A Recording Problem (to Solve!)

[Jack Russell]

O.k., here's a challenge for you all. First, I'll explain what I want to do...

I will take an old episode of something old and cheesy, such as a Star Trek episode. I will take only the video, and erase all the audio bits. Then I will write a new script for each character, but I'll make it totally absurd and hilarious. Then I will take the "parts" and send them to a bunch of friends who will rehearse them and get ready to record them while watching the video. I'll practice with them so that they sinc up to the video as closely as possible. Then I'll record a bit of music, which will be as radically stupid and out of context as possible, and blend it to the video thus destroying all sense of drama or context. HAHAHAHA!!!!

So, is this something I could do easily with a simple 8-track ADAT or computer mixing program? Or would I have have access to an extremely expensive video and sound editing machine?

Oh, and let's ignore for the moment any applicable copyrite laws.....

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

You can do it on a standard home computer just fine. You'd need a decent video capture card and a quality multitrack A/V editing program like Sony Vegas (a cheapo home movie editing program just won't cut it.)

G.

 

[soundchaser59]

You can pull just the video by connecting to any dvd or vcr.

Then use the animation or movie making software of your choice to put any sound track you want with it......

But if you need really precise timing you will want something to synch to, MTC, SMPTE, whatever......

A lot of web page programmers can do this kind of stuff in a few hours using Flash.....but it's a lot easier to time the sprites if each line or each paragraph of script is a seperate sound file.

 

[Jack Russell]

Cool. Thanks. I'll have to look into these.

Originally, I thought I'd just track all the performances in one live take. But I supposed people might start giggling and stuff, then it would be a wasted effort. So, seems like I'd need to do some real track separation and editing to get it right. Not as easy as it sounds.

 

[FALKEN]

I have vegas and I've only messed with it a couple times. anyway, I couldn't figure out how to add more than the 2 or 3 tracks it gives you...you might have to do it all on one or two tracks anyway... but vegas is very inexpensive...there might be a way to add more tracks, I just haven't messed with it enough perhaps.

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

I have vegas and I've only messed with it a couple times. anyway, I couldn't figure out how to add more than the 2 or 3 tracks it gives you...you might have to do it all on one or two tracks anyway... but vegas is very inexpensive...there might be a way to add more tracks, I just haven't messed with it enough perhaps.

Hey Falken,

Adding tracks in Vegas is easy. There's a couple of ways to do it. One is to just right-click on the blank space below the existing tracks (or anywhere if you have no tracks yet) and the pop-up menu has selections for adding either an audio or a video track. The second way (and the one I usually use myself) is to just drag and drop a clip file from the explorer window or media bin (whichever you are using) into the blank area; Vegas will automatically create a new track of the proper type (stereo or mono, audio or video) depending upon the type of file you drop.

Anyone who can use Acid, Audition, Cubase or any other DAW software can adapt to Vegas really easily. There is very little difference between it and an audio DAW in form and operation; the only real differences are the added video editing functionality. This is especially true for Acid users as Acid and Vegas look and work practically identically on the surface. It's just that one has added functionality for video whereas the other has added functionality for MIDI and loop creation.

G.

 

[FALKEN]

...unfortunately I haven't used acid since college....

 

[MadAudio]

+1 on Vegas. I made my own music video using clips from my digital camera, and it came out pretty well for a first-timer. It comes with a good selection of video FX and is really easy to use.

I just got a digital videocam and can't wait to do more detailed video stuff!

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

+1 on Vegas. I made my own music video using clips from my digital camera, and it came out pretty well for a first-timer. It comes with a good selection of video FX and is really easy to use.

I just got a digital videocam and can't wait to do more detailed video stuff!

Yeah, I use Vegas regularly for eveything from music videos to wedding videos with as many as 3 A/B video roll and graphics tracks and 10 audio tracks (mono and stereo) going at once and it just works great.

Later this summer I start work on a long-term long-form documentary project. I have absolutely no qualms about editing and assembling the entire project in Vegas.

G.