Commando High Score Recording

Although I arranged this a year ago, I hadn't got around to recording it.  In fact I hadn't recorded anything for nearly a year.  Partly because it takes me several hours, and partly because there isn't much need for more guitar videos in the world.  I feel like my music comes across better live, so I prefer to share my songs at gigs these days.

I have a few songs to record yet but this one decided to come out.  It's 1985 Rob Hubbard, nah, not the scientology bloke, the music composer.  My favourite of his is "Monty on the Run" but that is too much to take on.  This piece however, which was used in Command High Score and another that I can't remember, was somewhat simpler.  The SID chip it was composed for used three instruments, a bassline, a looping middle rhythm part and the melody.  I tried a few ways to put the middle into it but it never quite sounded right.  So I left it as a simpler bass and melody.

To keep video recording simple I zoom in on the guitar and keep me out of the picture.  I use my trusty Zoom H1 condenser microphone for the audio.  My DSLR camera is not easy to self-record but I don't think any are - well at least not the ones that have a backscreen that can't flip forward. So if you can't frame yourself, and set your focus, what do you do?  After much scouring of the internet to come up with a solution, I still simply use a mirror behind the camera.

So as you can see in the photo below, I've got the camera on a tripod with a mirror on another tripod behind it, and on the bottom left the microphone.  Standard deal - take video and audio separately, synchronise by eye and ear, tweak the audio EQ and the colour saturation, add a logo, job done.