Video recording whilst playing over backing track

Dazz101983

Hi there,

I was wondering if anyone would be able to help me.

i am trying to create a video of myself playing electric guitar over a backing track.

My current setup is Korg AX3000 connected to Mac via mono to input on Mac. No problem recording audio on reaper. So I tried to play backing track on Mac and port to aux in on Korg.

Monitor on headphones and can hear both but when record only guitar is recording.

am I doing something wrong or is there something additional that I need in order to have a 2nd input for the Mac?

any help would be greatly appreciated

stratman3142

This is how I do it. There may be better ways.

1) Create a backing track in Reaper. 
2) Play the backing track in Reaper and record your playing on another track in Reaper, whilst videoing.
3) Enable view 'Video Window' in Reaper. Drag the video file into Reaper, which will create a new track, that you can then drag (with snapping disabled) to sync the video to the other two tracks. You might want to mute any audio on the video track as well.

Then you can use Reaper to render all three tracks to a video file with the audio.
  

Dazz101983

Thank you for your solution @Stratman3142! Sounds like a good idea and will give it a try!

axisus

I drop the BT into Garageband, play the guitar sound live into a new track and record the video with iMovie at the same time. I then add the soundtrack file to iMovie and export the video. 

fastonebaz

@stratman3142 ; I've never managed to successfully drop an mp4 into reaper.  Must try harder. 

Dazz101983

Thanks @axisus - I will give that a try also. Thank you for your help

stratman3142

fastonebaz said:

@stratman3142 ; I've never managed to successfully drop an mp4 into reaper.  Must try harder. 

It works for me. What happens when you drag an mp4 into Reaper?

I find it a bit of a fiddle to sync the video track with the audio. Aligning the audio waveform on the video track (recorded by my webcam) with the waveforms on the audio tracks (recorded via my audio interface) still makes things look a bit out of sync. So it ends up being trial and error. Does anyone know of a neat trick to make the video and audio alignment easier.

TTBZ

Make sure you’re recording your audio at 48kHz sample rate since that matches video standards. I don’t really know the tech behind it but I’ve had things drift out when recording/exporting the audio at 44.1 or something.

For manually syncing the easiest way to do it is give yourself some pre roll then record a clap, or hit the strings if you’re not using a mic and going direct. That way you have a definitive point in both waveforms and a visual cue in the video to sync everything up. Trim off the pre roll at the start and you’re good to go. For fine tuning I find it easier and more accurate to use keyboard shortcuts to nudge clips in the timeline rather than mouse and dragging.

Or use Premiere which will do it all for you without needing a clap (right click > synchronise by waveform, delete your camera audio, done)  

fastonebaz

@stratman3142 I count aloud to 4 whilst simultaneously hitting the strings during thr preroll recording so I've got good visual and audio cues to line up.  I mix video and audio (from reaper) in da Vinci  resolve which apparently has auto sync feature but I've not used that yet. 

stratman3142

@TTBZ and @fastonebaz. Thanks for the info.

viz

TTBZ said:

Make sure you’re recording your audio at 48kHz sample rate since that matches video standards. I don’t really know the tech behind it but I’ve had things drift out when recording/exporting the audio at 44.1 or something.

https://youtu.be/Mjx_GjyXCs4

Dazz101983

Thank you all for your guidance, and some cracking tips from @TTBZ and @fastonebaz. Really appreciate all your help and guidance