Video production newbie needs help.

[varmonter]

Thanks Doug
Interesting...so if i wanted to say put a mandolin track along with one of your
guitar tracks. Could i listen to your track
on say my phone with earbuds. And record my mandolin along with it onto my ipad.. then
send you the mp4. You in turn could dump it into acapella and be done..or does everyone recording have to have
acapella..?
The software im using now is filmora pro. Same group that makes
final cut.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by varmonter

Thanks Doug
Interesting...so if i wanted to say put a mandolin track along with one of your
guitar tracks. Could i listen to your track
on say my phone with earbuds. And record my mandolin along with it onto my ipad.. then
send you the mp4. You in turn could dump it into acapella and be done..or does everyone recording have to have
acapella..?
The software im using now is filmora pro. Same group that makes
final cut.

You can do it all on your end. Here's what happens:

• I create a video in acapella. I select a grid with slots for how many people I want to join.
  
• I click in a square and play.
  
• I send you a link to the video.
  
• You open the app by clicking on the link.
  
• You click in a square and record your part.
  
• You publish the video, so I can see it too, or send me your link, or send the link on to yet another player to add more parts.
  
• The last player to get the video "owns" the full video and can edit it, mix the audio, share the full thing, etc.

I'd be happy to create a little test to send you so you can see how it works. I have the paid version, so I can create a longer video and you can add to it without having to buy the full version.

[varmonter]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

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.

Sure im game..pm sent

[Doug Young]

OK, sent you a collaboration link by email. Just a simple picking pattern in C. Hopefully enough to add something as a test.

[varmonter]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

OK, sent you a collaboration link by email. Just a simple picking pattern in C. Hopefully enough to add something as a test.

As i suspected...I have to download the app in order to collaborate...Which would require the whole band to purchase the full version...am i missing
something here???

[varmonter]

dupe post please ding
.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by varmonter

As i suspected...I have to download the app in order to collaborate...Which would require the whole band to purchase the full version...am i missing
something here???

Of course you have to download the app to use the app :-) all the features are in the app on your phone/tablet, it's not a web-based thing.

As far as paying, actually no. The person who makes the 1st video needs to have paid if they want to create a recording longer than 30 seconds. After that, collaborators are supposed to be able to use the free version. I haven't confirmed that, but we could try it. What I sent you was less than 30 seconds, but since I did buy it ($49 for a year's use seemed a worthwhile investment to me), I could record something longer, and verify that you can still record the whole thing on a free version.

[varmonter]

ok lets try it. that diddy in c is fine just
make it longer. ill download the app
and put a mandolin part to it.

[Doug Young]

OK, I'll create something longer than 30 seconds.

[Doug Young]

OK, emailed you a 1 minute track. Also used a
"premium" template that you only use if you have paid. Let's see if that all works for you with your free version.

[Wrighty]

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out. I am trying to understand if you can record into a zoom and then tweak the sound before sending to Acapella or whether it has to be a direct entry into the app?

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Wrighty

Looking forward to seeing how this pans out. I am trying to understand if you can record into a zoom and then tweak the sound before sending to Acapella or whether it has to be a direct entry into the app?

The benefit of this thing is that it's "point and shoot". Simple, avoids the kinds of issues varmonter is facing, and works easily with a whole bunch of people who may not have the gear to do something sophisticated. The downside is that it does what it does. So you can't pre-record and import (as far as I know).

What I did was use an Apogee Duet interface for audio, and I think the results were fine. I also tried it with a cheap USB mic, which was also fine. I think you'd get away with just using the camera mics for some things, as long as you didn't expect studio quality. I suppose if you have some way to add effects, EQ up front and pipe that into the phone as a USB connnection, that would work.

They do have a simple mixer, so after you've recorded everything, you can adjust levels, pan, EQ, and add reverb.

You can also save the final video, so there's always the option of opening that in a video editor to tweak overall color, and could also edit the audio if you have the right tools. For example, Logic lets me open a movie and extract the audio, so I could EQ, add effects, and then save the result back into the movie. In the simple case of just two us, we could even pan each of us hard left and right in the app, export, load into Logic, and I could separately edit and tweak each audio track, then save a mix.

But all this sort of defeats the reason I suggested this app to varmonter in the first place - he was having trouble making things work with the more complex/flexible way, and this app just wraps it all up nicely into a point and shoot approach that works pretty good, leaving you to just worry about playing.

Speaking of which, what I sent varmonter is pretty basic, just a little fingerpicking accompaniment - so it'll be up to him to make it into something listenable!

[Wrighty]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

The benefit of this thing is that it's "point and shoot". Simple, avoids the kinds of issues varmonter is facing, and works easily with a whole bunch of people who may not have the gear to do something sophisticated. The downside is that it does what it does. So you can't pre-record and import (as far as I know).



What I did was use an Apogee Duet interface for audio, and I think the results were fine. I also tried it with a cheap USB mic, which was also fine. I think you'd get away with just using the camera mics for some things, as long as you didn't expect studio quality. I suppose if you have some way to add effects, EQ up front and pipe that into the phone as a USB connnection, that would work.



They do have a simple mixer, so after you've recorded everything, you can adjust levels, pan, EQ, and add reverb.



You can also save the final video, so there's always the option of opening that in a video editor to tweak overall color, and could also edit the audio if you have the right tools. For example, Logic lets me open a movie and extract the audio, so I could EQ, add effects, and then save the result back into the movie. In the simple case of just two us, we could even pan each of us hard left and right in the app, export, load into Logic, and I could separately edit and tweak each audio track, then save a mix.



But all this sort of defeats the reason I suggested this app to varmonter in the first place - he was having trouble making things work with the more complex/flexible way, and this app just wraps it all up nicely into a point and shoot approach that works pretty good, leaving you to just worry about playing.



Speaking of which, what I sent varmonter is pretty basic, just a little fingerpicking accompaniment - so it'll be up to him to make it into something listenable!

That makes sense Doug - I don’t have a USB mic so would be reliant on the phone for Audio which I don’t think sounds great.

Might give it a go as I would like to send a track to a mate to add some dobro to..

[varmonter]

Ah well... the app is for non android devices. My ipad will work but i cant
connect at home. My inclusion of a
mandolin track may come from my
truck parked in front ofbnb our local
library.
On a better note i figured out the
issue with our cajon player was the frames per second thing. After he redid
his part on a different device i was
able to sync up.
heres a rough draft of our
"socially distant video"

I have added a few thinfs to this as well.
a guitar lead..some credits ..and more refined
audio mixing. I have to use the library wifi
to upload ..And add my mando to accapella..
Ill update the link after i do that.
ok the link us updated..

[Doug Young]

Ah, nothing's ever easy, is it? :-). You don't have wi-fi for the ipad?

But nice job on the video!. You do get more control by doing it that way, animation and so on.