Not for the first time, I tried tonight to record myself playing using a digital camera. The result sounds HORRENDOUS. my playing might not have been perfect, but I know my sound was better than the thin, tinny sound that came out of the camera. It's a Canon G7, quite a good digital camera at the upper end of the market.

Do other people have this problem and what else do you use to record? do you get the same result from a specific video camera, rather than a digital camera which happens to record videos? what about specific sound recording equipment (in terms of showing anyone on here, I'd much rather you didn't have to see my ugly face , but the visuals could be useful for identifying bowing issues etc)?

I don't think I can really afford to buy anything because I wouldn't use it that regularly - I'm just curious. Lots of people seem to put music videos on youtube without having this problem - but perhaps it's worse with instruments like the violin than, say, the piano?

I usually use my mobile phone camera.
I have a sony ericsson k800i which isnt the best quality but its good enough!
i also use webcam sometimes, that is good quality, but only coz i have a good mic attached to my pc!

I use a slightly older Kodak digital camera for my Youtube stuff, it's not fantastic quality but it is acceptable.

For sound only after trying one or two things settled for investing in an Edirol 09 like alot of people on the Forum.

I'm getting my dad's old minidisc player, but apparently you can't buy them any more...

my laptop has an in-built mic, which seems to give a reasonable quality.

I don't understand. The tiny speaker on a digital camera is not designed for good sound. The whole point of recording video/sound on a small camera is to transfer it to a computer. The playback function is just to give an idea of what you've done.

Put the memory card in your computer. You'll find it sounds a lot better!

Steve

I use mydigital camera too but then transfer it to my PC. Mind you I do mine for my own purposes only so that I can listen to where I need to improve.

As has been said - the playback facility of the camera isn't going to be exactly 'hi-fi', so get the recording onto something else that is. Also, if you're interested just in your sound rather than video, then a video camera is not the best thing to use. Video camera manufacturers will always put money into the video features of a camera rather than the sound recording. That's why professional film crews have separate camera and sound engineers.

To record my own playing I use something called a 'Boss BR Micro' digital recorder. Not a professonal piece of kit by any means, but good enough for my purposes. I'm not after exhibiting any of my recordings, it's just to check how well (or not!) I'm playing. It's main advantage is that it's portable so I can take it to the practice rooms. So far it's been very useful: for example it's shown me that I need to work on not heisitating over the break in my scales (this is clarinet I'm talking about). When I just listen to myself I could swear I don't hesitate, but from the recording it's obvious I do. The plus side is it's shown me I actually sound a lot better than I thought I did!

Thanks guys - sounds silly but it never occured to me that it would sound different coming out of the computer than the camera. but it does (a bit) which is a relief!

£250 for the Edirol. I don't think I will be getting that for Xmas or my birthday in March but will just have to rely on my teacher's ears.

There are cheaper options around, our Edirol wasn't £250 either.

I don't record my own playing very often. I used to use my digital sound recorder. The sound was terrible as the device was not designed for recording music. Nevertheless, it was helpful for me to double check my tempo and articulation. More recently, I used the recording device that was part of the organ console. It was so wonderful to be able to record a piece, then sit somewhere else in the church and listen to the playback. (It was also possible to burn the recording onto a CD, but I had no permission to use the burner.)

I use a sony microphone connected to my laptop. If you have a look at my youtube recordings, where the videos have been compressed the sound quality isnt bad. When just recording audio, the audio quality is superb.