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Which DAW and apps for my process? (multi-track instrumental videos)
I'm starting down the recording track for the first time in years. I'm not a total noob, but I haven't kept up with the state of the technology (apps) in the last 5-7 years. I play a variety of instruments and primary plan is to create split-screen instrumental videos. The rough plan is to transfer videos from my iPhone which will be recording (video) while my iPad is recording the audio. I'll need an easy way to transfer files between devices and sync things up after processing. I'm also taking recommendations for a good video editor with this specific strength.
With my new iPad, I now actually have space for Garageband and am considering it because it's free and supposedly easy to use. I've never even opened it.
I've owned Harmonicdog's Multitrack DAW for years and have only used it on my iPhone, sparingly. I mainly used it to take down song ideas when I was composing as part of a duo but then AUM came along....
I'm going to be recording acoustic instruments via microphone and electric instruments direct. I can only record two channels simultaneously and don't expect to ever need more than 5 tracks in a recording. I don't need midi for anything that I can think of except perhaps using FAC Envolver to modulate parameters of effects and amp modeling apps for a few subtle experimental sounds. I still want to find a way to incorporate AUM into the process, somehow.
Which one of the above DAWs would you keep and why? If another DAW is more suited to my process, or if there's an easier way than I've described, please comment. I'm aware of Duette and 4xCamera for video multi-tracking, but they don't seem to allow processing of the audio track. I have been unable to find a video app that does all of this or even one that can host AUv3s.
Any suggestions are appreciated.
Comments
Great post. I'm currently not aware of a video app that can handle AUv3, although rumors are that Final Cut pro on Mac can support it.
I've been doing a lot of research into DAWs on iOS and otherwise. I have pretty much all except Auria.
Recommendation: Use Garageband if you're looking for a great free DAW that is easy to understand. But if you want to get deep into AUM, Cubasis is your friend.
If you're using Garageband,
1. Save to iCloud Drive. It'll help you with a LOT of storage.
2. Music Memos is your friend. You can pretty much record a song and it'll automatically make a project for Garageband with drums and bass.
3. Also, Live Loops becomes your AUM. That's your experimentation portal.
If you decide to go with Cubasis,
1. I'd say go with Cubasis 3 if you have an iPhone to keep projects synchronized.
2. It has an LE version which is free (for 30 mins per session) if you want to try. You can unlock it with a Steinberg/Yamaha/Zoom device and even get a discount on the app directly from the LE version.
3. Supports AUM very well. It's almost like they go out for bowling every Friday night...
For videos,
Lumafusion is currently the best video editing app on iOS and iPad OS. Although, you can use iMovie as well which is free. VN Video Editor, Kinemaster, and Capcut are a few free ones I briefly looked at but I'm currently learning a LOT from Lumafusion and it handles 4K beter than a LOT of desktop apps.
@seonnthaproducer Thanks for the input! I should have mentioned that I have no need for features that involve beat making or automatic backup track creation as you described in Garage Band. I want to keep it so every instrument played is "live" and visible on video.
Free is always enticing. Why Lumafusion if iMovie is free? I've never used either of these but is it a matter of quality or ease-of-use, or both? Does 4k matter if I'm only uploading to youtube or some other social media platform?
Looking into Cubasis now....
Is it possible to hit record on an iPad DAW and have that trigger the iPhone to start recording video so I don't have to move around and hit both on every take?
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/facebook/000/000/021/relevant-to-my-interests.jpg
Seriously, I want to figure this out too.
This seems like it might work. Secret Base Design are definitely good at weird whitespace-filling apps...
MIDI camera: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/midi-camera/id1188933716
Also, Auria (Pro) supports video - I think it's an IAP; you can't edit the video but you have full DAW functionality for the soundtrack, including AUv3 support.
Take a look at Filmic Pro and Filmic Remote apps
Ok, cool. Thanks!
Ok, wow. That would save me so much time and put Auria in the front of the line. I'm assuming I can record video using my interface/mic to the native camera on my iPad, then edit the audio in Auria. Can you record direct in to an interface like the MOTU while using the native video camera? That would save the need to record the video on the iPhone while recording the audio on the iPad, eliminating the need for the "Midi Camera" app. Will be testing this out tonight.
Anyone care to comment on the downside of Auria vs Cubasis (or any other DAW), considering the process I've described?
Ok, this could work. What I can't figure out is if I can record audio on my iPad while shooting video with Filmic from my iPhone.....so the video is streamed back to the iPad and it all ends up as one without me having to sync the two manually. I know that's more than I asked for in my intro post, but the capability seems like it might be there. The new info that Auria allows editing video audio in a DAW might mean I don't need to use two devices. I could record video and audio on just my iPad.
There's a few more features in Luma Fusion. Easier to stack multiple layers, green screen detection, advanced editing tricks inbuilt. Not saying that iMovie can't do them, but there's some workarounds.
What I do whenever I'm starting something new is to start with the least expensive, easiest example, or free example. Then, if I find limitations, I'm a lot more knowledgeable and I have a better idea of what I need.
