Recording video and audio on Live 8

[jean-franç]

Hi there,
I'm a guitar player, I need to create videos and post them on youtube. I have Ableton Live 8 on Mac, I intend to purchase a video camera these days. The idea is to improvise on a playback and record video and audio at the same time.
Is it possible on Live 8 to record the video (with video camera) and the music at the same time?
I've already seen on tutorials how easy it is to import video file on the arrangement session but in my context I need to record the video on Ableton.
Or do I need to use Final Cut or something like that?
Thank you for your help
All the best
Jean-François

[markmakingmusic]

Short answer: no.

You have to record the video separately and import it into Ableton. Why may I ask do you NEED to record it in Ableton?

[jean-franç]

I thought it would be easier to synchronize audio and video neatly.

[markmakingmusic]

Unfortunately Ableton isn't the best program for that sort of thing. Its way easier to sync a score for instance than many dialogue tracks. If you have FCP or something equivalent, I would try that and then you can import the video/ audio mix into Ableton and add sound design or your score.

[stonee]

I never use ableton to export my video when im scoring. I will export a lower quality version of my video, then line up all my sound design, then mute the video track, then export just the audio, then add the audio to the video in another, proper video editor.

[owlmerlyn]

Sorry for resuscitating an older thread, but on the topic of recording myself to post up to youtube....

I have an android phone with a very decent camera / video recorder. Does anyone know of an app + a way of setting up the video recording to be remotely controlled from Ableton? In other words Ableton would be the master controller for the phone / video recorder.

THe video would be recorded to my phone, but would automatically sync up to the sound when imported (either into a video editor, or into Ableton).

Similarly, can anyone recommend a free / open-source video editor?

Thanks in advance

[markmakingmusic]

Ableton can only import a video file that is pre recorded. What format does the android record? I think ableton only works with .mov files but can't remember off the top of my head.

Video will not automatically sync up to anything, you need a video editor. Remember, you get what you pay for; I have no idea if there are any good free vid editors out there. Look into final cut express maybe. So you would want to record the video->import to video editor->do your editing there->export as a file that ableton can read->import to ableton->do your sound design there->export->upload to YouTube.

I'm not sure what you are trying to do but it sounds like you should be looking into something like Max/MSP/Jitter. That is not free but probably worth the investment. Good luck!

[owlmerlyn]

Thanks for the reply.

To answer your last question first. I want to put up videos of me "performing" my songs at home (guitar and vocals) onto youtube... My camera has got quite a nice video recording quality, but not great sound recording quality. So, in an ideal world I would want to record the audio through my studio equipment to Ableton whilst recording the video direct to the camera - and to do so in sync. Follow that with a bit of audio mixing to refine the sound, import the video and audio to a video editor (should already be sync'd up), export and upload to Youtube etc.

Although I have seen some mid-level artists do this successfully, it sounds like that is not really possible without some serious outlay in pro video equipment / software. So, at this stage I guess I will have to manually line up audio to picture in a video editor, which is going to be a ball ache. I am really trying to get to a point of quickly being able to produce videos of my songs... or rather, spend my time worrying about my performance rather than the post-production process. Make sense?

I saw that NCH has a free video editing suite. I will try that out. I know that free stuff will not have the same functionality of the pro stuff, but for now thats all I can afford.

[markmakingmusic]

Ok I see. Yea, you can certainly try that although as you said, you may have some sync issues when trying to line things up. If your videos aren't super long, it will be easier. If you notice audio deviating from picture further along, you can simply make a slight adjustment to it. I have definitely done it this way before and it can certainly work. If you're not makin any cuts to the video, you can even skip that step of finding a free editor and just import into ableton, where audio will be a breeze

One useful idea is to put a distinctive percussive noise at the very beginning so that you can line up the audio track with the video track (guetto version of a timecode sync lol).

Just find out about the types of video files ableton can support before you get going full speed ahead.

[owlmerlyn]

Yeah, a friend mentioned something very similar regarding the percussive sound at the begninning... like they did in the old time movies using the action board to line up picture to sound in post production. Sound and video were recorded to separate mediums back then.

At this point I am not editing the video at all (except to trim beginning and end) so using Ableton exclusively is not a bad idea. I think I would need an mp4 to quicktime converter because Ableton only supports quicktime, if I recall correctly.

I took a look at your youtube channel and see that you've done this video thing before. What set-up do you use to record the video?

I like that solo guitar piece, btw.

[markmakingmusic]

I just used a flip video camera and was recording directly into ableton
I imported the sound channel from the video along with the video into ableton and just lined up both sound channels in ableton. Thanks for checking out my stuff!

[owlmerlyn]

I just used a flip video camera and was recording directly into ableton
I imported the sound channel from the video along with the video into ableton and just lined up both sound channels in ableton.

Ok, so pretty much as discussed, and what I am going to do.

Thanks for checking out my stuff!

You're welcome, keep it up!

[markmakingmusic]

Nice tunes/ website btw!

[owlmerlyn]

Thanks. Website needs a lot of work, and the new video's will be appearing on there soon.