One-Man Acapella Patriotic Hymm multitrack video with pipe organ accompaniment

Sounds best with headphones or audio turned up on good speakers.

This is my first-ever audio recording, first-ever use of multitrack software and first-ever mix-down and render project.

This is the most complex of a series of three videos I did today to teach myself how multitrack videos work in Sony Vegas Pro and Mixcraft 5, which is the windows version of Mac's garageband. I think I like this one best. Now all I have to do is learn to sing right!!!

I've been intrigued by barbershop multitrack tags and by the steady flow of technology as it pertains to music. I took voice lessons last summer and decided that the human voice is an instrument just like a piano , but much more portable.

I downloaded the trial versions of Mixcraft 5, which is a Windows program that is a lot like Mac's Garageband, and Sony Vegas Pro Movie Studio HD, which is something like Final Cut. I'd never used a video or music editing software in my life, so I scoured google last week looking for tips and finally figured out how to do the multi-track part.

I have an old organ (in the video), so I used the metronome through the headphones, found a simple hymm and sang each part 2 or 3 times (it shows!). I then put my laptop on the organ's music rack (also in the video) and recorded each of the four harmony parts with my webcam. I used those four tracks to make four movies in Windows Movie Maker. I was ticked to find that you could hear the metronome beat in the headphones so I recorded an organ track one voice at a time on the organ's sequencer (built-in) and then recorded THAT track with a digital camera.

I then pasted the four vocal audio tracks and video tracks into the Sony Vegas trial and figured out how to split the screen four ways. I nudged and tugged and hand-tweaked each audio and video track until the voices matched "enough." I added a tiny bit of pan (left and right stereo effect) to two voices. I had no idea if there was a "snap" or "quantize function. I wanted to add the organ track, but the trial version only allows four video tracks and four audio tracks, so I saved the file as a Windows Movie Video (.wmv) (aka "rendering in sony vegas-speak), and then pasted THAT file into Mixcraft 5's lone video track. I then added a new audio track for the organ.

A little more nudging and tweaking later, I managed to get the organ track to match the vocal track. I used mixcraft's really EASY effects and mixer to add some reverb, tweak the sound levels and fade portions of the organ track in and out.

So the net result is what happens when you cut and paste and morph and mix and blend and tweak software trial versions.

I've never ever in my life sung into a microphone, nor have I ever in my life used this kind of software except for some playing around on Garagebank on a mac a few years ago. I had enough fun on garageband that it stuck in my head, so this is a great way to get a similar effect on a PC.

Enjoy!!!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Barbershop
• harmony
• amateur
• tags
• acapella
• Roland
• Atelier
• organ
• AT90R
• AT90S
• AT900
• My
• Country
• Tis
• of
• Thee
• Patriotic
• beginner
• multitrack
• acapela
• patriotic
• quartet
• Sony
• Vegas
• Pro
• Movie
• Studio
• HD
• Mixcraft

[Adamantinia]

nicely done!

quick question, how did you put these four videos together? which program did you use?

thanks in advance

[IUSB99]

@Adamantinia if you toggle the pull-down menu on my description above, there is a detailed story of how I did it. Hope that helps! If not, write back!

[AIRx77]

How did you record this song? It sounds cluttered but ok. Umm...maybe a multitracker would do the job better? Just curious (i' use it)

[IUSB99]

@AIRx77 I recorded each vocal track with a video camera on a tripod while I used a metronome on the organ to make sure I was on beat. I converted the mpeg4 to a wav file and then pasted everything into sony vegas pro and aligned the tracks to make sure they matched. I then pasted the organ track in and then went over to garage band with the whole thing and added a touch of reverb. It was a fun first project.

[Gatakumo]

I have a question. I want to make acapella video like this in movie maker 5.1, how do you get multiple videos on screen at once?

[IUSB99]

@Gatakumo i used sony vegas pro trial version. details are in the descriptin above.

[simulation17]

so beautiful

[IUSB99]

@silverstartrucker thanks! It was a fun first project. I am trying someting more ambitious the second time -- 4 vocal video tracks, a video piano track and a video pipe organ track. We'll see how it goes.

[silverstartrucker]

Very inventive...it would have sounded better with added bass, but well done.

[CunninghamPiano]

Neat technology!