Audio in Webcam Software

D

DaveLeeNC

New member
I sometimes record audio/video of myself playing a classical guitar that I share with a few/close classical guitar enthusiasts like myself. This is not high level stuff, BTW.

I use a Dell XPS laptop and the Dell Webcam software that came with my laptop. I also have a Blue Yeti Pro USB mic that is of reasonably high quality by USB mic standards. My webcam software can accept the audio from my Blue Yeti Pro, but the audio that comes out of the generated file is a .wmv file (no issues there) and the audio is a 160 kbs WMA file (Yeti was set to output 24 bits at 96 khz).

This isn't critical stuff, but is there webcam software out there that can give me some level of control of the audio content of what is actually recorded? I know that this is slightly off topic WRT this forum, but there are so many helpful and well informed folks, so....

Thanks.

dave

ps. I can record to Audacity and the Webcam software simultaneously and use Wondershare to strip out the Webcam audio and put in whatever from Audacity. I am just looking to avoid the sync'ing up step.
 
Hi,

Usually it seems like video editing software offers only basic audio abilities, and audio editing software offers import-only (for sync) or very basic video editing abilities.
I suppose which road you go down depends on whether you're more likely to get fancy with video editing, or audio editing.

If you're not concerned about that at all I'd just grab Reaper.
Record the video as you are doing at present, but record the audio (from your yeti) in Reaper then, when done, import your video into Repear, line the two up, and mute the cam audio.
Looks like this guy is giving a good walkthrough.

An alternative, if you literally just want to hit Go->Perform->Stop->Save is OBS.
It's open source and free, but it will do exactly what I described there from any video or audio sources that you have.
It also gives you plenty of options in terms of output quality and format.

Hope that's helpful. :)
 
Steenamaroo said:
Hi,

Usually it seems like video editing software offers only basic audio abilities, and audio editing software offers import-only (for sync) or very basic video editing abilities.
I suppose which road you go down depends on whether you're more likely to get fancy with video editing, or audio editing.

If you're not concerned about that at all I'd just grab Reaper.
Record the video as you are doing at present, but record the audio (from your yeti) in Reaper then, when done, import your video into Repear, line the two up, and mute the cam audio.
Looks like SNIP is giving a good walkthrough.

An alternative, if you literally just want to hit Go->Perform->Stop->Save is OBS.
It's open source and free, but it will do exactly what I described there from any video or audio sources that you have.
It also gives you plenty of options in terms of output quality and format.

Hope that's helpful. :)
Click to expand...

Steen, thank you for the very helpful information. I typically do the audio work that I need (nothing sophisticated) in Audacity. This is an interesting aspect to Reaper that maybe will 'finally move me into the Reaper camp'. This is the first time that I have encountered something that I wanted to do that Audacity would not do.

I will also check out OBS. Do you happen to know how OBS saves audio?

Thanks again for the very useful input.

dave
 
Hi Dave,
No problem; Glad to help.

OBS seems to be primarily focussed on live streaming and live recording, so you set up your preferred output formats in advance.
When you hit 'stop' to end recording, the file is immediately saved down. There's no timeline or editor or anything like that. It's just a straight-up capture app.

Might not be useful to you but I thought I'd throw it out there. :)
 
Just for grins I played around for a while with my default solution, which is to record using both my Webcam software and Audacity. In this case my Audacity project was 96khz and 24 bits (which is what my Blue Yeti Pro mic was outputting). I exported that to a 96/24 FLAC file. The webcam software (audio input from my Blue Yeti Pro) ended up saving a WMV file whose audio content as 158 kbs, 44.1 khz, 16 bits, WMA format. 2 audio channels. I don't see a way to change the saved audio in my webcam software.

I imported the FLAC file (96/24) and the full webcam file into Wondershare/Filmora and replaced the audio with the FLAC file and exported to 3 different video format files (AVI, WMV, MPEG4). I am a novice Wondershare guy but I don't see any audio controls where the video controls are. The results were:

WMV audio was 128kbs, 44.1, 16 bits WMA (Pro)

The AVI audio was 128 kbs, 44.1, MP3 (V1, Layer 3)

The MPEG4 audio was 197 kbs, 44.1, AAC LC

I got this from the MediaInfo app (all of this was on Windows 10).

Of course I am limited (from an audio perspective) to whatever formats the selected video format can handle. So right now I am inclined to just stay with my original methodology of Audacity plus Webcam software. It really isn't that hard to do.

Thanks again for the help.

dave
 
If you can capture the audio at a higher resolution, then you've got the ability to do more in post to create (possibly) a better audio track for the video.

Most home/hobby folks will use 48kHz/24-bit for video. I record at that, but bounce down to 48k/16-bit (dithered) to put into the video.

One of the main things you'd probably do in post is set the audio loudness to target the output, e.g., -14dB (LUFS) for YouTube. Then, you'll be less impacted by their processing, at least audio-wise.

You can, of course, do EQ, noise reduction and all kinds of other stuff to create a better audio file than the raw capture.

Once you're happy with the changes you made in the DAW (e.g., Reaper), you just have to sync your non-lossy audio file with the original video, which can usually be done by simply zooming in on the video's audio track in your video editor, and lining it up visually with the track you added. Zero the level on the video's audio, and play it back to watch and confirm it's aligned properly, then export/re-render your video. (I always do home stuff at 720p, because I think it looks more than acceptable and I've always cropped the original recording some, anyway.)

Apologies if I've just repeated a bunch of stuff you already know.
 
Keith, how do I got about creating a video file that has an audio format that I define and control? In the experiment that I did in post #5 I started out with a lossless file. But if that is the kind of audio that I wanted in my video, I have no idea how to do that. I have no problem importing arbitary audio into Wondershare/Filmora 9, but I don't see a path to controlling the audio that ultimately gets exported to whatever video file format you choose.

Thanks.

dave
 
DaveLeeNC said:
Keith, how do I got about creating a video file that has an audio format that I define and control? In the experiment that I did in post #5 I started out with a lossless file. But if that is the kind of audio that I wanted in my video, I have no idea how to do that. I have no problem importing arbitary audio into Wondershare/Filmora 9, but I don't see a path to controlling the audio that ultimately gets exported to whatever video file format you choose.

Thanks.

dave
Click to expand...

I found the setting I needed in Filmora!!!!

Thanks again for the help.

dave
 
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