Good video editing and capture software?

[noTuX]

I'm looking for some good video editing and capturing software (and hopefully, easy to use).  I am looking to post my mixes up on YouTube and I want to capture myself actually playing the games while my music is playing.  Also, I want to do some actual gameplay videos, with a face cam (maybe), a mic, commentary (there's probably going to be some cursing), ect...  I have a queue of about 60 games between my PC and XB1 that I haven't even touched yet.  Most of them are old, but new to me.  And I would like to kinda share my experiences as I attempt to play them.  Especially the scary games.  The only horror game I bought was Outlast and I couldn't make it 30 mins into the game before I freaked out and stopped playing.  I might do some long plays as well.

I really want to be able to do videos like Dashie Games or CoryxKenshin.  I know that might not happen right from the jump, but I want to be able to learn the software and have those capabilities.

I tried Pinnacle Studio 20 and I actually feel like I wasted my money on it.  None of the additional transitions and effects actually worked, the program crashed all the time, and alot of features that are suppose to be standard, did not work.  It wouldn't even let me add text to the videos I was trying to make.  I got frustrated with it and tossed it.

I do use Windows Movie Maker, but I want more features and ease of use.

Any suggestions?  And please suggest software you actually use/used because I will have questions.  I am noob...

[DennalMan]

For video editing, I like Sony Vegas and similar programs... many have free trails so you can see if they suit your needs or not before purchasing.  A while ago I bought Vegas for pretty cheap (around $50 I think).  Looks like free trails and stuff are available here: http://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-movie-studio-product-comparison/  I also liked Adobe Premier when I tried its free trail back in the day - both Adobe's and Sony's are similar and are streets ahead of Windows Movie Maker in my opinion.  I think I tried Pinnacle something at some point too, I don't particularly remember how it was for me, but I'm pretty sure I liked Vegas and Premier better.

You don't need video editing software for live streaming, do you?  I don't know anything about that unfortunately.

Not sure about screen capture software either, I'll likely monitor this thread for suggestions too =p  For each program I've tried, I can't get a decent frame-rate on my laptop.  If I end up needing to record ~30 FPS video of a game at some point, I may need to do a hardware upgrade somewhere *shrug*.  For me the capture programs also slow down the game's performance, lowering the framerate so there's a bit of lag and it's harder to play :/

And if for some crazy reason you ever need to record audio or voice *without* recording video, Audacity is nice (and free).

[Chernabogue]

I second Vegas. I've been using it for years, it's solid.

[timaeus222]

I third Vegas. I've been using it since 2007 and never left it. Splendid HD, especially when paired with VirtualDub. I use Vegas to render 60 fps gameplay these days, and it easily renders HD with minimal post-render blurring that may be seen in, say, Windows Movie Maker. Lots of convenient editing features (like editable volumes on individual layers, rearrangeable separate audio/video layers, sliceable and separable clips, a hefty set of transition + video FX, per-clip panning/cropping, etc), and I personally found it intuitive when I first got it.

(It's also pretty cool that you can "oversample" the audio in Sony Vegas upon render; even the 144p on the video below sounds indistinguishable from the 720p version on YouTube.)

I like to use VirtualDub as a pre-processing software to enlarge my videos ("nearest neighbor") so that individual pixels can be seen at large resolution. EXAMPLE

[noTuX]

Thanks for the suggestions.  I was torn between Vegas and Pinnacle when I started looking.  I decided to try Pinnacle because they had video capturing software bundled in.  But I see I definitely made the wrong choice since nothing else would work properly.  I'll look for a demo version of Vegas when I get home today and give it a try.

Is Vegas pretty easy to use?  Also, does it really work well with Windows 10?

I was looking at the Adobe Premiere and Corel VideoStudio, but I don't now if they can do what I am wanting to do and I saw that CyberLink Power Director was rated pretty high.  I never heard of that one.

[noTuX]

16 hours ago, DennalMan said:

For video editing, I like Sony Vegas and similar programs... many have free trails so you can see if they suit your needs or not before purchasing.  A while ago I bought Vegas for pretty cheap (around $50 I think).  Looks like free trails and stuff are available here: http://www.vegascreativesoftware.com/us/vegas-movie-studio-product-comparison/  I also liked Adobe Premier when I tried its free trail back in the day - both Adobe's and Sony's are similar and are streets ahead of Windows Movie Maker in my opinion.  I think I tried Pinnacle something at some point too, I don't particularly remember how it was for me, but I'm pretty sure I liked Vegas and Premier better.

