If you want to get more views, comments, and likes, one thing you can do is to concentrate on making the audio sound great. It is not really that hard, but will take some extra time. You’ve spent all this time practicing and learning how to play the guitar, why not learn how to make your video sound great as well as look good.

In the video below I will show you exactly how to get good audio with your video.

Hopefully that will convince you to start paying more attention to the audio when recording videos. A few items will be needed for you to achieve better audio.

What You Will Need

• Audio Recording Software - If you’re on a Mac then use Garageband. If your on Windows, then Audacity or any other recording program. You can download Audacity for Free here. Many audio interfaces come with some kind of software to record with as well.
• Audio Interface - There are many to choose from, and in this Blog Post Tutorial I explain how to use a mixer and a usb device. There are also many other usb interfaces to choose from as well. I haven’t tried this one yet, but it looks very promising. It also comes with a Free copy of Pro Tools Lite. I’m a huge Pro Tools fan. M-Audio Fast Track Pro
• Video Editing Software – If you’re on a Mac, then you can use iMovie. If you’re on a PC then I recommend using Adobe Premiere Elements 9. You can even try it for Free for 30 days. Retail on this software is $79.99. Not a bad price I think. Here’s where you can check it out. Adobe Premiere Elements
• Video Camera – If you don’t have one already, then I would recommend the Kodak Zi8. It costs around a $100 and is HD. Check it out here. Kodak Zi8

There will be a slight learning curve, but the difference in sound from your videos will be dramatically better if you do this. If you don’t have any backing tracks to record over, check out this page for a Free BB King Style track you can download. Check it out here.

Have a question or an opinion? Leave a comment below.

Back when I started doing this, the tools were very primitive and sounded horrible. Today, you can get near studio quality results for about $120. If you are not already recording yourself playing, then I want to ask you why not? It will benefit you more than you think. You will only realize some things that you need to work on, only after you have recorded yourself and listened back to the track. This is very revealing!

In this tutorial I’m going to show you a fairly inexpensive way to record over backing tracks to see what your playing really sounds like. I have chosen the equipment below based on price, ease of use, and reliability. There are many other ways to record yourself which don’t involve a mic or a guitar amp, but some of those solutions can be more complicated, and frankly using an amp is so much more fun!

This is the equipment you will need assuming you have a guitar, a guitar amp, guitar cable, and a computer.

Microphone – $30

On the example track I used a Shure 57 which many people just have one laying around. If you don’t have a mic, then you can find a cheap dynamic mic like this one for about $30 with a mic cable.

Shure Dynamic mic – Link to Product.   You could use a USB mic as well, but I find them a little harder to setup and to control the volume with.  Again, this solution was created for ease and stability in mind for about $120.

Mixer – $59.99

Many people are probably going to tell you that you don’t need a mixer, and you should just get a USB soundcard with mic inputs. While these work good, they can be very confusing and unstable. With a mixer that has no USB or Firewire, you are pretty much guaranteed the thing will work for a long time and won’t be replaced by another technology. Plus, you will find tons of uses for a small mixer.

The mixer I recommend is the Behringer Xenyx 802. It has 2 XLR ins and enough connections to do many different things. I’ve used this for live video sound, Skype Guitar Lessons, and as a talkback mixer for recording bands.

You can even use this as a mic input for your video camera if you have one. If not, then you’ll already have this if you decide to get one. Don’t ever use the mic that’s inside the video camera. The quality is horrible! I have a pretty expensive video camera and the mic on that one is bad too.

Behringer Xenyx 802 – Link to Product.  $59.99 at this time of writing.

Soundcard – $30

Now that you have a microphone, and a mixer, you will need to connect the mixer to a soundcard. The cheapest, easiest, and most stable device I have used is the Behringer (yes I like Behringer!)

UCA 202U USB Control Audio Interface. – Link to Product.

This little thing works awesome! There is nothing to install and works immediatley when you just plug it in tho your computer by USB. You will need to connect using rca to 1/4″ cable. Just like this one here.

Warning! When you connect to your computer, your computer may use the USB device as your default listening driver. You just need to change your Sounds playback device in windows to change this. Easy!

So now we have a total of about $130 depending on what brands and model cables you get. If you already have a microphone then it’s about $100. If you don’t have a mic stand, just drape the mic over the amp. It’s done all the time in some live situations.

Software

So now that you have all the gear set up, you will need some software to mix and record your audio. Guess what? It’s FREE!

Audacity is a fantastic program that is both easy to use and easy to install. It does not take much computer power and can export mp3s if you download the special file needed.
Download Audacity for FREE right here.

In the video below, I go through the process of recording over one of my backing tracks. The quality I get is really good, and I’m using everything listed above except for the mic I’m using a Shure 57.

Check out the video Below

Listen to what I recorded and exported to mp3 below.

If you have any questions, please add a comment below. Remember if you’re not recording yourself and hearing what you should be practicing, you not going to understand if you’re getting any better.