Archive for the ‘music video production’ Category

Time for another update here. I’ve still got a few music videos to finish. I’m working on a clip for Tycotic / Asylum 57 which has taken way longer than expected. There’s 10 MC’s in the clip, and even though their verses are short, they’ve taken a lot longer due to the fact that I’m trying to keep each one as interesting as the rest. A bit tricky for a few of these guys. The ending is looking nice also.. This clip will definitely end with a bang.

Some video tech stuff to report. I’ve been using a plugin in Vegas called Neat Video. It was a bit pricey, but does a great job. I tried some more extreme footage through it earlier. Basically some stuff I shot in the studio here with the HV20 set to TV mode with the shutter at 1/50. There’s not much light here, so anything I shoot gets lots of artificial gain added, and it’s even worse with the SG Pro permanantly attached to my camera. But Neat Video cleaned up the noise really nicely. I usually run a chain of effects. Levels first, then a colour corrector, Neat Video, and finally sharpen set to 0.100. I might think about posting a before and after clip somewhere.

That’s all for now. The big challenge is still planned. It will probably be under way around the start of June I think. Got a bit more planning there to do and another challenge I’ll be setting for myself.

Technorati Tags: Asylum 57, Avene, Music Videos, Neat Video, Sony Vegas

Ok, following on from my previous post (scroll down to see it) I thought I’d add a few more details here. By the way, yesterday was our 4 year wedding anniversary

Basically, up until I actually start working on this project I’ll be posting as much about it as I can. The idea being that the more people who know I’m doing something like this, the more pressure there’ll be to ensure I get it done and won’t be viewed as a failure. Does that make sense? Yeah, putting my non-exhistant reputation on the line here, hehe. I tried a daily challenge like this once before, but didn’t get far. But yeah, I want to get this happening.

Of course what will happen if I miss a day? These things can happen. It will just mean that I’ll have to create two music videos the next day, or three the day after if I miss that second day.

The next question, where will the music videos be posted? I’ll add them daily to my blog here. The main site I’ll be posting them to will be Exposure Room where anyone who is a member will be able to download the original high quality HD MP4 version of the file. I’d put them on Vimeo too, except I don’t have the ‘Plus’ memebership and their free membership only allows up to one HD movie a week. I’ll put them on YouTube too as they allow HD videos now, plus maybe a few other sites if I upload via Tube Mogul. Maybe even Flickr. Of course wherever they end up, each video will be posted on my blog here.

More tech info. How and why will I use Vegas (7) to create the music? My original ‘Hold On’ music video from 2001 was created entirely using Vegas. Simply because it’s all I had to work with on my laptop whilst in the Philippines when I first started working on it. The drums, bass and guitar parts were chopped and dragged onto the timeline as was the horn part. I’d dumped a bunch of wav files onto that laptop ready to go. Then later once I’d edited the video, I took sound effects from the video, chopped, time stretched and edited those to the music.

So here’s how it will work and why it didn’t before. Normally I would create the music elsewhere, either in Acid, Nuendo or on the MPC500, finish the track and load it into Vegas. The trouble is, a lot of the time I can’t edit all the video I want to use to the audio. I’ll edit the video to the end of the track and there’ll be additional video left over. So now if I’m creating my beats, composing the music parts and editing the video simultaneously, I can easily adjust the length of the arrangement to accomodate all the video. Plus, I’m much quicker at chopping beats and editing audio in Vegas. It’s what I know the most. Being able to use Acid loops should help when I’m stuck for ideas too. Or to add a few background string parts, effects or whatever.

Lastly, I’ll be mixing all the tracks through my Onyx 1620 mixer with a dodgy old 4 channel Behringer (crap) compressor and the same old outboard fx units I was using back in the 90s. Actually, I’m even planning on using my old Realistic (Tandy) reverb unit that I bought back in 1985. The music will be output from the computer via 2x M-Audio Delta 1010LT cards, and mixed down back to the computer via the Onyx 1620’s firewire interface to Soundforge. From there the mixdown will be mastered and loaded back into the Vegas project. All the individual audio tracks will be muted, and the completed music videos will be exported from there.

Remember, if you have found this interesting, be sure to bookmark it below Thanks.

In the February 2009 issue of Computer Music magazine there’s a letter that I found quite interesting called ‘know your limits’.

Apparently the guy who wrote the letter was having a few problems getting much done, spending more time trying out presets on his plugins and things like that. So he decided to limit himself to just kick, snares, hi hats and square waves on synths, and create a new track every day for a month.

I like the sound of that and have decided to do something similar myself. Instead of just creating a new track every day for a month, I’m going to try and create a new music video every day including the music. Each must be at least 2 minutes long, so if I do manage to get 30 done, that’s at least an hours worth of ‘entertainment’

Since I made the decision the other day to start doing all my music using Vegas with both video and audio parts on the timeline, this should be a perfect opportunity to get that happening and familiarise myself with the whole process. Why do everything in Vegas? It’s what I know best. Plus, having used it since last century, I’ve just figured out how I can edit to a 1/64, 1/96, 1/128 and 1/192 grids on the timeline. And also reminding myself that Acid loops can be used in Vegas. Something I’ve never done before.

So what sort of music videos will I be creating? Who knows, but hopefully I’ll end up with some extremely unique sounding beats and edits. Musically I’ll be recording parts from the MPC500, along with my old Korg Poly 800, Micromoog and  Waldorf Pulse synths. If I get my old computer up and running with my old Reality soft synth, I’ll plug that in too. Scratching from the turntable, my shakers, kalimba, Emulator X2 soft sampler.

As for the video, well, anything I can make use of. I currently don’t have much drive space left which should be a good limitation to prevent me from adding too much new footage. Hopefully some 3d, any old DV clips, old HDV footage from the Sony HC1 I used to own.. Anything really.

I’ll be starting towards the end of May. Simply because I currently have 3 videos to finish editing, and need to do a few other things before then too.

If you’re reading this and are interested, please leave me a comment on the blog here.. That’s http://avene.org in case any of you are reading this as a note feed on Facebook. Or at least social bookmark it using the button below

Technorati Tags: Avene, huge personal challenge, know your limits, may 2009, Music Videos, Sony Vegas