You don't need video editing software for live streaming, do you?  I don't know anything about that unfortunately.

Not sure about screen capture software either, I'll likely monitor this thread for suggestions too =p  For each program I've tried, I can't get a decent frame-rate on my laptop.  If I end up needing to record ~30 FPS video of a game at some point, I may need to do a hardware upgrade somewhere *shrug*.  For me the capture programs also slow down the game's performance, lowering the framerate so there's a bit of lag and it's harder to play :/

And if for some crazy reason you ever need to record audio or voice *without* recording video, Audacity is nice (and free).

I wont be doing live streaming until I get more comfortable being on camera.  And more than likely, my wife and daughter will interrupt me, so I will need to be able to edit the videos before uploading.

I use Audacity from time to time.  It is pretty good for a free program.  I used to love Sony SoundForge but was a super old version and it stopped working correctly when after I updated to Windows 8.  I haven't been able to get it to work since.

[timaeus222]

1 hour ago, noTuX said:

Is Vegas pretty easy to use?  Also, does it really work well with Windows 10?

I was looking at the Adobe Premiere and Corel VideoStudio, but I don't now if they can do what I am wanting to do and I saw that CyberLink Power Director was rated pretty high.  I never heard of that one.

Well, I've used Vegas with Windows 7 and 10, so yes! I find Vegas pretty straightforward to use, but if you have any questions about it, you can feel free to ask me. @José the Bronx Rican also knows it pretty well.

[Nutritious]

I don't do a ton of editing, but have always used and liked Adobe Premiere.  I bought the Elements version of it and it's done everything I've needed thus far.

As far as screen capture, there are quite a few options out there these days.  If you haven't yet, check out OBS (open broadcaster software).  It's free, can do both streaming and capturing to file and is highly customizable.  You can set it to record a specific window, put in overlays, record audio from mic, and record webcam footage.

[José the Bronx Rican]

My ignorant ass is late, but I do wanna remark, as I'm about to work on materials for Pixel Noir, and I found out a couple things relevant here.

First, I only recently found out that Vegas Pro was bought by Magix. I don't dig the uncertainty that comes with new ownership, especially since a corp. like Sony was almost uniquely resourced for tight integration between their products. So far tho these new guys seem keen to keep things high-quality. Their first word was "stable"... very promising, as ver. 11 was infamously unlike it. I'm still on ver. 12, which is more than fine, but I want to see how much things have changed before committing to upgrades.

One of Vegas' main hooks is the ease in building impressive visuals, due to non-linear editing, compositing and project nesting capabilities that made it a decent alternative before After Effects became something resembling affordable. Some of the things I see in Dashie's Mario Maker videos make it obvious he's using Vegas as well. Another Vegas hook is audio layering and processing, second to none for a long time: it's practically a DAW without the MIDI note input.

timaeus, like myself, found out on his own how useful VirtualDub is along with the Vegas workflow. Most footage we amateurs get is likely less than ideal, so most of the work is basically "cleaning up the crap", that is, artifacts, unwanted blurring, low resolution, etc. Vegas can handle most of it, but more effective tools are found in VirtualDub; even better if AviSynth is used in tandem, which is also free, but requires some occasionally deep scripting knowledge. Too much to get into here, but some anime sharing communities make a convenient resource for learning. I will say here that whatever software is used, keep in mind all the things these tools may do to "improve" quality and productivity may actually hurt the final result. "Nearest-neighbor" is what I do as well to enlarge older game footage, and "disable resample" within a Vegas video event will work wonders in keeping video output clean, just to name two examples.

From what I've seen, those who want to avoid trying out anything and everything would probably not go wrong with Adobe or Vegas, if not the "full", then whatever they consider "cut-down". My experience is much like most folks': I find something that works well, I stick with it. On that note, for capturing gameplay, CamStudio has been good, but recently needed resources freed and 16-bit color from the game itself in order to capture smoothly, so I had to switch for my current project requiring game footage... not to mention, it seems to be a malware trap nowadays. Free options seem to be few, but I like LoiLo Game Recorder so far. Smooth, with no noticeable dropped frames, even at HD. Cons so far are: few resolution options; no way I can see to record without audio if I wished; it captures in MotionJPEG, and the inherent artifacts are juuust above tolerable, even at its highest-quality setting, but then that's exactly the kind of cleanup I mentioned earlier.

