<p>How hard is it to record private performances on to CDs? What equipment do you use? I've heard of the need for a good instrument, recording room, microphones, etc. but are the microphones that important? Has anyone tried using video cameras just to capture the sound?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>The average microphone in a digital video camera is mediocre at best. You're also hampered by the fact that the mic picks up noise from the motor of the camera. </p>
<p>For serious recording in video it's always best to use an external mic. Sony makes a really great stereo one that gives amazing stereo separation. You can select it's range to 45 or 90 degrees. I recorded my DD's senior concerto with this mic and the resulting separation was so good the coughing I heard on the left sound track was so distinctly left, I thought that my wife was coughing in the room to my left; there was nobody in the house but me!</p>
<p>Can audio from a video recording be transferred onto a CD as a... well, a music CD?</p>
<p>Absolutely!</p>
<p>You can use any video editing program, even the one that comes with WinXP to make a MEPG-2 file which is both audio and video. You can then strip the audio as an MP3 file using any number of programs and then use a CD burning program that either burns MP3s directly or converts them to a normal audio CD track.</p>
<p>BTW, I would do any audio editing after you have an entire session's MP3...</p>