People have asked me to do more videos, especially after I did the Doppler on the Dumble series. But the problem with doing video reviews is that I needed to set up a separate sound source to replace the video’s sound track, as it’s not all that good. So I’ve been looking at alternatives that had decent built-in sound, and a really inexpensive alternative I found was the Alesis VideoTrack. Mind you, I wouldn’t buy this one at full price. I got it for $80 today at Guitar Center during their Black Friday sale.
On the positive, it had great audio quality, which I’d expect from an audio company like Alesis. On the negative, the video quality is poor. But for gear reviews, it’s more important to have great sound than great video. That said, this will work for the time being until I get the Zoom Q3HD which has great audio and HD video. But it’s also almost four times what I paid for the Alesis, so I probably won’t be getting one anytime soon.
In any case, I did a test video. Check it out:
Not bad. Not bad at all. The sound quality is amazingly good, so I think we have a winner here!
Guitar Gear 
I’m planning on getting the Q3 HD too hoping the Aussie dollar stays strong for q couple more months! Nice find with the Alesia though haven’t heard that name in a while they used to be massive
I’ll see how I fare with the VideoTrack for now. With the audio as good as it is, I won’t be in such a rush to get the Q3HD. The only drawback is that the included software is Windows only. I have Macs in the house. But at least you can hook up the unit, and get the videos. Not too much of a bother.
I think the video quality in your clip is just fine for gear demos. They audio quality is very good from the Alesis and as you mentioned, it is so easy to record audio/video from one device.
Can’t believe how easy it is. I think the thing that the Q3HD will have over the VideoTrack, other than the better video, is the auto gain feature. That’s something that is pretty nice to have.
I noticed on the box that the software was for PC only. How do you work with your Mac to upload to facebook or YouTube?
Yeah… and apparently, the software is pretty useless on the PC, so it doesn’t make a difference. I just hooked up the camera to my Mac (which is how you charge it), activated the USB Mass Storage (which pops up on the screen of the camera) and it becomes another drive. Acts just like a thumb drive. After that, it’s just a matter of pulling the movie file off the “drive.” Luckily it’s in a ready-to-upload MP4 format – at least on the Mac – and doesn’t require a special CODEC.
In other words, this camera’s all about easy.
I’ve had some issues with my video track stopping in the middle of filming. Any similar experiences or ways around this?
I just bought this the other day and am more than happy with this product. For the price range I think it is a great unit, the audio is fantastic and so easy to use. I have not encountered any problem with the Videotrack cutting out during recording, I did a clip of me and my buddy jamming and that was about 15 minutes long. Did the battery run out maybe?
I think there’s a limit to clips, and it _might_ have to do with the fact that the videos are YouTube ready, which has a 10 minute limit for free accounts. Not sure, but it seems plausible.
Yes, only if you exceed something like 6 minutes. So I tend to do real short clips. 🙂
Hi ! i wonder if the headphone working will video tapping or only on playback ,thank you.
I bought one of these after reading countless reviews saying it was a good product.Fact- its shit! I have used it for jamming 5 times now and it does not pick up the low frequencies. the bass is non existent even though it is blaring in the room.video quality is not very good either.save your money and buy somthing else
I got mine for cheap from Guitar Center, so it wasn’t a total loss. 🙂 Any solution like this is not going to have studio-quality audio. If you were expecting that, yeah, you’d be disappointed.
If I get this prduct, is there a video editing package out there that will enable me to chop up a file, or remove unwanted footage?
I just use iMovie on my Mac.