Newbie With a Question About Recording

[Muroc1945]

I'm interested in making simple videos of myself playing guitar with backing tracks. I downloaded OBS because I believe it will let me record audio and video simultaneously; is this correct? I plan to mix the guitar and backing track with my Mackie ProFX6v3 mixer, then running that mix via USB to my computer where it will be recorded in OSB along with the video feed from my webcam. I can then take that video/audio file into Reaper where I'll add whatever effects (EQ/reverb/compression) that I want to the audio file, then output the finished product. I'm doing this to avoid an extra step of synching audio and video from separate sources.
Does this sound like the correct way to accomplish my goals? I've got a lot of audio experience but am absolute beginner with video.

 

[AaronD]

I downloaded OBS because I believe it will let me record audio and video simultaneously; is this correct?

Yes.

I plan to mix the guitar and backing track with my Mackie ProFX6v3 mixer, then running that mix via USB to my computer where it will be recorded in OSB along with the video feed from my webcam.

Good! OBS's audio sounds fine as a passthrough, but the processing is hard to use and quickly becomes a mess. Much better to do all of the audio work in something else.

I can then take that video/audio file into Reaper where I'll add whatever effects (EQ/reverb/compression) that I want to the audio file, then output the finished product. I'm doing this to avoid an extra step of synching audio and video from separate sources.

For a long time, movies were shot on silent film and blind tape recorders, completely separate from each other. The iconic clapboard, with its written notes and audible announcement of the same notes, and then the clap, was critical to finding and re-aligning everything in post. A lot of YouTubers just use a hand-clap now...and do it slightly wrong because they're slightly misaligned to the camera so it can't see the exact moment that their hands touch.

Anyway, I think what you want to do here, is record multitrack raw - don't mix or process anything yet - separately from the video because it's easier to do that. And put the camera's built-in audio in the raw video file just as a "scratch track" to align the real one later. Produce the real soundtrack from the raw multitrack recording, as a pure-audio project, export it, and then load it into a video editor (not OBS) alongside the original video. Align with the scratch track from the camera, mute the camera, and finally export the finished video.

If you have a bunch of separate physical sound cards, or a multi-channel interface that you can set OBS (Settings -> Audio) to the *exact* channel count *that it reports to the computer* (not necessarily the number of physical inputs), then you can record multitrack in OBS and not have to worry so much about losing sync and getting it back.
Still do the audio work as a pure-audio project, extracted from the video file in this case, and audio-swap at the end. (take the picture only, from the original video file, and the soundtrack from the DAW export)

I'm interested in making simple videos of myself playing guitar with backing tracks...

Thanks for the earworm...I guess. :-)

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

www.youtube.com

 

[Muroc1945]

If I save an Mp4 file (video/audio) in OBS, I can open it in Reaper (DAW) which also accepts video files. I can then edit the audio as I wish, then save and render as whatever file type I wish. I don't plan on editing the video - no way to improve on my looks anyway.
I'm old - I remember when Mason Williams played 'Classical Gas' on the old Smothers Bros show back in the 60s - learned it right away and haven't played it in 40 years - need to relearn it, I guess.

 

[AaronD]

If I save an Mp4 file (video/audio) in OBS...

That's a common trap. MP4 is meant for playback, and so it has things to make the players cheap (in every possible way). One of those things is a header that says what's coming. Of course, that header can't be finished until the recording is, so if it gets interrupted without a formal stop (crash, power loss, etc.), it ends up with a bad header. Without that header, it's nearly impossible to find anything, and so you lose the entire recording.

MKV is the exact same data (H.264 or whatever you pick there) in a different container. *This* container works more like an old-school tape machine or film reel. If something happens here, you still have everything up to that point.

And because it's the exact same data, it's fast and easy to fix up after the fact, with no loss of quality. File -> Remux...
There's even a setting to do it automatically. Settings -> Advanced

That said though, pretty much any editor or online service that's worth using, will take MKV directly, so you don't even need to do that.

 

[Muroc1945]

That's a common trap. MP4 is meant for playback, and so it has things to make the players cheap (in every possible way). One of those things is a header that says what's coming. Of course, that header can't be finished until the recording is, so if it gets interrupted without a formal stop (crash, power loss, etc.), it ends up with a bad header. Without that header, it's nearly impossible to find anything, and so you lose the entire recording.

MKV is the exact same data (H.264 or whatever you pick there) in a different container. *This* container works more like an old-school tape machine or film reel. If something happens here, you still have everything up to that point.

And because it's the exact same data, it's fast and easy to fix up after the fact, with no loss of quality. File -> Remux...
There's even a setting to do it automatically. Settings -> Advanced

That said though, pretty much any editor or online service that's worth using, will take MKV directly, so you don't even need to do that.

OK - thanks for the tip. If I save as MKV file in OBS, I should be able to open in Reaper (it will open MKV), edit my audio, render, and i'm done?

 

[AaronD]

OK - thanks for the tip. If I save as MKV file in OBS, I should be able to open in Reaper (it will open MKV), edit my audio, render, and i'm done?

In theory, yes. Of course, as my (engineer) dad says, "One test is worth a thousand expert opinions."