How do I use focusrite interface and garageband with visual video for putting on yout

Prescy10

New member
Hoping somebody can help with this as it's driving me crazy. I've been playing acoustic guitar and singing for a while now and have a number of cover versions. A year or so ago I started recording myself playing and singing with my mobile phone but the sound quality is pretty awful.

My voice sounds ok but my guitar has an awful muffled sound so clearly a mobile phone is not a good device to record music on.

Somebody on YouTube advised me to invest in a DAW system so I went and bought a focusrite interface. I have a mic, my guitar and headphones plugged in to this interface which is hooked up to my MAC computer. I've been using software called garageband. So I've done some recording of some of my songs and the song quality is excellent. It really sounds like a professional recording.

Now this is the bit that I can't get my head around. I would like to get this on to my YouTube channel but obviously all I have at the moment are audio files within the garageband app with no visual of me playing them.

What I would like to know how to do is how I would video record myself playing so I have a visual video of me playing but with the sound quality of the garageband recordings?. So viewers looking at the video on YouTube can see me playing but instead of the awful sounding video recordings I did on my mobile phone, the audio they hear is the garageband quality professional sound.

The MAC PC I have is a MAC mini hooked up to a monitor which doesn't have a webcam but obviously I can buy one and connect it. Do I need a webcam? Does this hook up to the garageband app somehow? Do I need to take the headphones out of the interface and hook up speakers instead?

Any help would be greatly appreciated as I really want to start getting my YouTube channel going and start uploading my acoustic covers but don't want to put the mobile phone recordings on there as the sound is poor.

Thanks in advance
 
There are a number of ways of doing this.

Seeing as you are now getting good quality audio from your set up, record your songs using that, and at the same time, use your camera to record video.

You should then be able to import the video into your computer, and using a video editor, add your good recording and remove your phones audio.
 
There are several ways to do this, primarily either perform it live or lip sync. Lip sync will let you focus on getting the audio right then getting good video, but it might not be somewhat fake if you can't lip (and hand) sync it perfectly. Recording live is more realistic (because it's a real performance) but then you have to get the vocal, guitar and visual aspects right all in the same take.

Either way you'll record the video and audio separately then merge them in a video editor by replacing the audio in the video with the audio that's been properly recorded and mixed. The audio picked up by the camera can guide your placement of the finished audio.

Your project would look like the three bottom tracks in the attached image. My project has multiple cameras so it has a bunch of extra tracks yours wouldn't have (unless you get more cameras). The relevant tracks are channels 8, 9, 10: video, the finished audio (mixed in a different project) and the camera mic audio.

video project 2.png
 
You can actually take the video with your phone, if it has a decent camera and the lighting is Or, if you have access to a DSLR or good digital camera that has the ability to take HD video, that might be better, though a new iPhone or Pixel can take pretty amazing video. However you do it, you get the video from the device - SD card if a camera/camcorder, or transferred to the Mini via the Photos app, whatever you've got. (You can do this via Dropbox, i.e., wirelessly, but it can be very slow.)

While you are videorecording yourself playing, you capture the audio. I recommend 48kHz/24-bit recording. Do your mixing/FX, whatever, in GarageBand. Export the song in uncompressed format.

Now, you can either add the movie file into that GarageBand project, and replace the audio file right there (which I've never done), or you can use iMovie (may be on your Mini already, or install for free). I recommend creating an iMovie event/project with the video file because that will give you the ability to add titles, FX, etc. Then, when you have the movie created, you can import the exported song you mixed in GarageBand, and simply align visually (look at the wave form of your recording and the one of the soundtrack in the video). When you have the sound sync'd, delete or zero the volume of the video soundtrack. I'd Share the movie to iTunes or disk and preview/review it several times and when you are satisfied it's good, upload to YouTube.

You should be able to find YouTube videos showing examples of this. (I did several of my first videos this way.)

iMovie will take a little getting used to. Just like audio DAWs, video project editors have their own workflows and sometimes confusing technology.

Note, video is pretty demanding on the system. It will help to close down all your other apps when doing video editing.
 
Many thanks for the quick and detailed replies guys. The penny has now dropped! I can transfer the video recording on my phone onto my Mac mini via USB. I've done this before with general videos. I have a OnePlus 6t which is a modern high spec phone so the picture quality is good enough.

Just need now then to work out how to take out the audio recording and replace it with the audio that was properly recorded with the focusrite interface on garageband.

Is this easy to do? Can somebody please post a YouTube link tutorial.

As I have a MAC is iMovie the best one to use?

Keith Rogers what do you mean by 48khz/24bit recording? Is this a setting in garageband?
 
As I have a MAC is iMovie the best one to use?

Keith Rogers what do you mean by 48khz/24bit recording? Is this a setting in garageband?
iMovie is free, and works. The latest version has a lot of the features of Final Cut Pro X.