[noTuX]

On 11/29/2016 at 9:41 PM, José the Bronx Rican said:

My ignorant ass is late, but I do wanna remark, as I'm about to work on materials for Pixel Noir, and I found out a couple things relevant here.

First, I only recently found out that Vegas Pro was bought by Magix. I don't dig the uncertainty that comes with new ownership, especially since a corp. like Sony was almost uniquely resourced for tight integration between their products. So far tho these new guys seem keen to keep things high-quality. Their first word was "stable"... very promising, as ver. 11 was infamously unlike it. I'm still on ver. 12, which is more than fine, but I want to see how much things have changed before committing to upgrades.

One of Vegas' main hooks is the ease in building impressive visuals, due to non-linear editing, compositing and project nesting capabilities that made it a decent alternative before After Effects became something resembling affordable. Some of the things I see in Dashie's Mario Maker videos make it obvious he's using Vegas as well. Another Vegas hook is audio layering and processing, second to none for a long time: it's practically a DAW without the MIDI note input.

timaeus, like myself, found out on his own how useful VirtualDub is along with the Vegas workflow. Most footage we amateurs get is likely less than ideal, so most of the work is basically "cleaning up the crap", that is, artifacts, unwanted blurring, low resolution, etc. Vegas can handle most of it, but more effective tools are found in VirtualDub; even better if AviSynth is used in tandem, which is also free, but requires some occasionally deep scripting knowledge. Too much to get into here, but some anime sharing communities make a convenient resource for learning. I will say here that whatever software is used, keep in mind all the things these tools may do to "improve" quality and productivity may actually hurt the final result. "Nearest-neighbor" is what I do as well to enlarge older game footage, and "disable resample" within a Vegas video event will work wonders in keeping video output clean, just to name two examples.

From what I've seen, those who want to avoid trying out anything and everything would probably not go wrong with Adobe or Vegas, if not the "full", then whatever they consider "cut-down". My experience is much like most folks': I find something that works well, I stick with it. On that note, for capturing gameplay, CamStudio has been good, but recently needed resources freed and 16-bit color from the game itself in order to capture smoothly, so I had to switch for my current project requiring game footage... not to mention, it seems to be a malware trap nowadays. Free options seem to be few, but I like LoiLo Game Recorder so far. Smooth, with no noticeable dropped frames, even at HD. Cons so far are: few resolution options; no way I can see to record without audio if I wished; it captures in MotionJPEG, and the inherent artifacts are juuust above tolerable, even at its highest-quality setting, but then that's exactly the kind of cleanup I mentioned earlier.

I'm mad late with the reply as well, lol. I appreciate the feedback on this man.

I got caught up with moving and the whole "new home owner" thing, so I put this on the backburner for a minute. But I'm still thinking about getting Vegas. Adobe seems kinda expensive for a beginner like me, but I might look into it later. If you don't mind, I might bug you a little bit once I grab Vegas. I know you have the skills.

[noTuX]

Bump + Shameless plug

I finally settled on some video editing software that I like.  Vegas Movie Studio.  I guess it's either a lower level version of the Vegas software, or I managed to catch it on sale, but I only paid $80 for it.  But it has the all of tools that I need and I enjoy experimenting with it.  My only thing is, I'm trying to make sure everything looks and sounds somewhat decent, since I don't have alot of fancy hardware.  My camera is pretty basic HD720p with a build in mic.  I think I will use the mic on my headset though since it picks up less noise when I'm typing or using a controller.  Eventually, I will upgrade my camera and get an real mic, but I'm not sure what to go with yet.  Any advice about Blue Yeti mics?

AMD actually released a decent capturing software called ReLive and it was free, so I can dig that.

 

I will like to take an opportunity to mention my YouTube channel though.  I didn't want to make a whole new thread about it, but I do humbly ask, for subscribers.

I am doing some game play vids.  Mostly older games that I haven't had a chance to play.  I will be catching up, but I want to get the old stuff knocked out first.  I have a habit of buying alot of games when I catch them on a Steam sale, and not playing them.

I also have a few remixes posted.  I have around 40 that I will eventually post, and I'll post more as I finish them, but I do want to get them out there at least. The judges are shooting me down around here!  LMAO!!!!! Its all good though.

I will also do product reviews.  I'm focusing more on black owned businesses mainly to boost awareness of new products and services.  These businesses invest back into their surrounding communities, so I want to, at least, get the word out. 

