Mastering the Art of Audio Capture Sans Microphone

How to Record Good Audio Without a Microphone?

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Audio quality is more important than video quality on YouTube. You’ve probably heard that before – viewers might forgive sub-par video quality if they’re interested in what you’re saying, but if it’s hard to understand what you’re saying they’ll click away.

Getting an external mic (even a $10 one-off Amazon ) is one of the best ways to improve your videos. That said, maybe your budget is $0. Or, maybe you just don’t happen to have a mic now and don’t want to wait to make videos. It could even be that you just don’t want to bother with an external mic.

Luckily, there are a lot of easy, free, things you can do to protect the quality of your audio recording even if you’re not using an external mic. Here are a few tips:

• 1. Keep Your Camera Close
• 2. Shoot Somewhere Quiet
• 3. Pick a Good Room
• 4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind
• 5. Use a Free Audio App
• 6. Do a Sound Check

1. Keep Your Camera Close (like, really close)

The biggest problem with the mic built into any camera or phone is just that, since it’s with the camera, it’s usually too far away from you. Built-in mics can record decent audio up close, but usually, your camera will be set up farther away from you than an external mic would be.

For example, your camera’s mic might be just as good as a clip-on LAV, but that LAV is right by your mouth and the camera is a couple of big steps away.

Moving your camera/smartphone physically closer to you will make it hard to include anything besides your head and shoulders in your shot, but it will get you significantly better audio.

2.Shoot Somewhere Quiet

The best way to limit the amount of background noise you pick up in your sound recording is to shoot somewhere where there’s no background noise. That probably seems really basic, but it’s something a lot of people just don’t do. It’s easy to default to recording in your home office, even though it’s right next to the kitchen where your family is bustling around, or in your bedroom even though there’s a busy street right outside your window.

Sometimes the best thing you can do for your audio is simply to scout out a quiet room in your house where the sound recording conditions are better. Speaking of recording conditions…

3. Pick a Good Room

There’s more that goes into picking a good room than how quiet it is. If you try to record in a room that’s too big your voice might sound to distant, and if you try to record in a room that’s too small your audio will be too echo-y. You need a room that’s just right.

You should also pay attention to what’s in the room you’re recording in. Avoid hard, reflective, surfaces like appliances and mirrors which your voice will bounce off of. The same conditions that make you sound great when you sing in the shower will – like recording in a small space -make your voiceover unpleasantly echo-y.

Look for a room that has a lot of soft things in it, like beds and sofas.

4. Protect your Built-In Mic from Wind

If you shoot outside, then the wind passing over your built-in mic will do terrible things to your audio. You can do a lot to counter-act this problem by physically blocking the wind.

There are a few ways to do this. If you’re doing hand-held shots you can partially cover your camera or phone’s mic with your finger. You don’t want to completely cover it/press down or your audio will be muffled. What you’re trying to do is create a barrier blocking out the wind.

On movie sets, they block out wind by covering the microphones with big fuzzy things called ‘dead cats’. You can also block out wind noise by attaching something fuzzy to your microphone. If your camera’s built-in mic is on front of it then you just need something big and fluffy you can loop around the lens. You can use a piece of a boa, a fuzzy novelty scrunchie – you can even murder a fuzzy stuffed animal! Do you have an old coat with a fuzz around the hood? That fuzz would do nicely.

The pompom used in this video cost $2, but you might already have something that would work!

If your built-in mic is on top of your camera you can get something called a ‘micromuff’. A micromuff is essentially a circular or rectangular piece of velcro with long strands of fluff on top. It’s open in the middle so it doesn’t actually cover your mic, but the surrounding fuzz blocks out the wind.

You use the adhesive backing to attach the base velcro to your camera. The other side of the velcro has your fluff attached to the back.

The only thing about a micromuff is that it costs about $30, and if you’re going to spend $30 on audio equipment then you could just buy yourself an inexpensive LAV mic. I only bring up the micromuff because it’s a very simple design you can probably DIY – you just need velcro with adhesive backing and any of the fluff-sources we just discussed.

