it’s just a regular digital camera, not a camcorder. It has a rudimentary microphone, but I need to set up a better microphone or I won’t be able to hear very well. Will that “cancel out” the camera’s mike, or will there be a weird echo?
How do you plan to record the audio? If it’s just a regular digital camera, it won’t have a mic input. You would be better off using the in camera mic.
I just looked at Windows movie maker, but it seems like you need to have an existing video to import. A video I took of my cat is somehow in there but I just took that with my camera’s video function and the sound is crappy. I guess I’m unsure how to start. I will connect the camera to the computer, plug the microphone into the jack on the computer, then ???
Eeesh. I’m not sure how that will work.
My suggestion is get a little camcorder and use that, but I understand if that is not feasable.
The other option is an audio interview. there are several fairly cheap audio recorders that will hook up to your pc and give you an editable file.
Can’t you just get a microphone and connect it to the microphone input on your computer, then use standard Windows software to record? I don’t know why you’d need a camera or other external gadgets to record audio, unless the audio quality of the built-in stuff is insufficient, or your computer lacks an audio input.
Here’s Microsoft’s page on how to do this. Here’s a site selling a commercial recording program you could use instead of the free Windows 7 one; its photos of different types of audio plugs might be useful whether you use their software or not.
That’s helpful, thanks. I guess I don’t need video; I just thought it might be easier on playback to find a certain part of the interview.
Yeah you could plug a mic directly into your computer and record using free software like audacity. That’s how I’d do it.
Yep, if all you’re looking for is the audio, that is the best answer to your question.