Friday, December 18, 2009

Q&A: Video Recording Setup (Updated)

Q: aku nk mitak ko ajar seting camera n sound

A: Ok, ni steps and settings aku mase aku record video Nurnilam Sari tu. And most likely, future videos won’t be that much different. And since aku tak sure how much you know about this process, I’ll explain the entire process, but not in too much detail.

Recording Flowchart

(click image to view full size)

Pre-Recording Process

Sebelum start record, aku prepare backing track dulu. The first step for that is Guitar Pro. Aku tulis drums, bass, keyboard, guitar etc. Part guitar boleh skip gak since aku nak record and replace it anyway. Bile dah siap GP tab tu, aku export as midi.

Dari midi tu aku bukak pakai DAW, in my case, Cakewalk Sonar 7. Some people recommend Steinberg Cubase, maybe it’s better. But since aku dah pakai Cakewalk dari dulu lagi aku stick to that. Kalo tengok diagram kat atas, aku letak a few arrows to represent different tracks in a midi file. Midi file is not necessarily just one track. Dalam midi file ni boleh ade beberapa tracks, depending on the number of tracks aku buat dalam Guitar Pro tu. So bass ade track sendiri, drum ade track sendiri etc. Bile bukak pakai DAW, you’ll see each track having its own line. So ko boleh turn off mane mane track yang ko nak, edit them separately etc.

Now step Guitar Pro tu boleh dibuat pakai Sonar gak. But the problem is Sonar is not optimized for guitar tab writing. So kalo aku nak share tab ngan orang lain better start with Guitar Pro. And kalau pakai Sonar untuk compose backing track from scratch, it’s better to use a keyboard (not computer keyboard, musical keyboard) to input the notes. But for this video aku tak buat camtu. Aku just guna midi yang diexport dari Guitar Pro.

Dalam DAW ni, sound midi (which sucks), can be turned into synthesizer sounds. So sound instrument tu bole jadi cam real sket la. Cam sound drum tu, it came from midi, converted into synth, tu sound cam pakai drum betul. Same goes with bass and other instruments. So first aku setup multiple synths to read each midi line and play back as synth sound.

Bile backing tracks rasa cam sedap sket, baru move on to recording. Now the backing tracks don’t have to be perfect yet, it can be edited later. As long as the beats are correct, and it’s easy enough to play along with, you can proceed to recording the guitar.

Recording Process

Mase aku record tu, basically ade 3 stream yang dirakam serentak:

  • Guitar sound – sound yang ditransfer melalui cable guitar tu
  • Ambient sound – sound yang dirakam camera video melalui built-in mic dia
  • Video – dirakam pakai camera video yang sama

Video and Ambient Sound Recording

Camera video aku pakai Canon Vixia HG20. Ni camera video High Definition. If you want to make an HD video, you have to use an HD capable camera.

Since ni standalone camera, video and ambient sound dirakam ke dalam hard disk camera tu. So tak kacau computer lagi. Kalo ko rang pakai webcam, then most likely your computer will do the video recording. Kalo computer ko laju gile takde hal la kot pakai webcam. Kalo tak, tak larat la computer ko nak record video, record guitar sound (explained below), playback backing track (explained below) and other stuff. The DAW needs a lot of memory.

Guitar Sound Recording

For the guitar sound, aku buat direct recording, instead of micing. Direct recording ni maknanya connect guitar terus ke soundcard. Micing plak connect guitar ke amplifier, pastu letak mic depan speaker amp tu and connect the amp to the soundcard.

I don’t really have any experience in micing. But aku tak buat micing ni sebab amp aku bukan best pon. Just a really small Marshall. Lagi satu kalo micing ni kena setup kasi takde ambient noise. Since aku takde studio, baik takyah. It’s not easy to keep the ambient noise down. Contohnya mase awal video tu, ade bunyi pintu berdentum. That’s my neighbor. In fact, kalo aku mic amp aku, sure bising. Neighbors won’t appreciate that. But the good thing about micing I guess is that you can get the sound that you get out of your amp. But of course you have to have good microphone for that, and that can be expensive too.

So aku connect guitar aku directly to external sound card aku (orange arrow). For the sound card aku pakai Line6 TonePort UX2. It’s not a good idea to use your regular computer sound card for this purpose. Use a good, low-latency sound card designed for recording. Low latency ni penting. Kalo tak nanti ko record walaupon ikut beat dengan betul, ko akan dengar output dia lambat sket. It’s really annoying and hard to record properly. And the sound quality of typical computer sound card won’t be as good too. My TonePort has got to be one of the best purchases I’ve ever made.

Dari TonePort tu, masuk ke computer (orange arrow). Untuk video ni, aku tak pakai external effect. Aku pakai Line6 GearBox, which is a computer guitar effect. Lebih kurang cam AmpliTube or Guitar Rig software la. But GearBox ni hanya boleh pakai ngan Line6 punya sound card jek. So dalam GearBox ni aku letak compressor, distortion, noise gate, etc. Yang paling penting skali ialah amp model dia. Amp model ni dia simulate the sound quality of amp micing technique. So bleh adjust distance of the virtual microphone, type of microphone, amp settings like gain etc. Walaupon tak pakai amp, kira aku boleh buat as if aku record pakai amp la. So boleh try tukar-tukar preamp and speakers of the virtual amplifier. Of course it won’t sound as good as using an expensive microphone to mic an expensive amplifier in a studio with good acoustic. But it’s a cheaper option.

