How to Record Music Videos Easily?

[Nymuso]

I do my videos with a Behringer interface, I think it’s a UCA-200 that came free with one of my mixers but they retail for about $50. I take the output of my mixer to the UCA which then goes to a USB port in the computer. I use whatever video software and camera that comes with the computer. The result works for me.

[Chipotle]

I agree that if you want "good", go the route of separate audio & video and sync after. The actual synchronizing isn't actually that hard, tbh. Some video editing programs will do it for you automatically. If it's a single "live" take, I spend far less time syncing than I do getting the audio balance & effects right, color grading the final video, etc.

One tip--make sure your camera is also recording the audio, even though you won't use it. When you are editing later, go to your clap (filmmakers use those "clapper boards" for a reason!) at the start, and sync the two *audio* tracks. It's really easy to just zoom in and line up the audio spike. Then mute the camera audio.

You can see the process at work in some of my YouTube videos linked in my sig. Video was captured with my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone. Audio captured in Reaper with a vocal mic and a guitar mic just out of frame at the bottom. A bit of clean-up EQ in Reaper, balance the levels, add a touch of room-ish reverb. Combining of final rendered audio and the video in Adobe Premiere Pro. (Reaper can also do simple video editing, but I already have the Adobe suite.)

[Brent Hahn]

I just looked at one, the Jeff Benjamin Music Live Stream, and the sync is consistent but the audio looks a little ahead to me. Maybe it's just me.

[Doug Young]

I just use Final Cut, which lets you dump in any number of video clips, even portions of a performance, and audio. Final Cut will automatically synchronize everything, no clap or manual synch needed. Really easy. There's also PluralEyes, separate software that will do the same thing as a standalone operation, for whatever video application you use.

[gfirob]

+1 for Final Cit ProX. There is a learning curve but it can handle multiple cameras, green screen, fairly sophisticated audio editing, graphics, and other effects. It is very powerful.

[Chipotle]

Originally Posted by Brent Hahn

I just looked at one, the Jeff Benjamin Music Live Stream, and the sync is consistent but the audio looks a little ahead to me. Maybe it's just me.

I noticed that too. I think it's a YouTube artifact--that was the archived version of the YouTube stream. The original videos I streamed were perfectly synced, I swear! I don't think that happens in the others I uploaded directly, "See You When You're Gone" for example.

[Brent Hahn]

Originally Posted by Chipotle

I noticed that too. I think it's a YouTube artifact--that was the archived version of the YouTube stream. The original videos I streamed were perfectly synced, I swear! I don't think that happens in the others I uploaded directly, "See You When You're Gone" for example.

I haven't had Youtube create sync problems that weren't already there, but I've definitely had Facebook do it.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by gfirob

+1 for Final Cit ProX. There is a learning curve but it can handle multiple cameras, green screen, fairly sophisticated audio editing, graphics, and other effects. It is very powerful.

Me also I used FCPX for the video I posted in post #15 it did take a while to dial in the multi-cam and green screen the way I wanted it , but turned out acceptable to me if not totally professional

[phcorrigan]

I've played with send the output of my DAW (Studio One) into OBS (Open Broadcast Software) and once I got the latency issues handled in OBS it worked well. I was doing this on Windows and it required me to use Reaper's free VST 2 plugin ReaStream, which pipes the DAW output to other applications.

The downside of this approach is that I now had really no ability to remix the audio. My conclusion is, at least for me, separate audio and video recordings give me much more flexibility. Synching video and sound, as others have said, is pretty easy.

I've been using OBS to record video, Shotcut as a video editor, and a $40 1080p webcam.

[anton]

I record audio and video separately, as other folks have mentioned here, and then sync it up in my video editor, Davinci Resolve. They have a free version that works well.

I find this is the best way to get good sounding and looking tracks. I can do a bit of EQ and polishing in my audio editor, dump the track in my video editor, sync the audio track with my video audio, mute the video audio, and i'm done. I'll add a basic title screen and fade in/out. I do everything in one take.

You already have nice gear, you could use the camera on your iMac to record video into iMove or something. Record audio into your DAW.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

I've played with send the output of my DAW (Studio One) into OBS (Open Broadcast Software) and once I got the latency issues handled in OBS it worked well. I was doing this on Windows and it required me to use Reaper's free VST 2 plugin ReaStream, which pipes the DAW output to other applications.

The downside of this approach is that I now had really no ability to remix the audio. My conclusion is, at least for me, separate audio and video recordings give me much more flexibility. Synching video and sound, as others have said, is pretty easy.

Depending on your DAW, you can still mix the audio. I have several different workflows I use, but one is to sync the audio and cameras, edit the video, switching scenes and so on, then save the video. Then open the video in Logic, which will let you mess with the audio, add reverb, EQ, etc, then save the whole thing, including the video to a new movie. I think a number of other DAWS can do this as well.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Depending on your DAW, you can still mix the audio.

I don't think Studio One, which I use, can do this. Also, when you record your video, don't you end up with a stereo pair, or do you maintain separate tracks for each audio input?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by phcorrigan

I don't think Studio One, which I use, can do this. Also, when you record your video, don't you end up with a stereo pair, or do you maintain separate tracks for each audio input?

Well, I'm usually recording solo guitar, so a single stereo track is all I have and all I want. There does seem to be the ability to have multiple audio tracks in Final Cut (my video editor) and export them, but I've never figured out how to use it.

Another thing I've done, closer to what you're doing is record in OBS and at the same time record to Logic - surprisingly, you can record the same inputs in multiple programs at the same time. So you could be recording video + some default mixdown and at the same time a multi-track audio file in hour DAW. Works on the Mac, at least. Then you just have to sync them.

[phcorrigan]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Another thing I've done, closer to what you're doing is record in OBS and at the same time record to Logic - surprisingly, you can record the same inputs in multiple programs at the same time. So you could be recording video + some default mixdown and at the same time a multi-track audio file in hour DAW. Works on the Mac, at least. Then you just have to sync them.

Yes, I've done that with Studio One and OBS, and that's probably the best of both worlds, because it gives me the embedded stereo pair in the video and the original separate tracks.

My most pressing need right now, however, is to spend some time learning some basic video editing skills!

[TBman]

I've never seen the words "record music easily" in the same sentence before...