Peter Neilson wrote about the poor quality of piano videos on
YouTube and I'm sure that's true, but most of the problem comes from
poor quality recording.  I uploaded a few videos recorded using my
3.2 megapixel Olympus camera on medium quality.  The problem with
cheap digital cameras and even video cameras, is the automatic gain
control (AGC) acting on the recording level.

Automatic gain circuitry will turn up the gain full blast until
a level comes in that is too high to be recorded, then the gain is
backed off.  So when you first turn on the piano, you can hear the
motor going louder in the video than it would be if you were standing
next to the piano.  Then when a grand piano plays one note, the AGC
drops the gain down as far as it will go so any possibility of
recording any expression or dynamics from the piano is lost.

Since most of the videos on YouTube are recorded this way, they all
sound like they are being played by a pumper with a vacuum motor
installed.  With that said, I love them all, I can spend hours on
YouTube and love them all.

I wonder if anyone sells a camera with manual audio gain controls
on the recording level?  Anyone know of any?

Randy Hayno