Reaper as a Video Editor

[skidder652003]

Thanks to you good folks on this forum I learnt that not only is Reaper a great DAW, it even does "basic" Video editing.

For my needs, I found it more than adequate, with 3 cameras, zooming, cut and pasting and best of all, the syncing between the 3 videos and the master audio an absolute breeze as all files are predominately shown as audio files first.

There's a whole load of other utilities in it that I haven't even begun to explore yet. So I'd say it was more than "basic" and at £60 is an absolute steal

Below an example of what I mean, recorded into reaper, mixed and then video added, again all in the same DAW on a 2007 4 GB iMac running El Capitan. Not the fastest machine by any stretch of the imagination! Handled it all ok, a little slow but entirely do-able. Great for quick Facebook uploads.

 

[Happy Jack]

I've pretty much lost the last three days of my life doing a self-imposed crash course in Reaper v.6 and I'm pretty impressed.

I don't make as much use of hard edits as you do (I tend to crossfade everything even if the fade only lasts a tenth of a second) and the video that I have used as source is from only two cameras. That means that I've had to create several virtual cameras by using digital zooms within the source video. When shooting in low light, that does rather mean that the quality goes a bit stinky poo!

Your use of multiple cameras seems to have sorted that issue very neatly. I particularly like the positioning of DrumKam. How many tracks did you end up using in Reaper?

I've also found that I have to be quite canny in preparing my materials. For my first attempt I (eventually) loaded up FIVE 3-minute videos, being the two source videos plus three virtual cameras, each of 1.6Gb. So it crashed of course. My new editing PC has 16Gb of RAM and a GeForce 1660 Super graphics card that can handle 6Gb.

I'd love to share some of my output (gosh, I'm so proud of myself!) but there are reasons why I can't share it here until after a radio program on 6th December.

 

[skidder652003]

so I initially used 9  tracks to record the audio, ie.kick, snare, 3 toms, overhead, bass, guitar and vocal, mixed it as best (and TBH quick) as I could, then rendered it to a master audio track. I opened up a new project in Reaper and used that as the master audio, followed by the 3 different camera tracks, so for the actual video editing, just 4 tracks. When I placed each camera file into reaper, the first thing i do is to trim the video to a second before the song starts and about 5 seconds after it finishes. I'm not quite sure why you needed to load 5 cameras if 3 were virtual, could you not have just used the 2 real cameras and zoomed in to taste as you went along the timeline? Looking forward to seeing the results!

[Happy Jack]

2 hours ago, skidder652003 said:

I'm not quite sure why you needed to load 5 cameras if 3 were virtual, could you not have just used the 2 real cameras and zoomed in to taste as you went along the timeline?

I'm sure you're right but I just haven't got that far. Whatever I do with applying FX (such as the Zoom function) the FX instantly applies to that entire track rather than to just the portion I want affected. 

Very frustrating at first, but it has led me to be a bit more creative. I now zoom in on the guitarist for the entire song and save that track as GitKam, repeat for each of BassKam and DrumKam, and then I can crossfade between the five cameras quite freely.

The tricky bit is having to decide in advance which shots I want from each of the virtual cameras, so that I can discard the unwanted bits before I load everything up for the main edit. That way, instead of loading up 5 x 1.6Gb, I can load up 2 x 1.6Gb and perhaps 3 x 500Mb.

[skidder652003]

just split the track (press "S") for the portion you want to zoom in on (or pan left/right etc), then right click on that split portion and select "item properties", at the bottom of the new box screen select "Take Fx"and that takes you into the plugins folder. When you select whatever effects you want, they will only work in that split part of the track you wanted to zoom in.

 

[Silvia Bluejay]

Our Lockdown 2.0 panic buy includes yet another Zoom video recording device, the Zoom Q2n 4k (arriving this week), to add to my much-maligned but usable Zoom Q2n non-4k. We've also dug out Jack's very old Zoom Q2 low res camera, whose quality and field size are rather poor but, again, usable in certain settings.

We're unlikely to use all of those video cameras, plus my normal main one, in more than a handful of pubs or small venues, but if we get the opportunity, we're ready. The only bottleneck will be yours truly: there's only one of me, spreading myself thin operating the sound engineering tablet, the manual video camera, the manual photo camera, plus any of those little automatic video* devices, which in theory only need keeping an eye on so they don't get nicked...