I just checked and you can only set the 24-bit (bit depth) in the Advanced preferences, and it probably has defaulted to that. 48kHz is the sample rate, but it does not appear to be something you can set in the application. You might check to see if it's controllable via software that came with the interface. (44.1kHz is the "standard" for CDs and music, but video typically uses 48kHz because of the video framerate, though I've never had a problem syncing 44.1 on those occasions when the setting got reset and I didn't notice!)
 
Syncing audio to video is pretty easy. You basically zoom in and match the good audio to the camera audio. But I like to fine tune the good audio against the video for optimum results. Sometimes the audio recorded with the video is slightly off from what look/sounds right to me. In the attached image you can see a slight offset (about equal to one frame or 1/30 second) between the good audio and the camera mic audio.

Here's a trick. You've probably seen film or video production depicted (in film or video) where they have that chalkboard with the thing on top that slaps down. It's called a clapper board. You can get the same effect just by clapping once on camera before the take. Then you'll have a visible (in the video and in both waveforms) and audible reference point you can easily match up, a sharp peak in both audio files.

A-V sync.png
 
Keith Rogers. When I go to share and then export song to disk there are options coming up. ACC, MP3 and AIFF and then 4 quality options in the quality drop down. Which ones should I choose? There is also a box underneath that says export cycle area or length of selected regions (if cycle is turned off) Should I tick this box? Also how do I physically remove the audio from the video and replace it with the garageband one?
 
I'm finding that the audio from the mobile video sounds significantly louder than the garageband file which sounds way too quiet and there doesnt seem to be a way of turning it up. It's odd because when I listen to the garageband file with headphones on through the focusrite interface it's much louder. Any suggestions?
 
Keith Rogers. When I go to share and then export song to disk there are options coming up. ACC, MP3 and AIFF and then 4 quality options in the quality drop down. Which ones should I choose? There is also a box underneath that says export cycle area or length of selected regions (if cycle is turned off) Should I tick this box? Also how do I physically remove the audio from the video and replace it with the garageband one?
I would export it as 16-bit AIFF.

The cycle range is denoted by the the very top bar in the track/mixing window. You set that if you are creating a loop, or if you want to control the start and stop of the exported song. I always use it, setting the ends a bit before and after the song start/stop. Then, you can use automation in the master track to set a fade in/out (or completely zero levels) so any stray recording noises are minimized. If you don't set the cycle region, don't check the box.

In iMovie, you make sure the audio track is shown in the imported video, and reduce its volume to zero by dragging down the level.

I've attached some screen clips of those spots.

P.S. (Edit) If you have *no* cycle region highlighted, and have trimmed your song's regions to just what you want to hear, you can select those, and use the checkbox so only that amount of audio will be exported. Otherwise it [probably] exports the entire project, which will include all space before and after the regions.
 

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I'm finding that the audio from the mobile video sounds significantly louder than the garageband file which sounds way too quiet and there doesnt seem to be a way of turning it up. It's odd because when I listen to the garageband file with headphones on through the focusrite interface it's much louder. Any suggestions?

I'm not sure how you are listening or in what app.

You can change the level of tracks in GB of course, and use a Gain (utility plugin) if necessary, i.e., if your track was recorded too softly.

I believe GB always normalizes the exported track to 0dB peak, more or less. So the exported file may be different that what you are hearing in the mix. I honestly have not used the latest GB as I moved to Logic Pro X a few years ago. It's worth learning about loudness levels and getting some free plugins or external apps (I use Orban Loudness Meter *all* the time) to get your tracks to the appropriate level for YouTube, if you plan to do that.

If you don't zero the video's audio, the video will be loud since it combines both tracks. YouTube also does loudness normalization on playback, if that's what you mean about "mobile video.."
 
Hi Keith. Didn't realised you had replied until now as didn't see there was a second page on the thread. Thanks for taking the time to help. I did actually work out that you can detach the audio completely rather than just lowering the volume to zero. I've sorted out the volume issues as well.

I've been getting quite frustrated with it today though. iMovie just won't upload the video to YouTube even though I get a message saying video was successfully published.

It's annoying as i did a test the other day and it worked fine. I just did a 20 second video of me singing only just to be able to have a play about with adding the video into iMovie and replacing the video. It only took a couple of minutes and it appeared in my YouTube channel.

Today though after recording a 4 minute video of me singing and playing guitar it just won't upload. I followed the same procedure as the other day but it just isn't uploading. I get an iMovie notification saying publish was successful and then when I click on the visit option, YouTube opens up and it just says the video is being processed. I figured that it would take a bit longer than the 20 second one I did the other day so just left my computer on and went and did something else. 2hrs later, I came back to my computer. No sign of the video on my YouTube channel and my Mac seemed to have gone into sleep mode and I had to re-open iMovie. Tried to upload again but still it seems it just won't upload. There is nothing wrong with my internet. It's fast internet and my PC is connected directly to the router so it's a wired connection.