5. Use a Free Audio App

If you’re recording on a smartphone, you can download a free app that will let you make adjustments to your audio as you record it. With the right app, you can adjust your gain (volume is how you control ‘output’ audio, and gain is for ‘input’ audio. By turning up your gain, you can make your mic more sensitive), tempo, and more. A lot of the time, your audio recording app will also let you edit your audio afterward.

Even if you’re not recording video from your smartphone, it might be a good idea to use your phone as your mic and record a separate audio file. You’ll be able to use an app to fine-tune your recording, and you can set your phone up closer to you the way you would an external mic while keeping your camera back a bit farther.

Free audio apps: Hi-Q MP3 Voice Recorder (Android), RecForge II (Android), Smart Voice Recorder (Android), Audio Memos (iOS), and Recorder Plus (iOS).

6. Do a Sound Check

Once you think you’ve got good audio set up – test it! You don’t want to do a whole video and find out when you play it back that your audio doesn’t sound good.

Do you have any of your own audio tips to pass on? Leave them in the comments!

This topic was suggested by RS Beauty over in the forums. Thanks for the idea!

Polish Your YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora allows you to record voiceover and edit the recorded audio with mixer, equalizer and provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface, which saves much time. Download the free trial version and get started now.

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Craft Compelling Videos: Utilize No-Cost Templates & Samples

Free Banner Templates & Makers for YouTube

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.

We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.

• Free Channel Art Template Downloads
• 9 Banner Makers with Free Channel Art Templates

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .

---

Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads

In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.

1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora

You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.

You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.

2. Behance

Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.

Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans

You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.

In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.

3. YourTube

With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.

The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).

Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.

Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates

In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.

1. Wondershare PixStudio

Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.

2. Adobe Spark

To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.

Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).

The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.

Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.

3. BeFunky

This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.

4. Canva

Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.

The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.

5. Crello

Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.

Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.

6. Design Wizard

This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.

Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.

7. Fotor

Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.

There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.

8. Snappa

If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.

Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.

9. Visme

Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.

How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.

We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.

• Free Channel Art Template Downloads
• 9 Banner Makers with Free Channel Art Templates

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .

---

Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads

In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.

1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora

You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.

You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.

2. Behance

Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.

Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans

You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.

In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.

3. YourTube

With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.

The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).

Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.

Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates

In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.

1. Wondershare PixStudio

Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.

2. Adobe Spark

To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.

Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).

The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.

Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.

3. BeFunky

This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.

4. Canva

Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.

The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.

5. Crello

Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.

Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.

6. Design Wizard

This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.

Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.

7. Fotor

Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.

There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.

8. Snappa

If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.

Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.

9. Visme

Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.

How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.

We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.

• Free Channel Art Template Downloads
• 9 Banner Makers with Free Channel Art Templates

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .

---

Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads

In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.

1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora

You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.

You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.

2. Behance

Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.

Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans

You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.

In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.

3. YourTube

With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.

The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).

Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.

Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates

In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.

1. Wondershare PixStudio

Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.

2. Adobe Spark

To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.

Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).

The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.

Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.

3. BeFunky

This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.

4. Canva

Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.

The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.

5. Crello

Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.

Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.

6. Design Wizard

This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.

Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.

7. Fotor

Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.

There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.

8. Snappa

If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.

Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.

9. Visme

Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.

How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett

Oct 26, 2023• Proven solutions

0

Free Channel Art Templates are an important resource for creators. It can be extremely difficult challenging to build channel art from scratch if you don’t have any graphic design experience. aren’t an artist or a graphic designer.

We’ve listed two types of resources in this article: templates and backgrounds you can download, and banner makers which have templates you can customize.

• Free Channel Art Template Downloads
• 9 Banner Makers with Free Channel Art Templates

Touch Up YouTube Videos with Filmora

As one of the most widely used video editing software in YouTube video editing, Filmora provides lots of templates and effects with an intuitive interface. You can use it to create YouTube thumbnail, or banner easily with the templates and then take a snapshot from the video .

---

Part 1: Free Channel Art Template Downloads

In this section you’ll find 3 sites where you can download free YouTube banners.

1. YouTube Channel Art Templates from Filmora

You can find 50 free YouTube banner templates right here on filmora.io. There are 10 different categories including popular channel types like makeup and gaming.

You have two options for every template: PSD and PNG. If you have Photoshop you’ll be able to edit the PSD file and, if you don’t, you can use the PNG as your banner background when you build your channel art in a free online program like Canva.

