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-   -   Video production newbie needs help. (https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=576737)

varmonter 03-31-2020 06:20 AM

Video production newbie needs help.
 
Im trying to learn video production.
I purchased "Filmora pro" And was
able to sync my guitar
recording video up with my mandolin
video perfectly. Cool.
Our band is in self isolation with
all gigs cancelled. So i sent them
my guitar track and they in turn
are recording their parts. We are uploading these to google drive .
My first attempt to sync the bass
players track to mine is a disaster.
there is a place at the end where i do
a hamner on and i asked everyone
to hit that so i have a place to sync.
well if i get this perfect the bass track
sounds good for a bit around that
sync spot" but slowly drifts apart as
you get furthur away. its almost like
its compressed Vertically like an accordian not horizontally like a compressor does or an apple press.
I guess my question is .. does google
drive compress video ? And is there
a way to fix this. Im at a standstill
with this project if i cant get it to work.
thanks.. again im a real newbie to this.

Rudy4 03-31-2020 08:24 AM

My guess is that whatever the bass player used to play back and record a synced track to was running at a slightly different time base.

If that's the case you can edit the bass track by using the time stretch function of your editing program. You'll have to adjust the starting sync point first then go to the end and figure out exactly how much you need to stretch the track so the start and end will both sync up. You can find directions to do the actual stretch in the program help files. It's usually a matter of selecting the stretch audio length function and entering in the number of milliseconds that it needs corrected by.

KevWind 03-31-2020 10:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rudy4 (Post 6334224)
My guess is that whatever the bass player used to play back and record a synced track to was running at a slightly different time base.

If that's the case you can edit the bass track by using the time stretch function of your editing program. You'll have to adjust the starting sync point first then go to the end and figure out exactly how much you need to stretch the track so the start and end will both sync up. You can find directions to do the actual stretch in the program help files. It's usually a matter of selecting the stretch audio length function and entering in the number of milliseconds that it needs corrected by.

Relatively new to video here also . Would that be different frame rates ?

Brent Hahn 03-31-2020 10:32 AM

Is the pitch off as well? If the bass track is longer, it should also be a tad flat. Good news if it is, actually, because then Rudy4's fix will fix both issues. Probably take you a few tries, though.

Chipotle 03-31-2020 11:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind (Post 6334333)
Relatively new to video here also . Would that be different frame rates ?

I think it has to do with frame rate as well as encoding, and what the video software does to try and get different clips to coexist. I've seen the same thing recently trying to combine video I've captured myself with video from other sources, using Premiere Pro. The audio gets out of sync, as well as video quality suffering.

I wish I knew enough about video to tell you how to fix it at the source. It may not even be possible for everyone's different video-capture devices to create files that coexist well. I just tweak clip length and position until it more or less lines up and shrug at the poorer quality for now.

Rudy4 03-31-2020 02:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KevWind (Post 6334333)
Relatively new to video here also . Would that be different frame rates ?

I'm not knowledgeable about video either. I would think frame rates would make a much larger error in sync than what the OP was suggesting. What I related comes from what I know about syncing audio, which can drift out of sync over the several minutes in length that a project can be. It doesn't take many milliseconds of drift to make a really noticeable echo between two or more audio tracks recorded by different devices.

Most any audio editor that I know of will allow time stretching the entire length of the track. The good news is the change in pitch that occurs from time stretching is unnoticeable and insignificant for the small amount that the track is shortened or lengthened.

Edits will also often allow you to stretch without changing pitch and conversely change pitch without changing the total time.

A very practical example of the ability to time stretch is the "settings wheel" at the lower right side of Youtube videos which lets you slow down a video clip by 25 or 50% without changing pitch. It's very useful for learning new material.

varmonter 03-31-2020 05:12 PM

Well thank you for all
the responses. The time stretch
seems to make sense. I unfortunatly
am clueless on where to find this
in filmorapro. Ill have to look some more.
Our vocalist sent me her cut today.
i downloaded it and had to convert it
from wmf to mp4. Filmora supports a plethora of media types
windows media is not one of them. :(.
But after i did that i was able to
sync her vocal to my guitar part.
It sync perfectly .didnt take me
but 5 min. So im thinking you guys
are right and my bass player is
recording at a different rate.
and its not google drive.
Its all a learning curve.
Now i have to figure out how
to chg the frame rate on filmorapro.

varmonter 03-31-2020 05:21 PM

So does anyone know where the time
rate is on lets say an ipad camera.
Id like to see if we can all do the same
rate. im assuming my ipad is whatever
the default is as is my vocalist.
I just got my percussionists file.on drive. ill download it tonight and see if
it will sync up..

Rudy4 04-01-2020 11:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by varmonter (Post 6334752)
So does anyone know where the time
rate is on lets say an ipad camera.
Id like to see if we can all do the same
rate. im assuming my ipad is whatever
the default is as is my vocalist.
I just got my percussionists file.on drive. ill download it tonight and see if
it will sync up..