Any suggestions?
 
Hi Keith. Didn't realised you had replied until now as didn't see there was a second page on the thread. Thanks for taking the time to help. I did actually work out that you can detach the audio completely rather than just lowering the volume to zero. I've sorted out the volume issues as well.

I've been getting quite frustrated with it today though. iMovie just won't upload the video to YouTube even though I get a message saying video was successfully published.

It's annoying as i did a test the other day and it worked fine. I just did a 20 second video of me singing only just to be able to have a play about with adding the video into iMovie and replacing the video. It only took a couple of minutes and it appeared in my YouTube channel.

Today though after recording a 4 minute video of me singing and playing guitar it just won't upload. I followed the same procedure as the other day but it just isn't uploading. I get an iMovie notification saying publish was successful and then when I click on the visit option, YouTube opens up and it just says the video is being processed. I figured that it would take a bit longer than the 20 second one I did the other day so just left my computer on and went and did something else. 2hrs later, I came back to my computer. No sign of the video on my YouTube channel and my Mac seemed to have gone into sleep mode and I had to re-open iMovie. Tried to upload again but still it seems it just won't upload. There is nothing wrong with my internet. It's fast internet and my PC is connected directly to the router so it's a wired connection.

Any suggestions?
Uploading a 4 minute movie shouldn't take that long, but while I have used the upload to YouTube feature in the past, I always just share locally to my hard drive and review the video a few times before uploading using the YouTube Studio uploader. (I have seen YT hang on the "processing" part - it's worth trying different video rendering parameters to see if that helps. E.g., I always create 720p because I only record 1080p and there's certain to be some cropping done.)

My procedure is to Share to iTunes. (Have iTunes closed, i.e., Quit it if it's open.) Anyway, at some point, you should see a pop-up saying Share Successful. When you see iTunes is opened, that means the Share has completed - you don't have to "babysit" anything. At that point, in iTunes, go to the Movies/Home Videos library and you'll see your video there. I'd watch it a couple times to be sure you are happy with it. You can then right-click and select Show In Finder, and see the video file. That's what you manually upload to YouTube. If you find a problem, you can fix it in iMovie, delete the video in iTunes, and start the process over, only uploading to YT once you are sure it's Ok.

I've also seen the Share thing fail, even locally. I'm guessing it's a bug, but maybe the file is out there somewhere and just got disconnected from your account. Anyway, because you can't update or modify the video once it's in YouTube, and certainly after you've made it public and/or shared it with friends, it just makes me more comfortable to do the close reviewing of what is being uploaded before YT gets it.
 
It did upload. I just had my setting on public videos so couldn't see them as I uploaded as private.

Still a bit of an issue with the volume though. In garageband it sounds very loud but listening to the uploaded YouTube video, it sounds a bit quiet listening to it on my phone with headphones on. It may just be my phone or my headphones as it sounds louder playing it just on my PC.

Here is a link to one of my songs. Happy for any constructive criticism/feedback and see what you think of the volume/sound quality.

YouTube
 
I don't think your video is especially quiet.

YouTube will normalize the video loudness to about -14dB LUFS last time I was checking. I.e., if your audio is much louder, they will reduce the volume to that value. So, like I said before, I will do my mixes to between -14dB and -15dB LUFS before putting them into a video. That way, I can be relatively certain that the only thing YT will do to the video is squash the heck out of it, but at least I'm not surprised by the difference between watching the video file on my computer (in iTunes) and then that same video after the file is uploaded.

I use this metering app. There are ones you can add to GarageBand as a plugin (there is one in Logic Pro, but it was missing in GB last time I looked); but I'm used to this external one, though I will likely go to a DAW based plugin at some point.

Free Orban Loudness Meter — Orban
 
The thing is, the volume is so much louder on many other YouTube videos. It's really annoying me. To listen back to my videos on my iPad or phone I have to up the volume to almost maximum and then when another video comes on, it almost deafens me!
 
It's because the guitar is a little quiet compared to the voice which sounds quite compressed - the maths to work out LUFs means that some songs and arrangements sound louder, some softer. I think you may have squashed the max and min a bit so the averaging they use drops it down. The guitar needs a bit of work to make it more 'live'. The strummy - strummy feel makes it sit at one continuous level, with just the voice starting and stopping. That's quite tricky to make work well. as said above, if you make it just louder, their processing will take it down again.
 
The thing is, the volume is so much louder on many other YouTube videos. It's really annoying me. To listen back to my videos on my iPad or phone I have to up the volume to almost maximum and then when another video comes on, it almost deafens me!
What is the LUFS of the audio track in your video, and have you changed the level of the audio in iMovie?
Maybe post a link of a comparable video that is much louder than yours?
 
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