Most videos on YouTube have crappy audio. That’s because video cameras almost never have good quality microphones built in. But that’s all changed with the Zoom Q3 Handy Video Recorder note: this has been replaced by the Zoom Q2HD. It’s not only got a high-quality studio mic built in, it’s got two! They’re arranged at the top to give you excellent stereo sound to go with your video. This is an excellent piece of field or home recording gear. Of course, you can use it either as a video camera that has great audio, or as simply a hand-held digital audio recorder by switching modes and telling the Zoom not to record video – only audio. The Q3 (now Q2HD) is a very handy (ha ha, get it?) piece of recording equipment.
Just point and shoot, and when you finish with the high-quality stereo recording along with your video (or just the audio part if you don’t really need the video), plug it straight into your computer with the built-in USB cable. How’s that for awesome as well as convenient?
You should keep in mind on this, however, that if your are far away from the source, especially in a rectangular or otherwise “echo-y” room, the sound will still not be quite as good as if the Q2 is only a few feet away.
For more on how the quality of your audio is affected by how far away the source is on a video, see our post How To Get Good Audio On Your Videos, where you can hear examples of this in the video in that article.
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