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I live in a flamenco wilderness with no teachers within several hours traveling time. I checked a local music school and the guitar teacher said sure, I can fake a pretty good rasqueado. He demonstrated on an "air" guitar. I left. The few times I tried Skype, I found the picture somewhat jerky. This is from someone in the same area, not from across the continent. For anyone taking Skype lessons, is this a problem? Are you seeing enough detail? The second concern I have is the sound. All videos on this site sound quite good, but when I tried recording my playing, it sounded like I was playing in a tin can. Would this be a problem to teachers? It certainly is an insult to any of my guitars. (Perhaps a recommendation for a better microphone would make them feel better.) There was a serious problem with the picture and sound being out of sync but I think I have that one solved. (uninstalled/reinstalled) My equipment is Logitech HD Pro Webcam C920.I was told this was fairly good. I will embarrass myself enough without help from technology. This is a big stretch for me.
Posts: 15334
Joined: Dec. 14 2004
From: Washington DC
RE: Skype lessons questions (in reply to eg.czerny)
Make sure you have upgraded all the add ons plug ins etc and have the latest edition of skype installed and all updates. It is no longer jerky with any of my current students.
I use the same camera as you, though I use better mics/preamp. The mic on the webcam should be OK though - didn't Ramzi upload some recordings using this webcam that sounded pretty good? Do a search on the webcam model and you should find it.
PS Ricardo does a try out session to check all this works anyhow, which he forgot to mention!
RE: Skype lessons questions (in reply to Blondie#2)
quote:
The other thing to do is check your speed, download and upload, and compare to Skype specs. There are 'comfortable limits for video conferencing:
Not related to this post. But I use Skype to chat with a few friends in China (learning Mandarin) and the image quality is terrible. Sometimes can barely make out the features? But they can see me O.K. And they tell me they use the best bandwidth available in Beijing?
Any suggestions as to what might improve the visual image?
tell them to turn the light on .......I know its sounds silly but many people have their computer in the corner and away from the light as to stop screen glare and read stuff better etc .. but it also results that web cams ,,not always the best for quality and high pixel definition , are in the dark and make for a poor picture . they should test themselves first and get it as light as possible , it may help anyway ...
Posts: 161
Joined: Feb. 16 2011
From: Danville, CA
RE: Skype lessons questions (in reply to eg.czerny)
I know the online instructors are all doing Skype (PC agnostic), but for those of you with MACs I find Facetime works 1000x better. Sometimes I wonder if MAC OS looks for Skype and messes with it, just to make sure it's own product works better.
My daughter in in Boulder and I videoconference her from CA. Skype is almost unusable, while Facetime is like we're in the same room. Same PCs, same network connections; what gives?
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