John Rofrano
3
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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[Jeff David] “Yup – I was under the mistaken impression that you only had to be, “somewhat” near the mic and that it didn’t matter if I had it sideways. Now I know that was wrong to assume that. “
It depends on the mic and it’s polar pattern. The AT2020 is a Cardioid which is more sensitive in the front than the sides or the back. An Omnidirectional mic has a circular polar pattern, in which case your statement would be true… you only need to be somewhere around an omnidirectional mic but the mic still needs to be fairly close to the source.
It’s important to understand that different polar patters behave differently (omnidirectional, cardioid, hypercardioid, shotgun):
This is a good article for amateur recording that explains the differences in microphones: Amateur Recording Part 7. Microphones
As you can see from the image above, a shotgun mic gives you a narrow and longer throw in the front so that it can be further away from the source and thus out of the camera’s view. Usually you can place a shotgun mic above and pointing down toward the talent from about 2 – 3 feet away and get a good recording.
The other deciding factor is dynamic vs condenser mics. Dynamic mics are less sensitive than condenser mics so you need to be closer to them. This is independent of their polar pattern.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
[Jeff David] “I am not sure if this pertains but I did a speed test and I have 222 mbps download and 12 mbps upload. I pay my internet provider $10 extra for “blast”.”
This has nothing to do with it. Your internal LAN access never reaches the Internet and so it isn’t affected by the speed of your ISP connection.
You should perform a speed disk test to see what throughput your drives are getting. I’m on a Mac so I use Blackmagic Disk Speed Test. I believe they have a Windows version as well if you search their web site. It may be included in some of their driver downloads.
The only real way to determine how fast your remote drive is, is with disk benchmark software. Crystal Disk Mark is also good one for Windows users. I think you will find a big difference in speed between your ethernet drive and a USB 3.0 connected one. I would be surprised if your Seagate drive didn’t have a USB 3 connection on the back. All you would need is a cable to test it (assuming your PC has USB 3).
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
Try placing the mic in front of you pointed toward your mouth but off-camera. You may have to change the camera position to accommodate but having the mic off axis is definitely the problem. The AT2020 uses a Cardioid/Polar pattern which has great rear and side rejection, favoring right in front.
If you want a mic to use with video, I would get a shotgun for off-camera or an omnidirectional lavaliere mic to be worn on your shirt. While the AT2020 is killer for VO, the assumption is that you are up close to the mic while recording.~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
[Jeff David] “The Seagate cloud external drive is connected to my computer via an ethernet cable. “
There’s your problem. Your ethernet is probably too slow. USB 3.0 is about 640MBps while 1 gigabit ethernet is about 125MBps (theoretical). That’s without any other traffic on your LAN. You really need to move to locally attached USB 3.0 drives. You’ll see a big improvement in performance. I wouldn’t attempt editing video over a LAN unless I had a dedicated fibre channel connection.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
Yea, I believe that method never tries to get the CC burned back into the video by Vegas Pro. That’s where it will most likely fail. If you don’t need to embed the captions, an external caption file will probably work with some other system that supports it.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
If your project file gets corrupt (not the program) that is a nightmare scenario. You might want to save external copies at different stages that you can go back to. Maybe even save a timestamped copy at the end of each day so that worse case, you would only loose a days work if the project file got corrupt.
If the program itself gets corrupt I would just reinstall it. If that doesn’t work you have bigger problems with your computer.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
Does your computer have a built-in mic?
It could be something as simple as Vegas Pro not using your external mic. The situation you are describing sounds like too much room tone which is prominent in recordings where the mic is not close enough to the source. If you are close to the mic and you’re sounding like you are far away, then you must be far away which implies that you are not recording from the mic in front of you but rather from the computer’s built-in mic.
Make sure that Vegas Pro is recording from the mic you think it is (you set this up in the Track header). Lightly tap the mic with your finger with the track armed for recording. You should see the meter register the tap. If it doesn’t then you might be recording from an alternate source (i.e., perhaps a built-in mic?)
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
[Jeff David] “Many of the clips are on an external, 5 Terabyte drive that has 1.79 tb of space used. “
How is that drive connected to your computer? USB 2? USB 3? eSATA? Firewire? Thunderbolt? The connection will make a big difference in performance.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
[Marlton Memer] “Is there any way to just move things around by clicking on the things themself in the preview?”
Nope. Vegas Pro is behind the times in this regard. I would use Track Motion to position inset video or images. This requires that you place them on a separate track because everything on that track will appear in the same size and place. The good news is that making a clip show up in the corner will only require that you move it to the track that has Track Motion applied.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com -
[Martin Phillips] “My question is for the best results what project and render settings should I use? The final project will go to Vimeo and possibly bluray.”
You will want progressive video for Vimeo and interlaced video for Blu-Ray. I would render 1080-25p for Vimeo and 1080-50i for Blue-Ray. You could actually use the 1080-25p on Blu-Ray as well (it will interface for you) so if you only want to render one format, I would go with 1080-25p.
~jr
http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com