Sync problem? video clip made me scratch head

[Paul R Johnson]

Can I produce a video? Yes. Do you have a certain track I can sing to? I actually had it - needed a bit of tweaking but I had it.

That was a mistake. I sent the track. Clearly this was a lockdown video, but would need audio work.

I set up the video editor, and Cubase and waited for the video to arrive. It did, but th video from the phone was actually nice quality audio, but was short and out of tune. Premiere reported my timeline as 48K 25fps (my UK standard) but the phone was 30fps. Ah - maybe that's the audio issue. It was also short and the audio didn't seem to fit the track. A few texts later, I suddenly thouh maybe she had sung to the original, not my arranged track so I asked. Sung to? She had tried to play the track on her phone with headphones, but of course couldn't record at the same time, so she'd listed to the song, then pressed record and sang it - at her tempo and her pitch. I wonder if Cubase's pitch correction and time shrink/stretch will work for this one? I'm just waiting for my new Cubase 11 pro download, so will be a good test. No technical skills are still common, it seems.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Right. Singers in remote production need two devices... phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, cd on a stereo, ipod... choose 2! Two phones works.

One device for playback, one for recording.

[Paul R Johnson]

Clearly her version was play the song, remember it, then sing it. The song actually has a verse in the middle played on the piano - she completely forgot that bit. She started in Eb and ended up in F!

[Andrew Smith]

After all, don't artists simply sing their song and that's how you make a video clip?

Andrew

[John Nantz]

Paul is not only good at video stuff, but also …

Originally Posted by Paul R Johnson

..She started in Eb and ended up in F!

This is a good sign he knows his music stuff!

I’ve got some thoughts along these lines, recording someone who can sing and play a piano from a distance, but the question is “how to do it?”. This Covid virus is going from bad to worse, and given the rate the vaccine manufacturers are going, they say it’ll be next spring before we get near the light at the end of the tunnel. By then it will have mutated (again).

Andrew - ahhh, that might depend what the definition of an “artist” is.

Originally Posted by Andrew Smith

After all, don't artists simply sing their song and that's how you make a video clip?

Back when Elvis recorded “Hound Dog” it took him 31 takes to do it. He was young and early in his career back then so don’t know if that would qualify him as an artist. We’d have to ask Paul if the above (ahem) “rule” can be broken.

As for the part about forgetting the middle verse … (just thinking. I know this is dangerous!), maybe Paul, now that he has this spiffy office in an up-scale neighborhood next to the railroad tracks (how cool is that? Hey, it’s a move up from before or he wouldn’t have done it), is charging by the minute?

There is also the "artist wannabe" category ...

[Paul R Johnson]

Ha! Not sure Spiffy is the word. Music stuff in the studio at home, and video down at the office - but I can reverse it a little and do bits of each at the wrong one.

I've had a terribly short attention span in my career, so I get bored and as a result have gone through so many work areas that I'm OK at lots of things, and probably expert in none. I was always great at blagging, and an avid reader, so I could learn very quickly and then get away with things. Only had three failures. I cannot play the drums. I know how, I just have a coordination problem so I can do three limbs, but as soon as the fourth one joins in, one of the others stops. This was also, I think, the reason why I cannot dance. We have a TV celebrity over here in the UK who is one of the judges on Strictly Come Dancing. I was his Company Manager in a show, and said I couldn't dance - he said "Darling, everyone can dance - the question is how well!" He then tried and gave up! Apparently I have the coordination of a pygmy shrew. The other thing I can't do is fly. I've tried three times and I can do the theory, the nav and the comms - but flying in three dimensions is proof I have no spacial awareness.

Everything else, I've done pretty well at. I've started on the music track, but now I have chopped it into phrases and moved them to the right positions so it sounds right - I'm left with gap after gap in the video track. No way can I have 3 mins of continuous video, or even two lines worth to be honest. If I slide the video around so it syncs with the audio - I have a total mess. Any suggestions how to deal with it? I guess I could send her the music/vocals mix, and then get her to mime to it? Any suggestions. It's not even going to pay properly as it will be mates rates, and I sort of volunteered in a moment of madness.


For the music people - CUBASE 11. After a shaky start with the authentication server crashing, I have this up and running and it has some stunning features. Probably worth anyone who works with audio knowing that it has an absolutely amazing plugin that takes a commercial mixed track and removes the vocals. I know this sounds a common feature, but this is not common in succession terms. Up til now, the success of vocal removal is dependant on how it was recorded, so sometimes you could do it, sometimes not - and often it was really dodgy but this takes the track and converts it to a stereo vocals track and the stereo backing track - I've been working on some Carpenters tracks and picking out the lead and harmony vocals has been hours of work because the music hides the lower level stuff. The new plug in just removed the instruments and I've realised Richard Carpenter did tons of the backing vocals, you just don't hear it in the mix. I could have saved hours and hours of work.

Oh - John. Don't think upscale for the office. I have a Pizza takeout one side, and a Chinese takeout on the other side. Neither will get any business from me I'm afraid.

It is a nice part of the country though. We're a port, so we have the sea, and we also have inland waterways - the Norfolk Broads. If you're nosey, bash up something like shipfinder or any of the AIS ship tracking sites and find Lowestoft, UK - you'll see the sea, the river and the broads, and you'll also find my office, as there's a transponder permanently on test.

Totally off topic, but if you do try the ship finder thing - you'll notice a whole fleet of big oil tankers hiding just over the horizon - they're full and just anchored there waiting for the price of oil to go up. From land they're just too far out to be seen!