Seth Bloombaum
Forum Replies Created
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Unneccessary system processes would be a particular problem if media is on the same drive as your operating system and program files. Best performance is achieved with media on a separate drive, internal or external.
Rereading your original post, one frame per second rates in preview-full with a 3.xGHz processor and 1GB of RAM indicates something very wrong. (yes, defragging is still a good idea)
If optimizing per the winXP tweaks doesn’t give you near full-rate performance (you really should be getting 30fps with no filters or transitions with that system) then you may be bogging down due to viruses or worms, adware, or other junk you don’t want. Free antivirus from grisoft.com, adware remover adaware from lavasoft.de, another called spybot search & destroy from download.com. I use all three regularly. I also use the freeware version of zonealarm (zonealarm.com) and turn off internet access during capture and most editing sessions.
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You might want to switch your hyperthreaded processor to conventional single processor mode and see if that helps. This is done in the BIOS. BIOS can be a little intimidating if you’ve not worked with it before – take a thorough tour before you do anything.
Otherwise, optimizing system performance by turning off everything that isn’t important to video, disconnecting from the network, finding and resolving any driver conflicts… You’ll find lots of info on this by doing searches in the archives. There’s also a good guide to optimizing here.
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have a look – I’m on my laptop right now, and have options for RM8 and RM9 encoding. I don’t think this box has realproducer on it, so I’m thinking that Vegas shipped with codecs for RM8-9.
Looks like real has now made their encoding technology open source. Look around here for some info.
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Ditto what Edward said.
My sense is that Vegas is a very friendly environment for people who really know windows. To the extent that it can, it obeys windows application interface conventions.
Avid has its own interface conventions that have heavily influenced most other editors, including FCP.
Having said that, anyone who can learn to edit on a computer can use Vegas very successfully, it’s an incredible value, and has amazing capabilities. Those other programs are good too, especially if you’re working with other editors or facilities that have invested in them.
Do check out the trial version.
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i’ve looked around at 8 track digital recorders and it seems that something like the Tascam DP-01FX or one similar would fit my needs, and the venus i’m shooting at have good sound systems and i think they’d be able to accomodate a piece of equipment like that.
For multitrack you’re going to be totally dependent upon the house engineers at these venues – suggest you not guess but do get their advice as to what will interface with their mixers and how much they’ll be able to help during shows.
IMHO for multitrack you’re going to need some audio engineering during these shoots. If the house engineers can’t provide what you need you should hire someone for the shoots. It’s great that you have 4 cameras and 2(?) camera operators – for a music shoot you need to staff audio too. Nobody will be happy with the work if it doesn’t sound good. If you do hire someone you should go with their equipment or advice on what to rent or buy.
Sorry I can’t be more specific on the Tascam 8 track, but if I were there with you I’d be calling each of the engineers at the venues and seeing what they could do and if they were comfortable giving mic splits or direct outs or submixes or whatever, and what I’d need to bring to interface with their stuff.
If none of that seems possible you should go back to the DAT or other 2 track recorder and supplement with some house sound from the camera mics. Don’t know what’s “iffy” about DAT, it should be pretty straightforward, and quality should be fine. Trust me when I say that if 2 track recording isn’t operating right 8 track will probably be worse. Or that’s my opinion, anyway, and worth every cent you paid for it.
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…instead of camera audio, which we all know is no good.
Oh, you have cameras.The sound of the room from the camera mikes can be used in post to sweeten a board feed. It’s not that camera audio is neccessarily bad, it has its characteristics of mic type, mic placement, and recording quality… as would any other recording device.
So maybe you wouldn’t need a 4-track to do what I suggested, which was 2 tracks from the house board and 2 tracks from a stereo mic pair for sound of the room. You could take 2 tracks from the board and mix in a little camera mic for room presence.
…bands i shoot are 4-5 piece…would a 4 track be good, or should i go with 8?
Doing a multitrack recording you’ll probably need more than 8. For example, I recorded a “3-piece” band last week, I think I used 11 channels or so. 2 ch. voice, 1 ch. drum, 1 ch. bass, 1 ch. guitar pickup, 1 ch. guitar mic, 2 ch. stereo pair in the house, 1ch. announce mic, 1 ch. guest artist (who I didn’t know about till I got there). If you want this type of recording you’ll have to work very closely with the sound engineer, he or she would probably do the recording if they were capable and had the time and equipment.
So, that takes us back to your basic stereo recording from the board (is the house engineer mixing stereo for you?) plus house mic or mics. Nothing wrong with DAT. You could get a 2ch. or 4 ch. hard disk or flash recorder and be happy (transfers to your computer a lot faster). Marantz has 3 portable decks for stereo, M-Audio has a new tiny thing (stereo), Edirol has a 2ch. and a 4ch. Lots more, I’m sure.
what should i look for when looking at 4/8 track recorders?
If a 2 or 4 or 8 works for your purpose and is prosumer or pro it will probably meet your needs. Figure out what file formats you can work with, and how you’ll get recordings into the editor, and make sure you have the basics of a workflow before you buy.would i set the mix the same as the main soundboard, or leave it flat and do my own mix in post?
Not too sure what this means. Generally, you’d eq, compress, sweeten, mix, whatever in post.what kind of audio file do they get saved as…wav, aiff, etc.?
See above – whatever your editor will deal with. Wav is perhaps the most common recording format for flash recorders. -
Compression. Perhaps not quite as fine as what you’re doing.
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check this out.
Most people are using small-diaphram condensors for this application. You could easily spend from $200 to $3600 on a stereo pair, and in my experience, yes, you would hear the difference.
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Bands will always soundcheck lower than they’ll play later – this can lead to distortion at many different points in the chain. However, many times it isn’t heard by the audience because they’re in a big reverberant room, hearing the stage monitors as well as the mains and maybe hearing some instruments direct as well.
If you’re looking for a “set and forget” kind of setting you might try peaking at -20db during sound check. That may take care of distortion due to a hotter signal coming at the DAT later in the set.
However, that may not be enough, or may be too much, and still leaves you at the mercy of whatever the house engineer sends you (which could be distorted in several ways). There’s really no substitute for constant monitoring of what you’re getting if the product matters.
The direct from the board mix will almost always sound “flat”. You’re missing the sound of the room. This can be added in post.
You can go wild – 4 tracks would get you a stereo board mix plus a stereo pair of mics in the room, or multitrack allowing you to record each mixer input separately and mix down later.
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On the DSR-20 setup menu scroll down, select and enable “DV EE Out”.
Plus, as mentioned above, turn off DV device control in Vegas capture.