In the case of Luma Fusion, I got it because it was on sale, a one time purchase, had a lot more features that I needed, and I could edit in a way that worked for my channel.
I got LumaFusion for the same reason - was curious about it and it happened to be on sale.
I was hoping record a video with iPad or iPhone connected to Roland Go:Mixer Pro. The whole selling point of this Roland is supposedly easy simultaneous recording of video and audio at the same time. This worked fine for recording demos of my guitar and electric violin through my pedalboard.
What's missing? The darn Roland can't connect to USB hubs! That means I can't record a video of, say, my Pro-1 being played by my Keystep 37.
So am thinking of just setting up the iPhone to record the video. Record the audio separately into iPad.
Then use Airdrop or iCloud to move the iPhone video file to my computer, then use Airdrop again to move the file from computer to iPad... then use LumaFusion to sync the video and audio. I've put off learning how to do this because of laziness. I guess it's time.
4XCAMERA by Roland would do what you want. I know it integrates with the go mixer, but it also works without it.
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/4xcamera/id1244631319
My friend used acapella to do something like this too, and his video was good.
I ended up buying Auria (not the PRO version) and adding the video input IAP. $18 total, not too bad considering Auri was $50 or more a while back.
I couldn't find any online opinions or reviews on that IAP so I'll leave my thoughts here as I go along. My process has changed from my original post. I'm now using solely the iPad.
1) I mic up through my Motu M2 then use the native camera app to record a video. I can monitor my sound through AUM if I want to hear an effected signal but the camera app records the dry signal which is what I wanted (regardless, I experimented and couldn't find a way to record an effected signal from AUM to the camera app). I clap four times before recording so I can sync up with other tracks later when multi-tracking.
2) I then move the video into the Auria folder (this can be done in the native camera app).
3) I import the video into Auria.
4) I heard noise and realized the video imports as a stereo track, but one channel of that is a barely audible digital distortion. So, I pan hard towards the good stuff and move the stereo track to a new mono track. The noise is gone and the signal is stronger.
From there I've been messing with the Auria native channel strip EQ and compression. That's as far as I've gotten.
For multi-tracking, I figure I'll export the audio to AUM and have that play back in the file player while I record the next video. Auria can only import one video per project, so mixing and such is going to be difficult and may be limited to "guessing" on EQ, reverb and other effects before importing to a video editor. From there, it looks like Lumafusion can handle basic mixing, volume, panning, etc.
It's a pain in the butt, but at least Auria has eliminated the step of separating the audio and syncing it up to the video for each track of the multi-track project.
@mrufino1 Do you know if 4xCamera allows you export each project track individually? LIke a "solo" button for exporting? If so, this would be a huge help as I could just multi-track the entire piece before exporting each track to process the dry signals. The videos would all be the perfect length to simply re-import without needing to manually sync.
It does not, the export is a single video. But once you have the recording in the video, it’s easy to remix your tracks then replace the audio in the video with your mixed audio. That’s what the auria video import is for- you’re mixing sound to an already edited picture.
I don’t know if you use a computer, but davinci resolve is set up for this kind of thing and is free.
@mrufino1
UPDATE: I tried the 4xCamera app and, while it doesn't have a way to solo each track......it records each track straight to the native ios camera roll so you end up with a video for each take. This will make it easy to record a bunch of dry tracks that all start at the same place. I could then export the mixed video from 4xCamera into Auria and, in a seperate Auria project, import each track's audio so I can mix and tweak. Syncing the final audio mix to the video mix should be easy from there.
One thing I forgot to mention about the Auria Video Import feature. If you highlight a section of audio and play it in a repeating loop, the video does not loop with it. It just keeps rolling. I'm going to write support.
I have never had video synced to my DAW before so I can’t speak to whether or not that is a typical situation.
You would also record your audio in something else at the same time so you have your individual audio takes, then just have those tracks synced to your master video. Although I suppose you could strip your audio from the video and use that. I tend to just do the audio work separately because I need all of the processing for the audio- my computers aren’t very new.
Yeah, there are multiple ways to do this. If you look at my original post, I was planning on recording video and audio separately. The problem with that is the hassle of hitting record on two devices or apps at once. I improvise a lot, resulting in a lot of takes. The way I'm doing it now results in one record button on the video camera app.
I solved it by always having audio track on the video recording device. If that device doesn't have audio input, you still can use its microphone to capture the sound (I presume you use monitors). So when you have your properly recorded audio tracks and video with reference audio track ready, you can easily sync it in any video editor by audio. Most pro video editors even able to automatically analyze all audio track and sync them. Then you just mute or remove the reference audio track and you got just the properly recorded/mixed/mastered audio.
This way you even can use muticam setup and sync all video and audio tracks (assuming each camera has audio track). Here is my multicam video where I've used that technique
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Interesting idea. I will try sending audio from on my Scarlett audio interface outputs to my Go:Mixer Pro input, when I recording video using iPhone connected to Go:Mixer Pro while recording through Scarlett into iPad or iMac.
Thanks!