As Promised... However Late.

I've just barely gotten the chance to finish working on the video blog's first episode and get it ready to post!  I spent the last few hours running into Exporting OMF issues and getting the import to work properly in Sonar, but alas I did get it in!

Sonar has been giving me a nasty time of not wanting to bring in ANY video format.  My final edits got made to the episode and I wanted to move on to Audio post and mixdown, but I wanted to find a workflow that would allow me to work inside of Sonar to utilize my vast array of processing techniques and let my experience with Sonar offer a speedy session.

Working with Premier Pro has been fun and easy to learn.  I exported the OMF several times however because the settings I was using to export it didn't like to import in sonar and would give wave data errors on reading.  I found the correct method to export had to deal with encapsulating the audio in the OMF project file and that did the trick!

Now, I've been going through the various channels of audio I have to work with.  Because I originally started working to picture inside of Premier, I have a few music tracks I brought in and placed for effect.  On top of that, I have several channels made in stereo and mono to accomodate mixing the various sources.

• Location sound: Audio recorded in-camera on-location during shooting.
• VO: All the voice-over material recorded separately, whether to picture or ADR later.
• Music:  The music tracks brought into premier in stereo.

So, after creating some quick buses and routing the appropriate channels, I moved on to scouring through the various clips and correcting volume issues, simply applying a gain adjustment on each clip individually until overall they were within similar ranges.

The next step involved noise reduction processing on each clip and going through each and applying denoising.  This took a little bit of work until I got reasonable results and just copy and pasted instances of the plugin across certain clips.

I had audio recorded with an external mic on location for some of the shots, that were in the same lane as the VO work I had done with Myke here at the project tank recently, both with different noise profiles.

I then bounced these clips individually to commit the plugins to audio and gain back valuable processing resources. 

Finally, on the buses I began to apply various compression and processing tools to get the whole mix to gel.  I wasn't done yet though.  I still want to get the picture imported so I can try to add some spice to the video, sweetener effects and foley to enhance the visuals.

I went on google to research the error window that came up when I try to import any video type, and I ran into this lovely little bit of information on the cakewalk forum .  So I went and checked out the little application they linked to called GSpot  and ran the utility.

It's A handy little tool to help with troubleshooting just this sort of problem!  While the codecs on my system are installed to view the video in applications like windows media player, they are 32-bit only and since Sonar is a 64 bit install, I went back into Premier and rendered out a 2nd video in the .AVI file type.

After about 10 minutes or so I came back to Sonar and the video imported and I got to work on starting the editing and mixing.

I spent quite a bit of time honing in on getting volumes adjusted between the buses and then automation became the name of the game.  There's a certain system I established later on in the evening for 2-3 different volume levels in the underscore where I felt it appropriate to differentiate between Myke's VO and the on-location voice and audio material.

I made one final pass through the whole project for a critical listening session and final mix-down began.

With the newly rendered master stereo mix in hand, I opened up Premier again and dropped the audio back in.  I wasn't finished yet though as I still needed to do some work on cleaning up the two animation sets in After Effects I had started a while back.

The intro title shot needed a finish to the animation, so I opened it up and ran into the snag that since the update to CS5.5 it had to recreate the file to appropriate the new version of AE.

Keeping Premier still open I was able to hone in on the timing I needed to get the animation just right, however quick it was.  I still feel if I had more time and were willing to try and do more with the title shot I'd take it a whole mile further and make it just pop out, but it's time to just finish up!

I committed the final changes, saved the AE project out, deleted the old link in Premier and dropped the new version in, and re-aligned it.  Next was the 'Kinetic Typography' animation shot.

There was a few sweetener sounds I wish I could have found to go in some of the dead spots but I'll just have to remember my ideas for the next episode.  With the final touches finished I rendered out the video and headed for Youtube.

Viola, here it is for your enjoyment!

RPM Challenge day 11

Today marks the last weekday to get stuff demoed.  This week was marked with lots and lots of phone calls about potential jobs with friends and colleagues lining up for future dates, which is great and distracting at the same time!  Business is business however, and today we wrapped up Curing the Cure's final vocal takes.  This song is finally tracked.

Steven (left) and I (right) getting a good look

We had a lot of fun fooling around between and even during tracking the vocals!  Troy danced, Steven cracked jokes a lot of laughter kept the night moving quickly.

Troy getting his groove on

First things first, Setting up the mics and pulling up the track and reviewing what was needed on the final takes.  Steven was ready to go right away.

