Hi all,
I recently bought a Zoom Q8 video recorder.
Im quite pleased with the results, especially the audio capabilities. Ive recorded a band live and just let the camera run rather than stopping.starting after every song. So now Im looking for some windows video editing program advice.
I know there are forum members who do some awesome videos as Ive seen some very good ones on YouTube.
What I need first and foremost is just something that will allow me to cut up the long files into shorter, single song files.
Is there anything any of you can recommend?
Cost is part of the issue. A good free one would be awesome, but if I need to purchase then advice on a good bang for buck program would be great.
Thanks for any and all assistance,
best wishes,
Jim

I can recommend "Active Presenter", a free software.
You can get it e.g. on this website of a reliable German computer magazine, to be sure it is no malware.

http://www.chip.de/downloads/ActivePresenter-Free-Edition_60021520.html

I have been using it for my music videos for about two years now, it's more powerful than Windows Movie Maker. It is optimized for making teaching videos / tutorials, so there are many options for annotations etc. Cutting out unwanted parts is no problem of course.
However, it doesn't provide "picture in picture" and some other special things.

windows movie maker is very easy to use and it's in your PC.

Gary

I've used photoshop primiere elements...takes a while to learn but excellent video program

The main reasons why I now prefer Active Presenter over Windows Movie Maker are:

- more options how to compress the video data size without sacrificing too much audio quality
- zoom-in: If my camera shows too much of my untidy room, I limit the frame to a smaller image section. You can do that for the whole clip, but also zoom in and out and toward a different focus during the clip with any speed you want.
- flexible captions and sub-titles, several simultaneously in different colours, durations etc.

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies.
I never considered windows movie maker because, well, since I've never done anything like this before I just forgot it's even here on my PC already.

I will definitely give Active Presenter a whirl.
Thanks a bunch