VIDEO TUTORIALS! What do you want to see? (New videos posted)

[Tensei]

I'm pretty sure it'll come down to just mixing softly, compressing gently, then maximizing the fuck out of it. But we'll see. :]

[zircon]

No, that's not it at all. .. . ... ...

Anyway, finished the first video, a walkthrough of Monstrous Turtles. It took me basically the entire day to figure out how to capture and encode it properly, and I'm still not really sure I did it right, but the content is all there, I think. Works best in VLC Media Player, in my experience - WMP will play it too, but for some reason, you can't really skip around if you play it there. Quicktime just crashes when I try playing it back on my computer.

I'll post a link as soon as it's done uploading.

[Lunahorum]

you mean like 0:48 of this gem?

HAHAHAH I LAUGHED SO HARD. THAT WAS BRILLIANT.

[zircon]

http://zirconstudios.com/video/zircon%20-%20Monstrous%20Turtles%20Walkthrough.avi

Here it is! 220mb, fairly high resolution (though fairly low quality, due to length and trying to keep the size down.)

I'm new to this, so cut me a bit of slack... any tips for capturing/encoding appreciated. Just to reiterate what I said in my last post, this plays back best for me in VLC Media Player, but you may also want to try Windows Media Player and Quicktime. I don't recommend seeking around too much. Also, I used the x264 codec to encode it, so you might need to download that (or h.264, I think that's the same thing) if it won't play.

[Lunahorum]

holy cow 220mb. How long is it?

Maybe you should use Divx or something that will make it small and use a high audio bitrate along with it. I think it is called Divx. Divx is the one that is good for compressing videos where a lot of the movie frames are similiar I think (eg tutorials). Maybe it was called Xvid. I can't remember.

[zircon]

It's something like 1360x880 resolution and 21 minutes long. I couldn't compress it much more without making text unreadable.

[Lunahorum]

It finished. Wow!! I love you Zircon. So nice of you to do this.

edit: Can't open it

[Bahamut]

Well this sucks - I tried to open it on VLC and it ran incredibly slow, and I can't find a codec for Quicktime.

One more reason for me to be happy that I'll be back on Windows in 9 days.

Edit: I found something that gives the h.294 codec, notably Perian, but I get no video. Ugh.

[Lunahorum]

Ok now the audio works fine, but the video doesn't play. I just see stills.

edit: which I guess is fine. Thanks for the vid. Most helpful.

[The Pezman]

To everyone running Windows or capable of virtualizing into it, check this out. Has codecs to handle any type or quality of video.

This was good stuff, Zirc. I'm hoping the next time around you can go more technical and actually teach us how to put the thing together and make it sound good.

[Torzelan]

Sweet man! Can't wait to get home and watch this. It's so much easier for me to learn by watching than by reading (obviously both followed by trying myself). Appreciate you taking the time!!

Obviously don't know what's in there but since it was asked; yeah I'd like to see what exactly it is you do to make everything sound so loud and clear. Been working hard on getting my stuff clearer and constantly making huge progress, but your stuff is just at another level... These frequencies and panning and and and, bah.

[Nutritious]

Hey Zirc, can you share what program/techniques you're using to screencapture?

[zircon]

CamStudio is being used to capture the video and do the first encode. I used Virtualdub to fix the capture after CamStudio messed it up (I think the video was too long for it, or something) and then encode again, using the x.264 compressor. I recorded my mic into FL, and the mic channel plus the master out were both sent through Voxengo Recorders (free VST effect) which sent the audio output to a Virtual Audio Cable. The Virtual Audio Cable device was then recorded by CamStudio in sync with everything else.

[AMT]

how is remmix formed

how judge say yes

instruction for a the remicks

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

nice.

While you didn't really "teach" anything specifically, seeing what your thoughts were in terms of the structure of a remix was enlightening and helps with the "remixes can be a lot trickier than original songs" problem that comes up sometimes. next time you can focus on covering a particular issue in more detail.

again, thanks for taking the time to do this.

[MaCe]

Good video,give me more!

[Yoozer]

This is why FL would drive me absolutely nuts - the shitload of screens . Very impressive!

Maybe - before any webservers get absolutely raped - put this stuff in a torrent?

[zircon]

I'm glad you guys are liking it. Again sorry about some of the video problems, I'll try encoding it differently for the next one. I honestly could talk for hours about technical stuff, and the first time I was recording I spent about 10 minutes just talking about the synths/samples in the first 60 seconds of the track. If there are specific things people want me to talk about, I'd be happy to go into 'em.

[Vivi22]

I wouldn't mind a video going in depth on some of your production techniques. I'm sure you could talk about them a lot as you say, but I think it's be useful for guys like me who are still pretty new to the production end, and maybe even for people who aren't since everyone has their own way of doing things.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

I know I said short and sweet clips would probably be easier, but if in doubt you can feel safe erring on the side of talking more, rather than talking less. Granted, it increases filesizes, but I personally don't mind sitting through it at all, if it teaches me something, or even inspires me in any way.

[zircon]

Ok, so do you guys want me to take another look at Monstrous Turtles and maybe break down the specific sounds I used? I could do a couple shorter videos on the topic. Alternatively, I could use another one of my mixes (though it would have to be somewhat recent for me to have the project file.) I'm all ears.

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

specific sounds, i like, i like. everyone loves synth programming/drum processing tidbits...

especially if you used anything like PWM, ringmod, even FM since i'm interested in delving into those techniques at some point.

[The Pezman]

Ok, so do you guys want me to take another look at Monstrous Turtles and maybe break down the specific sounds I used? I could do a couple shorter videos on the topic. Alternatively, I could use another one of my mixes (though it would have to be somewhat recent for me to have the project file.) I'm all ears.

The things I mentioned (things the judges look for) would be a good start.

If you're not sure how to do that, take a look at your oldest stuff. You can listen to it for five seconds and know you've improved immensely. But exactly what improved, and how? What did you learn to do, and how did you know when your final product was sounding the way you meant it to?

[DDRKirby(ISQ)]

great idea! and seconded.

[Undefined]

I think it was a good idea to cover the basic outline of the mix before going in depth with the individual tracks. I have had trouble getting started with any actual arrangement of my mixes, but this might just alevate that.

Otherwise, I'll eccho what the others and say about production techniques and common mixing issues. "How and why" you did it, basically.