After just a couple takes of the main track we had a take we liked and reviewed the sound for the "corrupted" vocal overdubs.  I used plugins on the vocal track to test out a deeper voice manipulation effect that erred on creepy phone call status.

Troy getting a kick out of the voice manipulation effect

We goofed around for a bit while I dialed in a good setting on the effect, and got back to work on tracking the overdubs.

Just a few takes later we played more with the voice manipulation effect and reviewed the progress on the track so I could make mental notes on where to take it in editing and arrangement.  Since most of the song is done virtually aside from the industrial noises I sampled from found objects which were then processed, I'll go back over the track and start adding in various other elements to make the song sound fuller.

Discussing the final takes

After that, we took a break to go eat and Troy went to pick out some music from a retail store as research for another song we still have to write: the electronica song.

Steven's last look

We are still unsure of what we want to do for this one so afterward we wanted to go to the studio to get inspired.  However, with time constraints we ended up coming back to my place and just listening to bands like Celldweller to get inspired by the fusion of metal / techno / and industrial.

Troy at it again, dancing to Celldweller!

We really couldn't come up with ideas quickly enough, and he had to go for the night.  We discussed the songs we had left to do, and I decided to tackle the Fight song later in the evening.

The metal gods are not pleased...

I quickly got set up to record guitars and start demoing the Fight song.  Finding a good sound was hard because I didn't quite have any ideas solid in my head,  I played around for a bit to find the sound I liked and Troy commented it sounded very Metallica-inspired.  Thanks!

Schecter Hellraiser C-7 goodness

After a few ideas trolling through my fingers and out my amp, a few setting changes, and a good while, Troy finally decided to leave for the night, and I got on with tracking what I had.

I tracked the guitars and laid down a quick beat and then even laid down bass.  Most of the song was demoed, it still needs some more arrangement work but the core of the idea is there finally!

Tomorrow we are going to be super busy in the studio tracking all that we can!  Stay tuned for more!

RPM Challenge Day 4

Troy and I worked pretty hard today serparately, mostly getting our two songs down.  I spent a majority of the time working with Steven on demoing vocals for Curing The Cure.  We experimented with some effects for octavting and other effects on the vocal overdubs to get a unique sound.  I then spent time mixing it a bit to get ideas for the mixing process later on.  The song needs a bit of work in the arrangement department, but that can come later.  I wanted to focus more on getting the essence of the track down and exploring some of the nuances in the harmonies I liked.

Troy worked on getting ideas down for the Pop Punk song and got quite a good idea down!  We sat around and chatted about different musical ideas and techniques for the song, and then tried out a simpler recording technique to demo with and despite me not having a standard tuned guitar, used a cheap backup Flying V and ended up sounding pretty good to us both!  We then laid down bass to the track and I tested out a mix and already have editing and mixing ideas in mind for the track.

Plenty of funny stuff and good times here at the project studio, the Video blog project is getting stressful as we often are just shooting ourselves until we can get some help, though the help we get is much appreciated!  As for the project progress, we're making good time, and I can't wait to get to the progressive metal song!  Tomorrow is tracking day.

RPM Challenge Day 3

With 2 days down, and the weekend coming up quick, we have to get at least one or two songs ready to track.
With most of my free time spent sampling sounds from found objects to use in the Curing The Cure track with Steven's Lyrics, I had to start composing the synths and guitars and drums.  Most of the work on Troy's song Troy spent during his lunch and at home on his nights before coming up with ideas for the Indie song project of his. 

Most of the instrumentation was worked out and the basic idea for Curing the Cure has been conceived. I have the track ready to receive Steven's vocals so that I can start arranging the music, and getting it to it's final stages.

Troy and I were discussing influences for Curing the Cure and while we want the essence of what might sound industrial, listening to artists like Nine Inch Nails and clashing ideas together with the inspirational song from Linkin Park's newest album A Thousand Suns: When They Come For Me; we pretty much got the groundwork paved for the concept of what this song should be and sound like.  Many different ideas on mixing techniques and recording techniques to be employed, down to the timbre and EQ for various instruments and stem mixing as well...

Our biggest goal heading into the weekend is to get at least 1 song tracked in the studio and if we have time, start working on the next.  Troy's songs are coming together faster than mine, but mine tend to have a lot of production value put into them as the genres I cover tend to call for it.  Synth work, various guitar elements, complex drums, the arrangements themselves have more changes as well which need to be thought out.  So far, so good.  We're still on schedule and it's time to get back to work...  Check back tomorrow for Day 4's update...