2. Behance

Behance is a gallery of creative visual works. There is a very large collection of art you could repurpose for your channel art, but some creators on the site have also created graphics specifically to be used as YouTube banners.

Here are some channel art galleries on Behance: Ej / Vritra , Austin Evans

You can download PSD files from Behance and edit them in Photoshop. There isn’t a PNG or JPG option for people who don’t have Photoshop, though.

In order to download the templates you’ll need to hover your cursor over the Photoshop icon, and then click ‘Download Now’ when it appears. You’ll need to make an account before you can download.

3. YourTube

With over 500 templates available, YourTube has the largest selection on this list. They have every style you can think of, from minimalist to video game themed.

The site is run by two web designers who make the money they need to maintain the site from the few premium/paid options available (although the vast majority of templates are free).

Most of the templates are JPG backgrounds which you will need to add your own text to.

Part 2: 9 Banner Makers with Free Templates

In this section you’ll find 9 YouTube channel art makers.

1. Wondershare PixStudio

Wondershare PixStudio has special features to remove the image background. With a single click, you can quickly remove the image background, and use your image with more flexibility. Just payment of $7.99 per month to use the features.

2. Adobe Spark

To edit the templates available through Adobe Spark, just click on the resources in the template and then click on the images/fonts/etc you want to substitute in. Resources like filters are also very accessible.

Everything you do in Spark starts with clicking on an element in the template. You won’t see all of the menus at once, just the ones related to the element you’ve selected (i.e. the background image or the text).

The only downside of Spark is that free downloads include a watermark. The silver lining is that that watermark is small and located in the bottom-right corner, meaning that it won’t show up for viewers watching your channel on either computers or mobile devices.

Note: for some reason when you click ‘Create your YouTube channel art’ it will load a thumbnail template instead of a banner template. Click Resize in the side menu to switch to channel art or your exported image won’t be big enough.

3. BeFunky

This is a graphics creator that doubles as a banner maker. You’ll need to enter BeFunky’s ‘Designer’ tool in order to find the channel art templates under ‘Social Media Headers’ and ‘YouTube’. There’s actually only 1 free channel art template, but it is a very standard channel art layout which you can customize with your own images.

4. Canva

Canva is one of the most popular free channel art makers. It is an easy to use, drag and drop, program that will automatically resize images to work in the spaces you drag them to. It has great free resources like stock photos. Some resources are paid ($1), but many are free.

The templates on Canva do tend to include paid resources, but it’s easy enough to swap them out with free resources or your own images.

5. Crello

Crello offers 10 examples free channel art templates through their blog, and you can even edit the templates right on the site.

Crello is an easy to use visual editor created for social media and marketing, meaning that it was made to be easy for non-designers to jump into. Beyond the free templates and text options, however, most of their stock photos and backgrounds cost $1. To use Crello for free you either need to use the default images, or upload your own.

6. Design Wizard

This is another program with a small number of free templates that you can make almost anything out of through customization. One of the most useful features of design wizard is that it will show you the ‘safe zone’ – the area of your banner that will show up on any device screen – so you can design with that in mind.

Remember to delete the safe zone marker before you export.

7. Fotor

Another graphics program with free templates for YouTube channel art. Fotor is easy to use – perhaps the easiest program on this list to use. In the ‘background’ tab you don’t even have to drag and drop, you just click on the element in your template and then click on what you want to replace it with. You can even load in your own images.

There are paid options in Fotor which will add a watermark to your design unless you upgrade to their paid service, but there are enough free options to satisfy most creators.

8. Snappa

If you want to get something made fast, Snappa can do that. Just find YouTube Channel Art under Headers and choose one of the free templates (there are a lot). Then it’s just a matter of swapping out the elements in the template with ones that suit your channel and clicking download.

Snappa shows you the safe areas for different devices while you edit.

9. Visme

Visme provides 50 free channel art templates you can edit through their online graphics service. The banner maker is a big more complicated than some of the other makers on this list (it has a lot of options that are more for marketers than YouTubers, which weighs it down a bit), but the free templates are great and you can upload your own images to use with them.

How did you make your banner? Did you use a channel art template?

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Richard Bennett