Edit: not just video, I've got a Zoom H1n for audio too! 😱

Edited November 9, 2020 by Silvia Bluejay

[skidder652003]

Tell me about it!

I'm the one lumbered with all the cameras as well as setting up the PA, Im amazed if I get more than 2 minutes to set up my own rig.

What will you be using to actually record the audio? I see you're using a tablet so are you running the Behringer Xair 18 or something similar?

Due to time constraints and an analogue desk we will still be recording live gigs (as and when) with the Zoom onboard mics which aren't too bad but I'd love to record live gigs into a laptop running Reaper, something you could do with a digital PA/tablet like you have.

Of course by this time, you're more engineer/Roadie/camera person than bass player!

Edited November 9, 2020 by skidder652003

[Silvia Bluejay]

We still record video and audio with each device, then choose which one has the best audio track and use that for the final video. Of course we could hook up the XR18 to the tablet, or even better to Jack's PC on stage, and record the audio through there, but that would imply us micing and connecting to it each and every bit of the drumkit, and do a lot of extra audio mixing, which TBH we're not too keen on doing...

[Happy Jack]

Basically it comes down to mic'ing up the drumkit and that's just one logistical exercise too far for us!

It would also ramp up the pressure on us quite considerably at each and every gig, most of which will of course produce no moments that will turn out to have been worth all the extra effort.

There comes a point where you have to remind yourself that you're not Francis Ford Coppola ... this is a rockabilly band playing the Dog & Duck. 😎

 

[Happy Jack]

40 minutes ago, Juninater said:

Unfortunately, it cannot be said that one video recording strategy is suitable for everyone and every situation. When I started making music, our band could only afford one microphone per instrument. After a while, we raised money and bought a high-quality remote control and other devices for high-quality sound recording.

 

And that's fair enough, but what's a "high quality remote control"?

 

[lowdown]

 

 

$55,000 High Quality Remote Control.

 

 

 

Edited September 21, 2022 by lowdown

[andydye]

I need to learn the vid editing side of reaper, followed.

[skidder652003]

Another effort using 4 cameras into reaper.

Audio was mixed from the desk.

I then put the rendered video into the free version of DaVinci resolve as it has a cool auto zoom and pan feature.

 

https://www.facebook.com/jeffersonarchive/videos/828250331752540

 

Edited November 1, 2022 by skidder652003

[skidder652003]

And another from last week, Reaper is such a versatile DAW, the video editing is amazing really considering its not really designed as a video editor

 

 

[Happy Jack]

WTF happened at 1:09? 😉

 

Your 2-camera edit gives a glimpse of what can be achieved - and easily too - but wait until you start using four cameras. It's a whole nother thang.

 

@Silvia Bluejay sets them up at each gig while the band is setting up the PA & backline, so there's no extra time involved. She now has it to a fine enough art that we routinely do a 4-camera shoot even at one-hour festival slots, without ticking off the stage managers.

 

 

Edited November 17, 2022 by Happy Jack

[skidder652003]

35 minutes ago, Happy Jack said:

WTF happened at 1:09? 😉

 

Your 2-camera edit gives a glimpse of what can be achieved - and easily too - but wait until you start using four cameras. It's a whole nother thang.

 

@Silvia Bluejay sets them up at each gig while the band is setting up the PA & backline, so there's no extra time involved. She now has it to a fine enough art that we routinely do a 4-camera shoot even at one-hour festival slots, without ticking off the stage managers.

 

 

hmmm looked like a zoom cut wasn't edited properly. Not sure why you think its only 2 cameras, One in front, one on the drummer, one to the stage left of guitarist and one stage right of me.

Wish i had the time to set them all up as well!

I put the PA up inc desk, as well as lights, smoke machine, moving heads, never mind my own rig and pedal board!

Anyway, your video looks great!

[Mcgiver69]

On 27/10/2022 at 11:35, andydye said:

I need to learn the vid editing side of reaper, followed.

If you want a quick overview look at Kenny Gioia's video in ReaperMania.

 

For a more in-depth then your best bet is going to the ReaperBlog website where he has a great archive of tutorials and even courses (some free and others for pay but well documented). He even has a bunch of free tools and transitions that can be added to Reaper.

Actually, Jon Tidey (ReaperBlog) edits all his videos in Reaper.