Which software for lockdown band video?

[malbass]

As per the title really, looking for recommendations of which video editing software to use to create a lockdown video for the band?

[skidder652003]

depends on your operating system possibly? We use imovie as I and our mate who shoots video both have macs (actually he uses Final cut Pro). Imovie is free for macs and is a great simple to use piece of kit. If you're windows based, I'm not so sure, Adobe Premier Pro is the biggie but it's expensive. There's Adobe Premiere elements which is about £90. Depends on how detailed you want to go and how much you want to spend..me..nothing!

Edited June 10, 2020 by skidder652003

[RichardH]

Yes, I used Adobe Premiere Elements for ours.

I extracted the audio tracks from the video tracks (band members used iRig or equivalent to record the audio for their video tracks) using Audacity - you can open a video track in Audacity and it grabs the audio. I then aligned the tracks and set the levels and exported to single MP3. In Premiere Elements I again aligned the tracks using the associated audio tracks and also imported the mixed track and aligned that. I then muted the video audio tracks to be left with the mixed audio. 

The only thing I did apart from altering levels on the tracks was add a bit of reverb to the vocalist's track, and some compression to the drums.

It's useful if you get everyone to tap along to a click intro to the song to help with alignment. I also had a weird issue where the guitarist's video was running at a slightly different frame rate from the others (he started in sync, but ended up about 2 seconds out by the end of the track). So I used Premiere Elements to squish his video down very slightly to keep the sync correct throughout the song.

Here's the result, FWIW

 

[Richard R]

Windows user here. Been producing the online service for church for the last three months using LightWorks. It's ludicrously powerful, but you do have to watch the training videos first. The free version is fully featured,  but will only export 720p for YouTube and the like. Will do PIP, 3D effects, pretty much anything you like.

WRT your drummer's sync issues to the video. Check what frame rate and quality he is recording at. Some phones will record 4K and other massive resolutions, but to keep the file size down have enormously variable frame rates within a single video. On its own it may play, but video editing software will struggle to sync it. You can sometimes cheat by chopping it up into short sections and cutting away and back again. If people record in no more than 1080 and 30fps you should be fine. You may need to tell your software explicitly to use mixed rates as well, some phones default to 30fps, others to 29.7, and many use variable. 

Hope this helps.

 

[EMG456]

Shotcut is free, doesn’t have all the bells and whistles but runs reliably for me on Win10. Will output HD resolution and has versions for Mac and Linux as well. 
When you bring in variable bit rate videos from phone footage, it will offer to convert to a more edit friendly format.

Good luck. Half the battle is getting everybody to provide useable video and audio. I used to get involved in this stuff for a living so I know what I’m doing if a bit rusty but remotely coaching folks who have no video/ audio recording knowledge and are using phones I have no practical knowledge of is really like herding cats! That said, we’re all learning lots and enjoying it so it’s proving to be worthwhile. 

[BigRedX]

DaVinci Resolve.

The basic version is free and then there are paid-for upgrades if you need more features.

We used it to make the Video for our cover of "She's In Parties".

 

[RichardH]

1 hour ago, Richard R said:

WRT your drummer's sync issues to the video. Check what frame rate and quality he is recording at. Some phones will record 4K and other massive resolutions, but to keep the file size down have enormously variable frame rates within a single video. On its own it may play, but video editing software will struggle to sync it. You can sometimes cheat by chopping it up into short sections and cutting away and back again. If people record in no more than 1080 and 30fps you should be fine. You may need to tell your software explicitly to use mixed rates as well, some phones default to 30fps, others to 29.7, and many use variable. 

Hope this helps.

 

Yes, that's really handy - thanks. 29.7fps sounds familiar! 

[malbass]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I like the sound of DaVinici Resolve (especially if its free!) - will give that one a go.

[EMG456]

I’m not saying this will happen but a Resolve installation trashed both Cubase and all my Arturia V Collection instruments on my MS Surface Pro 4 pc. Taking it back to an earlier system restore point didn’t help and I ended up having to restore a full backup. I never managed to get to the bottom of what happened but after then installing Resolve on my desktop PC and it proving a bit flaky there also, I gave up with it. A shame as I did like the interface, workflow and features. From memory it was Resolve v 16xxxx

So I’m suggesting a full system backup before you install. Let us know how you get on.

[malbass]

4 minutes ago, EMG456 said:

I’m not saying this will happen but a Resolve installation trashed both Cubase and all my Arturia V Collection instruments on my MS Surface Pro 4 pc. Taking it back to an earlier system restore point didn’t help and I ended up having to restore a full backup. I never managed to get to the bottom of what happened but after then installing Resolve on my desktop PC and it proving a bit flaky there also, I gave up with it. A shame as I did like the interface, workflow and features. From memory it was Resolve v 16xxxx

So I’m suggesting a full system backup before you install. Let us know how you get on.

Noted! Will definitely back up first