Are you a musician that likes to enter contests here in Steemit? Do you have great songs but struggle to get the traffic over to your page? would you like more views and, in turn, more rewards for your content? Well, read on my fellow creatives and I'll tell some of my top tips that I've been using since joining here 6 months ago
TOP TIP -
ALWAYS INCLUDE AN ALTERNATIVE YOUTUBE VIDEO WHEN UPLOADING TO DTUBE OR DLIVE!!
Unfortunately, some visitors to your post will struggle to get them to play and will soon get annoyed and run, never to be seen again! By including a YouTube video, you will always have that peace of mind that your hard work WILL get noticed and in return, keep those listeners engaged in your future uploads.
My first Open Mic entry in Week 69 - recorded using the only video camera I had, my Huawei P10 smartphone which is actually very good and shoots in 1080p and beyond - But there was one really important thing that was missing and frankly, letting my songs down.
The Best Camera You Can Own Is The One In Your Pocket 📸
Now before we get into the tech side of things and all the geeky coolness, let me start by saying YOU can succeed here, and beyond the Blockchain with your mobile phone videos etc, but, as technology moves on, more and more of us expect a certain level of quality when engaging in online media, right?
Here's a video I uploaded to my YouTube channel 9 years ago using my then (can't remember) Smartphone. It got 11,000 views and was frankly, of pretty poor quality compared to today's high standards. It was obviously interesting to those that engaged with it though, and the subject matter is pretty cool as you can see. A simple sound demonstration of my then, 1960s/70s Vintage Laney Super group guitar amp. It was a rare find, and I couldn't wait to get it home and show it off to the like minded guitar gear heads online. It worked! An absolute fluke of a video. But, that is the only one that has, and let's be honest here, 11k views in 2018 isn't really that impressive, is it?
The Song
The Open Mic Weeks rolled by and I was in my songwriting element. Creating my heartfelt poetic stories accompanied by my guitar, and engaging more and more within the Steemit community, but, there was still something missing! THE SOUND QUALITY!
This is what I was using with my home Porta-Studio to record ALL of my tracks that are on Dsound, SoundClound and Choon and it was my weapon of choice when researching how to get some good quality sound with my videos! They're within the reach of nearly all of us, and in your countries, will possibly be cheaper than my British Pound.
So, I had a great mic all the while and totally dismissed it! Look around at what you have kicking around at home and put it to good use if you can.
We all have those random boxes of bit and bobs at home!
So, I researched further into cameras and the best way I could capture my performances for Open Mic - YouTube - Dtube and Dlive videos that I wanted to create. I browsed around for a few nights and came across a nice little 1080p webcam from good ole' Amazon Which is brilliant for the Sale price of £20.69 & FREE Delivery in the UK. I now use it on EVERY video I make and am really happy with this great little camera.
Next was how I'd connect all this together and get it in sync for my videos. I downloaded a program that is very popular amongst online creators called OBS
It seemed very complicated when I first started using it but was in fact, pretty straight forward for what I wanted to capture. Sure, it does all kinds of amazing stuff but I'm a musician and producer and am much more at home with sound recording techniques rather than video editing.
Here's a rough tutorial I did on how I use everything together.
Lastly - I use my old Zoom MRS 1608 Porta-Studio as my audio interface, But am currently saving for something more portable so I can do some On Location videos which will take my skills to the next level. I'm always trying to better than I was yesterday and YOU can too! Experiment with your tools that you have at your finger tips and try things out!
Here's a few select USB audio interfaces that I'm hoping to get in the future.
Behringer UM2 UPhoria USB Audio Interface + Tracktion 4 Audio Production software
Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 2nd Gen USB Audio Interface - Original box/instructions
Shop around and see what you can find! Ebay is always a great GO-TO place for second-hand gear because it is generally well looked after as people who have pleanty of disposable incme love to upgrade as much as possible, whuch gives us poor musicians a bargain!!
I hope you found this post interesting and in some way helpful with all of your recording needs. It's a really basic set of tips to get you up and running and gaining some more exposure with your quality recordings! One important thing to remember is - You Can't Polish a Shit - That means, No matter how good your gear is, YOUR content is THE MOST important thing you can be sure of. If you are lucky enough to have quality content, audio and visual, you'll no doubt attract attention and in time, your equipment will have paid for itself.
Have a great weekend and keep creating your magic!!!
Darren
You can find my music at the following places!
Darren Claxton is a Songwriter, Musician and Producer of his own music, from Derbyshire UK. The music he writes is often heartfelt acoustic indie folk with a sprinkling of rock and country influences, with an occasional world music flavour as heard on his track ‘Dragonfly’ . But most of all, it's his passive emotive thoughts and feelings that are delivered through that soothing vocal, and intricate guitar playing of his.
Come and visit me on EasyDex Discord
Choon is a music streaming service and digital payments ecosystem—designed to solve the music industry’s most fundamental problems.
Check out my music on CHOON
