Combining DAW and video?

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MushCreek

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Bear with me; I'm old, and not very computer literate. Like everyone else in the world right now, I have need of some performance videos. I'm going to record piano on one track, then add trumpet and/or voice on other tracks. I'm using Presonus Studio One. To put this on a video, what happens next? I have a buddy that could record us. Would we just play along with the recorded tracks, and then use the video without its own sound? How are the video and audio files combined? Will the Presonus Artist software do that, or would I need further software?

The goal is to produce some simple videos to be used in a virtual church service. When we recorded one at Easter using just the camcorder, the sound was awful, thanks to the poor mic on the camera. My buddy with the camcorder is pretty good at shooting and editing to get a quality video, so there could be close-ups and different camera angles. He has no DAW experience though, and neither do I. Thanks for an advise!
 
When I make a video, I record the song first. Then I play it back through a boombox or something so I and the camera mic can hear it. I once used the car stereo for some shots outdoors. Parked the car behind the camera. I lip sync when singing and try to capture the guitar playing to as close as when I recorded it. The camera mic picks up the music from the boombox. Then I bring the pre-recorded song and camera files into a video editor like Sony Vegas. I use the audio from the camera mic to align with the pre-recorded song. Then edit the video.

When shooting video, I will video multiple times from different angles, locations, lighting, etc. I might have up to 4 different video shots for section of the song.

At this point I feel compelled to share a video to illustrate my points and... for a shameless plug.

Walk With Me - YouTube

In this video, I shot video of me playing the actual parts, so no trying to repeat an unrepeatable performance. This was my first attempt at video and I didn't have enough footage to cover the whole song, so I use some still shots to fill in the voids.

I love doing videos, but it is a lot of work.
Hope this helps.
 
When I do remote live band videos I use a Zoom recorder to capture the live audio. I use Vegas Pro* to mix the audio and combine it with the video. When I do live in-studio performance videos I capture the multitrack audio in Vegas Pro.

If I were doing lip sync videos to prerecorded songs I'd do the boombox thing Chili suggests, then combine the audio and video in Vegas Pro.

*Sony sold off their audio and video production software division to Magix a few years ago. Vegas Pro 13 was the last version from Sony. Magix just released Vegas Pro 18. The more affordable cousin of Vegas Pro is Vegas Movie Studio, which is probably more than adequate for most people. I think one of the differences is that Movie Studio has a limited number of audio tracks while Vegas Pro is a full fledged DAW with no track limit.
 
MushCreek said:
Bear with me; I'm old, and not very computer literate. Like everyone else in the world right now, I have need of some performance videos. I'm going to record piano on one track, then add trumpet and/or voice on other tracks. I'm using Presonus Studio One. To put this on a video, what happens next? I have a buddy that could record us. Would we just play along with the recorded tracks, and then use the video without its own sound? How are the video and audio files combined? Will the Presonus Artist software do that, or would I need further software?
Click to expand...

That's probably the easiest way of doing it. Others above have described a pretty good method . . . record your song in Studio One, then get a video of yo playing along to it.

I don't know how Studio one works, not having used it. However, I use Reaper, which has the capability of working with video as well as audio. I also use Vegas. There's no getting round the fact that there are learning curves to surmount.
 
Yeah, I realize that I'm biting off big chunks here, but a video would be better than just audio for the intended purpose, If nothing else, they can run 'inspirational' stills during the audio playback. My primary purpose of getting into home recording is to allow me to produce music for church services, but it's also a new way to pursue hobby music-making. I dabble in writing, as well, and will eventually figure out how to integrate that into my recordings. I have a MIDI keyboard, and ordered a cable for it so I can feed MIDI into S1 as well.
 
I've done something similar to BoulderSoundGuy. I've done quite a few live jam session/gatherings over the years. I record 8 tracks of audio on my Zoom R24, and use my Sanyo video camera to record the video. Then I mix down the audio and add it to the video to replace the original. It takes a bit of work, but its nothing that a bit of time and patience can't solve. In my case, I use Reaper for the audio and Cyberlink PowerDirector 15 for the video work.
 
I'll have to ask my buddy with the camcorder what software he uses. They travel in an RV every summer, and he does some great videos of their travels. Very professional looking. He usually uses a music soundtrack with his videos. I'm mostly concerned with synchronization, as it really bugs me to see a video where it's obvious that the audio and video don't match. In every old movie with a trumpet player, you can tell that the actor isn't actually playing the thing.
 
Synchronizing the sound isn't really that hard. Plus its a big difference between the video and audio being out of sync and having an actor mimic the playing of an instrument. I would guess most musicians have had those little chuckle moments where you can clearly see he's faking it.

This was from an event 3 years ago. Doing an open jam session can be tricky because you never know who will be playing, how many will be playing, and what equipment you will have at any point. I just kind of set things up and adjust on the fly. This was done by manually combining the Zoom audio to the video. In this case, we were indoors in an empty warehouse that basically sounded like sticking your head in a garbage can! Nothing but concrete floor with metal walls and roof. I was happy with what came out.

 
When recording video with sound (for syncing later) I usually clap my hands three times in each shot, that way the signal will show up as three loud claps making it super easy to sync the video with audio later. Once synced, split the audio from the video for each track recorded and remove the audio leaving just the synced video. Lastly, edit the video like normal until it looks the way you desire it. Good luck!
 
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