If i can make a couple suggestions, pixlr is a pretty feature rich photoshop clone (and free) web app that i find really good for making quick image edits.
I also don’t see this advice very often, so I try to spread it when I can: an XLR condenser mic will almost universally get you far higher quality recordings in the same price range of USB mics. The downside is you will need a mixer and potentially a powersource. It will take up more space but likely still be within the range of or cheaper than the USB mic (with the bonus of upgrading your mic not fucking with your whole setup)
I personally use a Behringer c-3 XLR into xenyx802 mixer, plugged directly into my PC via L-R 1/4 cable to standard stereo 3.5mm, though i might actually recommend getting the next step up microphone from what im currently using if you can.
I’m gonna throw this suggestion in here, HitFilm 4 Express is a semi-professional level editor, almost comparable to Sony Vegas or Adobe Premier, I say almost because it does lack a few features, but it does have the necessities, multiple timelines, masking, frame exportation and moving tracks. It also comes bundled with quite a few stock special effects that aren’t in the other programs. There are a few short comings however, you are limited the formats you can output to (MP4, AVI and GIF) and some visual effect you would think would be standard are behind a pay wall.
There is also a paid version but if you want to dump money into editing software, I would recommend going with one of the big 2 (Premiere or Vegas). I would generally only recommend HitFilm to people who are just dipping their toes into the pool of editing with out diving into the cost sea.
Two other things unrelated to Hitfilm, I second getting a XLR microphone, I’ve been using a AudioTechnica AT2035 Condensor Mic run through a Behringer U-PHORIA UM2 audio interface for the past year or so for my streams and voice acting endeavors, and it sounds wonderful, the initial price may be a little steep when first buying in but it is so worth it.
Last thing, please learn to use the noise removal effect in audacity or audition, it one of the most useful audio related things I’ve ever learned.
Everybody thank Bob for increasing the post limit by a tad. And then two or three more tads. He put a zero on the end of it is what I’m saying.
Added webcams, put in some more easy links to follow, and I think I’ll have either the next or next-next section of the guide be a collection of thread recommendations, to highlight posts from here all in one place. If that’s not the next thing I work on, it’ll be writing or finding some simple guides to some of the software, as requested by a couple of people already.
For now, though, that’s pretty much all I have to offer on just the hardware and software side, at least until I learn more about SSLP software. I’ll be back sometime soon with another thread to go over the basic LP workflow, putting the various things you’ve acquired here to use to actually make your LP video and thread, and answering some questions I see asked around fairly often.
I actually had a question about space. I record in my bedroom which is kind of L-shaped. I’m in the shorter L with my desk and shit all against the wall. I’d take a picture for better reference, but my room is a fucking mess and that’s embarrassing to show off.
Basically, I get loads of sound from my massive window to the outside world - cars and shit, drunk assholes late at night when it’s usually quiet enough in my place to record. Obviously, I can just work around that, but that’s really my only issue (I think), I don’t think my mic causes much echo in it’s current state? I don’t know if there’s any way to fix the whole external noise thing? For reference, I have the AT2020, the XLR one? (I used to be big into podcasting and I also do/try to do voiceover stuff, so I’ve just kind’ve invested in audio equipment over the past few years anyway)
If you would like a picture or something, to give me some tips on my workspace or anything, it’d be appreciated. But you’ve been forewarned about shitty, kinda lazy roomkeeping habits.
You’re looking for a shotgun mic, and you probably wanna look into something like this noise gate plugin for Audacity and hope you’re not talking while a noise is happening.
Does anyone use room dividers for better acoustics? I know some folks do this when they don’t have a dedicated recording space and I’d like to know if it’s worthwhile.
Street noise is something that’s very hard to deal with. My last place had a very busy street and any LP editing had a lot of noise removal involved There are things you can do, like making sure the isolation on your window frames is good, putting audio foam panels on your wall, putting in a divider that makes the L-shaped room small while you’re recording.
Without a recording room or studio, you’re always going to be dealing with some sort of editing or noise-gating while streaming.
Alright, cool. The divider and foam panels sound doable. My window frame are kind of garbage, so I guess I’ll be doing a bunch of retakes and noise gating. But I plan on doing post-comms anyway, so that’s relatively painless, just a fair bit of work if its busy out. Thanks!
What’s the viability of running an Avermedia U3 and playing off the preview window? i hear it has really good latency and I can get a u3 for like 60 quid right now. Anyone have any experience with this?
As a professional software developer, I’m quite content using Avisynth for all my video editing needs, thank you very much.
I agree that it’s not worth recommending to anyone who doesn’t at least program in C as a hobby, or hasn’t always wanted to learn, but I think the ability to do things like program frequently used edits and apply them with a single word, send those edits to someone in text, or download plugins and use whatever features they contain seamlessly, all taking up no more space than a text script and your raw inputs, is a pretty handy way to do your work if you can get your head around it.
Missed out on this but I’m checking out Hindenburg Journalist Pro - is anyone using this software? I’d love to hear thoughts on it before I throw down $375.
I fiddled around with the basic version last night, seems to be a marginally more user-friendly version of Audacity. Although unless I’m missing something super obvious (and I probably am), it doesn’t seem like it does Noise Reduction? Pretty much every other feature you’d expect is there.
I don’t know if there’s a specific way to make/load actual subtitle files in Sony Vegas (despite using it since Vegas 7, I haven’t dug very deep in to its options).
If I ever need subtitles for my videos I just go in to media generators and throw a text layer on.
From there you can treat it like a video clip. I specifically use the Legacy Text because oddly enough it seems to give you more control over your text (or at least I think so).
If you mean real subtitle files, like *.srt files or whatever, I just use Subtitle Workshop. Supports a comically large number of file formats and is generally very easy to use.
There are things you can do, like making sure the isolation on your window frames is good, putting audio foam panels on your wall, putting in a divider that makes the L-shaped room small while you’re recording.