Video attempt - live at Octoberfest 2009

[jnorman]

I took a shot at doing a live video performance yesterday at Octoberfest in Mt. Angel, Oregon, in the wonderful St. Mary's historic church. My video recorder conked out on me, so i made the video part using my little panasonic FX100 point and shoot camera. i recorded the audio with an ORTF pair of KM184s>Lexicon U42s>IBM T61 Thinkpad running Reaper. The performers are RoseWynde, flute and harp duo.

I edited the video in Ulead DVD factory to remove the audio from the original video clip and add in the Reaper audio files. In Reaper, i inserted reafir to do some noise reduction, and boosted the audio level a little bit. otherwise, the reverb is just the natural reverb of the church (which is a huge cruciform church). i will try to upload a shot of the church, and will include a link to the video on YouTube (i dont know how to embed the youtube video, but if someone will tell me how, i will do that.)

here is the link to the Video:
YouTube - En de Forme de la Habanera by Ravel

[videoteque]

The video is nice. With one camcorder, not moving it is the best option!

I would have tried to put the camera more in front of them and tried to show the church a little bit more. But that's just me, I am a simmetry maniac!!!!!

If you camcorder has manual audio gain and it's not too noisy, you can put it further and use that audio as ambience/reverb.

[jnorman]

thanks xavier - i did not have much choice about where i was able to set up. i had set up in a better spot to begin with, and recorded some alpenhorns, and then an organ set, and right when i was to begin recording the flute and harp duo, a priest came along and unplugged my power cord on the far side of the church. he told me i could not run my power cord across the doorway where the wheelchair ramp was located. i had to move everything, find another outlet on the other side of the curch, rerun all my cables, move the mic stand and videocam, and my laptop, interface and my gear bags. i had to keep everything out of the walkway in the middle, so i am off center, but at least i got some of it...

[ohmoka]

Originally Posted by videoteque

If you camcorder has manual audio gain and it's not too noisy, you can put it further and use that audio as ambience/reverb.

It sounds interesting.... Have you done it before? If you are postproducing the video afterwards to replace the audio from the camcorder with the audio from the mics... How would you synchronize the 2 audio signals (The audio from the mics plus the audio form the camcorder=ambience/reverb) against the video? Just by listening? Or did you mean recording the audio from the camera plus the audio from the mics on the audio recorder? Thanks

[jnorman]

from my experience with the audio recorded by the video camera mics, it is pretty much unuseable even as ambience. perhaps there are some video cams that have mics with enough quality for that use, but mine sure isnt that good...

all - i would appreciate any feedback on the audio tracks that i have synced to this video - particularly the effect that the noise reduction plugin has had - i had to get rid of some pretty intrusive truck noises and general background of such a large hall (and my monitors are not that great, and i would like to know your reaction to the effect that the noise reduction has had on the overall EQ of the mix).

[phaseshift1]

Originally Posted by jnorman

from my experience with the audio recorded by the video camera mics, it is pretty much unuseable even as ambience. perhaps there are some video cams that have mics with enough quality for that use, but mine sure isnt that good...

all - i would appreciate any feedback on the audio tracks that i have synced to this video - particularly the effect that the noise reduction plugin has had - i had to get rid of some pretty intrusive truck noises and general background of such a large hall (and my monitors are not that great, and i would like to know your reaction to the effect that the noise reduction has had on the overall EQ of the mix).

I quite like your recordings ... would not have guessed you used a noise reduction plugin. Listened/watched the video first, then read about the plugin. You did a great job. Never suspected or felt anything was wrong or missing from your recording. Very much like the tone(EQ) and space. Very good job!!

After watching/listening to your video, I clicked on a link to another flute video. It was a full mega production, mega microphone and preamp setups. It sounded flat compared to what you achieved.

Where were the km184 ORTF placed? They were the only mics? Did you use the Canare Quad cables?

Good stuff. Thanks for posting.
Regret I only found your thread today.

[jnorman]

phase - thanks for the comments. the ORTF pair was just a bit off center, and perhaps 30 feet back from the players - quite a bit farther back than i would have preferred, but i had to accommodate the audience and aisle clearance - so there is more room reverb in there than i wanted, but it still sounds pretty good to me for a live recording with a huge noisy audience. and yes, i used the canare quad cables.