Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

[NecroPolo]

I started a short test project a couple of days ago where I wanted to test the capabilities of my recent loot, a Zoom Q2HD recorder as well as the video editing capabilities of my fav DAW Reaper. I heard some urban myths that said it can do some decent work on video too but I haven't tried it yet. I did not want to burn much time on mistakes and takes in general so I picked a rather simple yet aggressive track from our recent "Bleep and Destroy" chip rock album, shot 4 straight playthroughs from different camera positions, got them into synch with the simultaneously recorded audio tracks and started editing in 20 minutes. From recording the very first take to exporting the final cut required 3 hours and I'm an absolute beginner considering video (...okay okay I admit that I'm fast with Reaper audio projects ). There is no filtering / colour correction on the export and it is the raw 720p file that left Reaper, no post production. I wanted to see what this setup can do by itself.

Here you go:



These are the audio tracks that I recorded along with the separate video takes. Accidentally I locked all project tracks and cut it around 2 minutes but don't be fooled, these are solid one-takes. The last 2 tracks were recorded only to drive the VU meter of the TLAudio compressor / preamp that I used only in a couple of frames finally.

32 -what? - video tracks are here. I just left the active takes on, muted all the others in the timeline. Reaper displays the audio part of the video and it is very useful for synching. The upper 6 tracks are the total synch tracks, the rest are cutscenes and other stuff. I used this matrix method because this way you just take a single look on the track header and you always know the relation of the active video track to the rest. If you compile all the videos to one track (as the majority of simple video editor proggies do), later changes may be a little complicated.

Here are the playthrough synch tracks with the master audio file. I used the click track for synch, started the song with 4 clicks before that was recorded by the Q2HD then matched the tracks.

As for a final verdict, I can make a statement that Reaper is absolutely capable of editing a video. Well, unless you can't live with the fact that it is restricted for frame correct editing and sample correct syncing with separately recorded audio only. There are no fancy effects, colour correction and bells & whistles that all video editors advertise themselves with. But if you think about it, what else do you really need than frame correct editing and synchron with separate audio tracks at the end of the day?

In my opinion Reaper was immensely more effective and precise than all of the affordable or free video editors around I've tried. On the consumer level you have to score a full version of Vegas or Premiere Pro to get a comfortable flexible unrestricted workflow but these proggies are not cheap. With the footnote that Reaper's super flexible editing workflow is second to none plus you have all of its heavy audio processing tools at the hand. Okay it's subjective, everyone tastes puss a different way but to me Reaper put ProTools hell into the coffin for a reason.

The only issue was occassional video playback frame drops. My machine is fine tuned for audio production so it's capable of making an album from zero to master in-da-box but it doesn't have any decent video supporting hardware just a normal video card. So playback for editing occassionally dropped frames, in dense cut parts it was like flying blind but frame grid and accurate audio peak files helped me a lot so finally the exported video was perfect. I guess, with a special video editing card or a faster machine Reaper would be pretty much capable of making precise jobs e.g. voice overdub for film. As usual, it was stabile even when the performance meter reported 95% processor use near to the RAM limit. It was a start / stop project without any interruption.

As for a hi-def mid-side audio recorder with high resolution video recording capabilities, the Q2HD did quite a decent job I think. Of course it's as distant from a Panasonic movie-grade cam or a good DSLR as it can be but if you keep an eye on lights it performs much better than any mobile phone that advertises itself with high-def video capabilities. Besides, its minimalistic OS never freezes.

 

[DankStar]

Re: Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

Cool post. For a tune I'm doing I wanted to be able to present it in a video form as well, so this is very helpful to me and something I can refer back to.

Just to be clear - were you basically doing the mime thing to the music? If not, why would you want to capture the audio when you're playing if the tune is already recorded?

I was wondering how many camera angles would be interesting without being too monotonous. Four isn't too bad at all, especially with little cut sequences thrown in.

How exactly are you "telling it" to stop showing one video track and move onto another one? Do you go in and hack out parts or is it like automating audio where one is turned off an another turned on?

The song is cool too.

 

[post toastie]

Re: Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

thanks. much appreciated.

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

Cool post. For a tune I'm doing I wanted to be able to present it in a video form as well, so this is very helpful to me and something I can refer back to.

Man I'm happy if you can use a hint or two of it. This experiment was really useful for me to do as it could destroy most of urban myths (or how to say, you get it I know) and misconceptions about making a video. I am still total green and this is my very first attempt to shoot and touch any video but at least I won't be scared away it from now. Besides it was fun, more complex projects can come, at least as time allows. Knowing that these basic tools do the job, I'll be more confident to experiment further.

Just to be clear - were you basically doing the mime thing to the music? If not, why would you want to capture the audio when you're playing if the tune is already recorded?

No it's not miming, the actual takes you can see are mixed to the track as well. The original song includes 1 left and 1 right so it's like adding +1 track to each just like a lot of recordings do to thicken the guitars.

I was wondering how many camera angles would be interesting without being too monotonous. Four isn't too bad at all, especially with little cut sequences thrown in.

After watching playthrough videos I sorted out what I liked and not and I ended up that the ideal amount of takes for my purposes is what Ola Eglund of Feardese advised in his tutorial:



This straight-to-the-point one was more useful than reading through books abut the matter.

How exactly are you "telling it" to stop showing one video track and move onto another one? Do you go in and hack out parts or is it like automating audio where one is turned off an another turned on?

Really simple. I grouped all the synch video tracks (key G) so whenever I make a cut, it cuts all the other tracks too. From that point it works like muting / unmuting audio tracks: leave the one that you wish to be active, mute all the others. I can't remember the original key map as I assigned that to 'A' key. You can find and set it in the 'show action list' tab. Choosing the desired take of a certain time position was just muting / unmuting the actual takes, leaving only the chosen one active. When I ran out of ideas and it seemed to be boring I just browsed through the stills and non-synch video takes to fill the gap. That's it.

The song is cool too. Although the effect that sounds like a phone ringing is kind of too much like a phone ringing (i.e., distracting).

I'm glad that you like the song. About those sounds... Well besides guitar playing and 'normal' music I've been making a lot of chiptunes since the late '80s on ancient computers like the C64 and basically it's all about raping improbable dirty data into those poor old chips and creating distracting sounds in general

Vincenzo who composed this album is a very fine chiptune artist who can make music on virtually anything that is capable of making some noise and has a CPU in it. The base of these songs follow that principle and it may sound quite odd here and there. I can hear these in a different way as my brain was scortched by those sounds since I started music. For example, these are metal riffs but in a pretty different (maybe unpleasant if the listener is new or not into that sonic content) context:





Data rape. These are all zeros and ones

 

[DankStar]

Re: Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

Thanks for the info. And now that I know more about the sound effects used I appreciate them more. I think it initially reminded me of a phone I used to have, hehe.

 

[everdrone]

Re: Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

cool stuff! lots of details there and an Ola video Pixel crusher is the dopeness! very inspiring.

 

[NecroPolo]

Re: Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

Thanks mate I'm glad that you like it. Yep Ola is for king In his videos he mixes great playing with informative content in a funny way.