You can use the camera preference settings for your iPad to change frame rate, video file format, and anything else that is selectable. The actual time base for the internal camera is built into the hardware for your device and isn't user adjustable. That's where you might have the small amount of drift that might show up as a slightly different overall length between your recording and someone else's when shot on different hardware. The clock time base is usually pretty accurate, but it can vary slightly over several minutes of recording time.

What this means is all of your band mates can use the exact same settings and the file length might still end up slightly out of sync.

I don't have my iPad in front of me right now, but this is all selectable using the iPad "settings" feature.

Doug Young 04-01-2020 12:05 PM

One thing you might check out is an app called "acapella". Very slick, and makes it really easy to create collaborative videos. Since everyone records into the same app, you shouldn't have these issues. You give up a lot of flexibility compared to using a full video editor, but it makes things incredibly easy, and might help you avoid these issues.

Here's a rough 30 second test I did a few days ago. The whole video took about 3 minutes to put together, push save, and it's done. I did all three videos, but you can bounce it between people and have different players add their parts, each in their own part of the screen.

https://mixcord.co/acapella/p/JXppsHZywqRmxu3kLdwVuA/

if you look around, you can find some pretty amazing videos done with this, with entire choirs, orchestras, etc.

varmonter 04-01-2020 03:45 PM

thanks doug. your 30 second recording
looked good. Is this app limited
as a free version . I need 4 or 5 min.
I know slot of apps will give you
like 30 sec then you have to purchase
the real version. plus this app
gets terrible reviews. like most folks
give it 1 out of 5 stars.
Im going to stick it out with
this software for now
ill chalk it up to learning.
Its keeping me busy thats for sure.
thanks. I found a place where i can
adjust the speed. so im playing around
with that right now.

Doug Young 04-01-2020 05:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by varmonter (Post 6335691)
thanks doug. your 30 second recording
looked good. Is this app limited
as a free version . I need 4 or 5 min.
I know slot of apps will give you
like 30 sec then you have to purchase
the real version. plus this app
gets terrible reviews. like most folks
give it 1 out of 5 stars.
Im going to stick it out with
this software for now
ill chalk it up to learning.
Its keeping me busy thats for sure.
thanks. I found a place where i can
adjust the speed. so im playing around
with that right now.

Interesting that it gets bad reviews. It worked flawlessly for me. Couldn't be easier. There are always people who don't like something about anything. Yes, for free, you can only record 30 seconds, like I did. To get longer, you have to subscribe, $10/month or $49 a year. Not real cheap, but you could just buy it for a month - I think everyone would need to buy it. Depends on how much you value creating something easily that works vs doing it the long way and working thru snags.

varmonter 04-05-2020 01:49 AM

ill have to look into that app a bit
more.. Ive tried a few Film editing apps recently all had there good points
most didnt do enough for me
And im a newbie at this. As i get better
ill know more about what i want or
need a program to do. Kinda like the
acoustic guitar amplification Rabbit hole.

Doug Young 04-05-2020 10:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by varmonter (Post 6338979)
ill have to look into that app a bit
more.. Ive tried a few Film editing apps recently all had there good points
most didnt do enough for me
And im a newbie at this. As i get better
ill know more about what i want or
need a program to do. Kinda like the
acoustic guitar amplification Rabbit hole.

Working on video always makes me appreciate how relatively easy audio recording is. It's quite a time sink. With most programs, it's a matter of the learning time. I used Final Cut for the couple split-screen videos I've posted with Teja Gerken, and it works great, but it's definitely not something someone can just jump into and get good results without a lot of learning time. It can do pretty much anything, but you have to learn how. I've been using it over a decade so I'm pretty comfortable with it, but still learning new things with every video I do.

The Acapella app is the other end of the spectrum - it really just does one thing, but it does it easily. Click on the window you want to record and go. I do see that it has also been around quite a while, and apparently the latest version has changed substantially. So it may be that whatever bad reviews you saw were from early versions. I'd say the only bad things I've seen are 1) "garbage in/garbage out" - you have to have decent lighting, be able to aim the phone right, and have a way to record decent sound (a usb mic works well), and 2) what it does is what you get - no fancy editing, no titles, transitions, etc. If you want a different look, your options are limited. Just multiple people in boxes. But if you've spent hours and hours working with a traditional video editor, dealing with synching audio and so on, the app is refreshing easy.

Doug Young 04-05-2020 07:18 PM

I finally did a test collaboration with acapella, rather than just doing all parts myself. The workflow is a little non-intuitive, which may be where complaints are coming from. But it did work, it just wasn't as clear as it should be how to work together. I think it's based around the idea that one person records something and throws it out to the world for it to go viral rather than a more project-oriented approach with specific collaborators working jointly. So there is still a learning curve, but around the collaboration workflow rather than the actual recording process.


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