Dari software GearBox aku boleh denga bunyi guitar yang dah tambah effects (purple arrow). For monitoring, aku pakai headphones Audio-Technica ATH-M40fs. It’s an affordable studio monitoring (flat-response) headphone. And GearBox at the same time hantar sound tu masuk ke DAW (light blue arrow). DAW is responsible of recording the sound. So dari guitar->TonePort->GearBox-DAW, semuanya berlaku live, in real-time. Bile aku click record kat DAW ni, dia akan playback backing track skali. So aku bleh dengar backing track tu sambil aku main (red arrow). Sound guitar aku in the DAW will appear as its own track.

Kalo aku nak tambah layer pon boleh. Contohnya aku nak main harmony ke, aku leh record first guitar and second guitar separately.

Post Recording

Sound Editing

Bile dah siap record, boleh start process sound guitar. Nak adjust volume ke, nak tambah reverb ke, nak pan ke. This part of the work can be confusing. It really depends on how much you know about your DAW. Cakewalk Sonar, from my experience, can be complicated. So, choose the DAW you’re comfortable with.

Bile dah puas hati ngan sume sound tracks, aku boleh mix kasi jadi one wav and/or mp3 file. For this one tak silap aku aku export as wav jek.

Video and Ambient Sound Editing

For video editing, aku pakai Pinnacle Studio 12. Well, aku tak experienced sangat pasal video editing ni. Aku main try jek a few software. Aku rasa cam Pinnacle Studio ni simple enough, so aku pakai la.

Video dari camera yang aku record tu, now boleh transfer masuk dalam computer. Camera aku ni dia export video as AVCHD format.

Bile load raw video file tu dalam Pinnacle Studio (dashed red arrow), ko boleh nampak dua track. Video, and audio track yang camera tu record. Audio track tu la yang aku refer as Ambient Sound.

Mase aku buat video ni, aku saje jek keep the ambient sound from 0:00 to 0:09. Pastu bile start main, aku senyapkan ambient sound tu, and replace with the wav file yang ade sound guitar aku yang aku export dari DAW tadi (black arrow). But the key is to synchronize the audio and the video properly.

Cuba tengok gambar ni. Ni screenshot Pinnacle Studio mase aku buat video ni. Kalo ko tengok, kat Ambient Sound Track tu ade garis orange. Tu volume control untuk track tu. Aku kasi slowly fade out sampai ke 0:09. Starting 0:09 Audio Sound Track plak start.





(click image to view full size)

Export Video and Upload

Bile dah siap aku export video tu as avi seinggat aku. Kalo tak silap aku export as DivX avi, and then upload ke YouTube. Mase aku upload video ni, YouTube tak officially support HD lagi, although boleh upload HD video. So sekarang the process/settings for optimum video may be a bit different.

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(Update)

Untuk video Sejati tu, untuk Wah aku pakai Boss GT-6 lame aku, just for the Wah. And then only connect to TonePort.

And video tu aku buat pakai Pinnacle Studio 14.

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(Upadate)

The ambient sound recorded by the video camera is very useful in video editing. Now when I record a video I’ll make sure that the mic level setting of the camera is very high. Because the sound of the guitar is recorded and processed separately, when it comes to combining it with the video, it’s easier to match that audio with the ambient sound to get a good synchronization.

9 comments:

  1. bro, nk tny skit, yg utk lagu sejati tu, ko plug ko nye gt-6 kat footswitch nye lubang kt Tone Port ke? Thank you bro, u r ma man.

    ReplyDelete
  2. both actually. dalam video tu aku pakai gt-6 utk Wah effect jek.

    ReplyDelete
  3. bro, yg Line6 TonePort UX2 comes with the Gearbox software tu gak ke?

    And aku just usha kat Guitar Center kalo nk beli Line 6 Gearbox tuh it comes with Gearbox Plug-in utk connect guitar ngan pc. So, Gearbox plug-in tu soundcard gak ke? konpius sket. Thanx!

    ReplyDelete
  4. gearbox tu software sound effects, macam Guitar Rig.

    ReplyDelete
  5. terangkat gua dgr lu goreng i dont belong here...

    ReplyDelete
  6. Bro Bean,

    mcmana u setup midi controller u? sy nyer M-audio oxy 61 tak kuar bunyi langsung..bila test connection dari MIDI ke PC ade signal/response (gune software Anvilstudio Free je utk testing cume press key dia apear dkt screen..tp tk kuar bunyi..)then sy install Enigma demo..press key tk kuar bunyi jgk...


    minta nasihat sket..

    diagram saya :

    MIDI USB -->PC Usb port --> earphone --ke telinga saye.

    - sound PC jer realtek
    - dh install driver successfully
    - pc dah detect device nie..
    - dh google forum..etc..m-audio official sites..no solution..


    orang baru

    ReplyDelete
  7. hmm, i'm not sure what Enigma or Anvilstudio are. but just in case, Axiom ke Oxygen ke Midi Controller jek. They can't produce their own sound. and the computer can't too, unless ko load some sort of software synth. that way computer dapat midi message dari midi controller, and it will play the sound that you select.

    so macam aku usually pakai midi controller dalam DAW, like Sonar. So kat sonar aku load software synth macam TruePianos ke, Dimension Pro ke. and kalau aku pakai Akai EWI aku, usually aku akan pakai Aria jek, either standalone atau dalam DAW.

    ReplyDelete
  8. ok bro Bean, thx..at last bunyi jgk..ntah mcmana dia kuar bunyi basic piano pelik jgk..kira oklah boleh jgk bljar main piano...future target nk cuba compose soundtrack hehe..seronok2 jer..

    nanti dh ckp budget br nk try stuff2 mcm protools..sonar..garageband..

    bro bile2 free publish la u nyer home studio..teringin nk tgk u nyer setup...

    plus u tak minat ke compose lg2 utk soundtrack ke iklan TV ke.. Games ker?

    trima kasih .

    ReplyDelete
  9. salam nak tanya equipment ape u guna nak dpt "sound" intro & solo Sejati(wings)

    ReplyDelete