Made a Video Today - Finnegan's Wake

[Pat Anderson]

I made this video today, I could have put it in the other thread but I put it here because I wanted to run through how I did it.  I must say I am not happy with the ocarina playing - too many squeaks! - but I am happy that I FINALLY managed to make a double tracked split screen video, and I think I am off and running.



Here is exactly what I did.

1.  Did the guitar part first, video recorded on a Canon SX20 and audio recorded on the Mac with Audacity using the Samson GO mike.  The camera was set up so I was in the right hand part of the video.

2.  Did the ocarina part the same way except the camera was set up so I was in the left hand side of the picture.  The Samson GO mike was used for both input and output for Audacity, allowing me to hear the guitar part while playing the ocarina.  The Samson GO mike eliminates latency, so the guitar and ocarina were precisely in sync from the git-go, no dragging left or right!  I then exported the audio containing the guitar and ocarina to a WAV file.

3.  Copied the two video files from the SD card to a directory on the Macbook.  The Canon produces Quicktime MOV files.

4  Brought the video  MOV files and the audio WAV file into Kdenlive.  This is a free Linux video editor available for the Mac via Macports.  I like it a lot. Dropped the ocarina video on video track 1 and the guitar video track on track 2.

5.  Synced up the two video files and the audio file - this is not too hard, by zooming in you can match up wave patterns in the sound files.

6.  Muted the audio on the two video files - just wanted the audio from Audacity, not the Canon!

7. Made a title clip with Kdenlive and put it at the start of the video. Applied a fade to black to the title and a fade from black to the first video clip.

8.  Used a composite transition between the two video clips with a wipe frozen at 50% so the ocarina part would occupy the left half of the screen and the guitar part would occupy the right half.

9.  Rendered to an MP4 file.

I had intellectually known how to do this, but this is the first time I have actually taken it to any kind of a finished product! Now if I could just master the ocarina playing part!

[Treblemaker]

Wow, thanks Pat. That was so helpful. I like the video- you did a great job! I'm going to find out about Kdenlive- hadn't heard about it, I'm dying to try it. I also have to price Audacity, I've already checked out the Go Mic. Your info has been most helpful! I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Best regards,
Pamela

[Pat Anderson]

Glad my post was helpful!

Audacity is free open source software, download it here. I have played around with it for quite a long time to make MP3s, but Ubizmo's post "How I Do It" sort of made the whole process of making a video gel for me.  Audacity is just incredibly powerful for recording, mixing and editing (noise reduction, normalizing, compressing, changing pitch, changing tempo, etc.) your audio.

Here is an Audacity screen shot:



Here is the info on installing Kdenlive on a Mac.  Kdenlive is also free open source software, but there are no pre-built binaries (.dmg files), so you have to install MacPorts, and install Kdenlive from the Terminal.  You may want to have a geek friend do this for you if you are not familiar with the Terminal and Linux commands! I just copied and pasted those arcane commands from the web page into the Terminal, and it worked first time for me.  I have only succeeded in installing it on the OS X Lion operating system, even though the web page shows Snow Leopard. One thing about Apple, they do not care a fig about backward compatibility.

Here is a screen shot of Kdenlive:



David (Docjazz4) uses Final Cut Pro X, and I have been playing around with the free trial edition (limited to 30 days). It is both more powerful and more complex than Kdenlive.  But it costs $300, and I would rather spend $300 on a hardwood MO-C and a warmstone MO-G! Right now, Kdenlive really is all I need for what I am doing.  But if money were no object, that might be the way to go, just learn Final Cut Pro X first.

Wow, thanks Pat. That was so helpful. I like the video- you did a great job! I'm going to find out about Kdenlive- hadn't heard about it, I'm dying to try it. I also have to price Audacity, I've already checked out the Go Mic. Your info has been most helpful! I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Best regards,
Pamela

[Treblemaker]

Thanks Pat, I'm getting a back-up hard drive. As soon as I can get some of the stuff off my computer I will download all the free programs you discussed! 
Thanks so much! Between your info and Ubizmo's info I should be good to go!

[Harp Player]

Good job Pat.

I always wondered how people managed to get several video tracks on one recording without fancy hardware of some sort.  I have messed with audacity a  little bit, it makes me miss the editor i had with an old version of Nero.  I spent 2 hours one day just trying to find and install a compatible lame DLL. I finally decided to ignore the compatibility message and it worked anyway.  Needless to say I got tired of fooling with it and i haven't messed with it much since then.

[Pat Anderson]

I think I have picked my next two video projects - Hymne by Vangelis, and Paul McCartney's Mull of Kintyre.  I put ABC files up for both in the ABC For You thread fairly recently.  Both are good ocarina tunes, and the guitar track should be a nice complement to each. Not sure when I will have the free time to do this!

[JaminStone]

Hello Pat Anderson Sir,
I am impressed by your technical know how and would like to ask you for the notes of Finnigans Wake, its one of my favourite irish folksongs and I´d love to play them on my ocarina.
Thanks in advance.
Ben