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  1. Ok, sorry if this has been covered by other folks.

    First I will list what I want to achieve and then I will list the equipment I have available to me.

    I am trying to create video's for the student area on my website. These will be instructional videos for songs they are learning (I am a guitar teacher).

    The video will contain scrolling music (via recording my screen) a frame containing a fretboard shot of me playing (via my webcam) as well as the audio (multiple options available).

    Software I have tried using is expression encoder 4 ... however its limited audio options are a problem.


    What I have:

    8 track external sound card (Toneport UX8)
    POD HD 500 (also acts as a sound card)
    Pod Farm 2.5 vst plugin
    Cakewalk Sonar X1
    Microsoft LifeCam Cinema (not thrilled with its quality and motion blur, a big deal when i am illustrating fingers on a fret board... i may return it and purchase something else... suggestions would be appreciated)

    What I would like to find is video recording software that includes some sort of multi track audio capability

    Or software that allows me to record the video and then import the audio (which i could record w/ sonar x1) with the ability to sync the audio with the video ...

    Again, i work mostly in audio recording and this is my first venture into video recording and editing so alternative solutions from people educated more than myself in this field are much appreciated.
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  2. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    What's your budget? Timeline?

    As a rule, I'd say in terms of cost, complexity, filesizes, etc: Video is 10x more than Audio. So shouldn't your Video equipment & app budget and time involved reflect that? (I come from an audio background also, but those are the realities).

    Scott
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  3. My budget is not the largest and the time line is short .... this is some thing that is getting incorporated into a project that will be launched within the next couple weeks....

    By not a large budget i mean... i'm not spending $400 on a camera ... However i do understand that money and descent amounts will need to get spent.... the video recording (meaning the fretboard shot) is only a small part of the video (though i am still heading to the store today to grab the most expensive web-cam they have they have).

    What i guess i am most interested in is a piece of video recording software that will support multi-track audio, as well as vst plug-ins.
    Last night i was able to pull off:
    recording the video with expression encoder (not a fan of that software either, seems rather limited)
    recording the audio with sonar x1
    import the video into sonar
    align the audio w/ the video

    This seemed to work out and the quality of the audio with the video was far superior than trying to set my recording sound card as input in expression (horrible experience with that)

    However it was a very timely process and i guess now i am trying to find something that would make this much more efficient....

    I just returned from the store with a Logitech c920 camera .... i am hoping this reduces the motion blur and increases the quality
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  4. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    If that's your budget (?!!) and timeline, and if Sonar can do multiple tracks of (layered) video, then you're probably doing it pretty well as can be expected, given a webcam as video source (which I put as 1-3 on a 1-10 scale of quality). DV cams would be better at 4-6, HDcams better still at 5-8, Pro cams (SD/HD) 6-10. You gets what you paid for.

    Might be easier to align the audio-to-audio. IOW, capture & save the audio from the webcam/soundcard, then use it as a reference track when lining it up with your GOOD multi-tracks, then dump/mute/silence the webcam track for export/playout. You will get closer-than-framerate synchronization that way, plus if you're use to seeing leading waveforms, it's alot easier to match up, IMO (though you have to already be REALLY CLOSE for it to work).

    Scott

    edit: Most NLEs worth their salt can do "multiple" tracks of audio, but that doesn't mean they can do MULTI-TRACK audio (aka Surround). That needs pro-sumer or professional level NLE (like Vegas Pro, etc). Out of your budget range.
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  5. sorry i seem to have two posts going now .... i am not a forum guru ... this was my last ditch effort ... ummmm ... cake walk was my preference because i know the software and i like it ... however the export was a HUGE problem (either the quality was poor or the video was ... well basically frame by frame and audio are not in sync) .... i read many issues with people trying to use sonar for video editing and not having much luck .... i may just scrap the whole idea of having a camera shot of my fret board on the video for a while
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  6. Member Cornucopia's Avatar
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    Maybe what you mentioned in the other post might work - use an iPhone camera as video source.

    Can you pre-edit your video (in an app better suited to video) and then do just the multitrack sync in sonar?
    Then when you export, you only have to export the audio (take much less export time) and you can then mux your pre-edited v with your mt a. That goes very fast, and no reencoding so quality is 2nd generation at worst.

    Scott
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  7. Well i have vegas movie studio platinum 5.0 .... now is there a good camera you can suggest (i was searching through some reviews) HD isn't a necessity as the camera shot will only be about 30% on the actual video. I am also wondering if my computer will turn into the throttle point. I have an asus g73jh, it has 4 usb 2.0 ports, one hdmi port... no firewire and no express slot for me to grab an expansion card.

    Anyways, any descent digital cameras you can suggest for around the $300 price range? or is that an unrealistic goal?

    i did see the Panasonic HDC-SD40 .... however the reviews where not the greatest
    Sony Handycam DCR SX85 ... but same problem with reviews
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