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Post by John Bell on Jan 16, 2014 10:12:42 GMT 1
When I retired from Telecoms, I chose a Panasonic HC-V720 Full HD video camera (ACVHD) as a retirement gift.
I would like to use it to record rehearsals in the studio and use the mixed down Tracktion 4 recordings as the sound tracks.
I thought that if I could master that, I could do a basic video of a live gig with my rig.
I have been looking into purchasing Final Cut Pro to synchronize and edit the recordings, but this is all new to me.
Although this seems to be a high end product, being able to easily substitute and sync the camcorder sound track with the Traction 4 mixed track looks good.
I do not want to spend many hours editing and want to try to keep it minimal.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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Post by John Bell on Jan 31, 2014 9:31:57 GMT 1
I thought that I should give iMovie a try to see if I can get it to do what I require, as I already have it installed on my iMac.
It takes a bit of getting used to and learning the short cuts is a must.
I recorded a short video of me drumming to a CD track and loaded it into iMovie in iFrame format.
I then rendered the 10 track audio recording on Tracktion 4 (8 for the drums and 2 for the CD track) and loaded that into iMovie after detaching the camcorders audio track.
I was able to align the Traction 4 audio with the camcorder audio visually, then drop-out the camcorder audio.
I had mounted the camcorder on a small tripod on top of the mixer's cable management unit, so that the wide angle shot covered all 4x muso's positions.
I am now confident that I can produce a basic video of Saturday's band rehearsal and have a fully mixed audio tack from Tracktion 4.
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Post by John Bell on Feb 2, 2014 23:23:50 GMT 1
I recorded about 4 hours of iFrame format video along with the Tracktion 4 audio recording.
The camcorder used 34gig of the 64gig SDXC card installed.
When I have mixed down the 15 track Tracktion audio, I will import the whole session into iMovie, so that I can align it with the camcorder audio track, before cutting out all of the stuff between good takes.
It's probably going to take some time, but it will keep me busy.
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Post by John Bell on Feb 23, 2014 10:48:21 GMT 1
FOH at The Tropic at Ruislip on Sunday 2nd, MarchI do have blackout covers for the rear of the stands and racks, but I didn't put them on as there is always beer spillage on the floor at these charity events and it would have soaked up the cloth. The adjustable gantry pole on the additional 4' stand was perfect for rigging the camcorder (out of shot above the iMac). With the stability automation turned on, the video was rock steady in spite of the pole shaking slightly with the dancing. I am providing and engineering my 4k FOH sound rig at The Tropic at Ruislip on Sunday 2nd, March, for a charity gig organized by Leigh Heggarty and Pete Sargeant. The line-up is The Band Of Sceptics and The Flying Squad, with all of the proceeds going to The Bath Hospice, as we are all working for free. Leigh has asked me to record the gig, so this will be my first location based recording using the new 27" iMac and Tracktion 4. I will also rig the new camcorder onto an additional DJ stand to be used for the iMac and twin CD player (for interval music), to capture a basic video. The camcorder has a very good zoom and wide angle lens. I may also be able to use another camcorder for close-ups. This will be another first. Using 1x6' and 1x4' DJ stands bolted together in parallel with Unistrut parts, for the desk and outboard racks and now another 4' DJ stand bolted at 90 degrees on the end. I will post some pics. It will be a great night, with both bands showing their respects for the late GYPIE MAYO (Yardbirds, Dr Feelgood, Band Of Sceptics) www.tropicatruislip.co.uk/bands/bandofsceptics/index.htm
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Post by John Bell on Mar 3, 2014 14:55:43 GMT 1
Both bands and I were very pleased with the great sound at our top live music venue The Tropic at Ruislip.
Many thanks to my crew Andy Lee and David "Snowy" White. It was a big ask for free.
I was on site over 12 hours and didn't get to bed until 03:00 this morning and now feeling shattered.
I have posted pics of my rig on Facebook.
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Post by John Bell on Mar 6, 2014 20:40:47 GMT 1
Still not fully recovered from Sunday and then some sort of man flu.
However, I have managed to set my studio rig back together, load the video into iMovie and back-up the recordings.
I am currently working on the Tracktion 4 audio recording and it is sounding very good.
When I get it mixed as best as I can, I will invite Leigh Heggarty round to the studio for his opinion and input.
When we are happy with it, I will load it into iMovie and sync it with the camcorder audio, before editing.
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Post by John Bell on Mar 14, 2014 20:28:50 GMT 1
I spent the whole of Wednesday in the studio, carrying on the mixing of the entire Tracktion 4 audio, so that it can eventually be loaded into iMovie.
Lots of automation was required to level all of the wide dynamics of both bands and it is still far from finished.
Leigh Heggarty visited on Thursday, just to see how it was going and to see the studio for the first time.
Leigh was impressed enough to want to record there with one of his bands.
I burned a 3 song sample of The Flying Squad's set, so that Leigh could take it back to the band for their comments.
Leigh was also impressed by the camcorder iFrame format video in iMovie with it's basic camcorder audio track.
It'surprisingly good quality, considering how far back it was rigged.
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Post by John Bell on Mar 20, 2014 0:30:33 GMT 1
After another full afternoon mixing, I am finally getting somewhere.
It's taken a lot more automation than I had anticipated and that's just The Flying Squad's set, which I thought would be fairly straight forward.
Pete Sargent guested on guitar, blues harp and vocals on some of the numbers in this set, so it gets quite dynamic.
Normally I would mix individual tracks, render them individually, then line them up for burning to disc.
This time I am mixing the whole gig and then render the whole lot ready to import onto the iMovie video.
The idea is, that when I cut and cross-fade the video, to edit out the tuning and technical adjustments, the audio track will always be in sync.
However, this is new territory for me, so it may not be that simple.
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Post by John Bell on Mar 21, 2014 10:06:39 GMT 1
One thing I did notice when mixing, was that the applause recorded on Tracktion was not very loud, as I did not use any additional room mics.
However, the applause captured on the camcorder audio is very good and stereo, so I will be adding that to the DVD.
Also, by automating the main reverb level on the aux return, the talking intro's from the stage for the tracks, sound natural.
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Post by John Bell on Mar 26, 2014 22:09:35 GMT 1
After returning to the mix on a daily basis to continue tweeking and then giving my ears a rest from the headphones, I have finally burned a first mix CD of The Flying Squad's set.
I have now also finally managed to complete a first mix of The Band Of Sceptics set.
Leigh Heggarty is performing with Big Al and the Blistering Buicks at The Crown in Cowley this evening, (28th March), so I will take them with me when I go to see this great band.
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