Please check me out and give me feedback on the audio/video quality.  As always, I'm trying to improve.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtdmssWQyGglp_lfat2xhHQ

[timaeus222]

Yeah, that's definitely Vegas.

Thanks to @José the Bronx Rican for teaching me this a while back---60 FPS is definitely doable in Vegas, as long as your source files are 60 FPS or above, and youtube does support 60 FPS for HD videos.

To do that, look above your preview window for a rounded square with a cursor icon in it, and click that to open Project Properties. That allows you to set up things like the video dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate. So, if you set your framerate to be 59.940, and choose Deinterlace method: None, it'll turn out to be around 60 FPS after rendering. Be sure to right-click your video clips and check under Properties to see if the frame rate in the Media tab makes sense (for instance, 59.662 FPS makes sense). For more smoothness, right-click the video clip and go to Switches > Disable resample.

-----

As for your Outlast video, your microphone is pretty quiet. The video quality seems pretty good to me. But I think the 60 FPS is pretty important for gameplay footage like this that (probably) supports it.

[noTuX]

2 hours ago, timaeus222 said:

Yeah, that's definitely Vegas.

Thanks to @José the Bronx Rican for teaching me this a while back---60 FPS is definitely doable in Vegas, as long as your source files are 60 FPS or above, and youtube does support 60 FPS for HD videos.

To do that, look above your preview window for a rounded square with a cursor icon in it, and click that to open Project Properties. That allows you to set up things like the video dimensions, pixel aspect ratio, and frame rate. So, if you set your framerate to be 59.940, and choose Deinterlace method: None, it'll turn out to be around 60 FPS after rendering. Be sure to right-click your video clips and check under Properties to see if the frame rate in the Media tab makes sense (for instance, 59.662 FPS makes sense). For more smoothness, right-click the video clip and go to Switches > Disable resample.

-----

As for your Outlast video, your microphone is pretty quiet. The video quality seems pretty good to me. But I think the 60 FPS is pretty important for gameplay footage like this that (probably) supports it.

I saw a tutorial that mentioned adjusting the FPS, but I wasn't sure if I should mess with it or not because my face cam can only record at 30 FPS.  I think my screen capturing software can do 60 FPS, but I don't know how to check it yet.  Since I had two streams of video that I had to sync up before I render it, I was kinda scared to mess with those settings.  Will the final video render at 60 FPS even though my face cam only recorded at 30, or should I be looking at a better camera?

I will turn the mic up a little on the next one.  I wasn't sure how to balance my mic and the sound coming from the game.  Thank you @timaeus222.  I'll experiment with these things and probably do a quick  gameplay to see how it comes together.

Any advice @José the Bronx Rican?

[timaeus222]

You can always try it, and upload a private video to see how the facecam and gameplay sync up.

[noTuX]

On 05/12/2017 at 2:11 PM, timaeus222 said:

You can always try it, and upload a private video to see how the facecam and gameplay sync up.

Well, I gave it a shot with my part 2 game play. The face cam audio/video was slightly out of sync, but I was able to fix it and render them at 60 fps. My mic volume ended up being a little low again. I'm still trying to get that part straight. I keep having to mess with the EQ on the mic because it takes a lot of the bass out of my voice. LOL.   I might need to upgrade the camera and get a stand alone mic. 

Does anyone have recommendations for a decent camera and mic?

[José the Bronx Rican]

Late again, what's good?

Your gameplays seem fine, no glaring issues. No worries if the face cam rate doesn't match game rate: if you followed the resample advice, you won't have any blurring between frames, and things won't look noticeably jaggy as long as any source is at least around 30fps. Cams are tricky, though: some may say they record at 30, but actually record at 15 and then just double the frames... not cool.

One thing about your face camming that I've noticed is the wide variation in color and lighting in each vid, which is natural considering you're recording indoors from, I suppose, a living room or bedroom, but they could use more quality and consistency. Proper lighting wherever you can, and/or good color correction wherever you can't, will work wonders, but that's outside the scope of the advice I can offer right now; I can't claim to be an expert on it at any rate, but know that Vegas has many great tools for color correction, including Color Corrector and White Balance. I'm sure there are good tutorials out there for it; maybe I can link something later.

[noTuX]

19 minutes ago, José the Bronx Rican said:

Late again, what's good?

Your gameplays seem fine, no glaring issues. No worries if the face cam rate doesn't match game rate: if you followed the resample advice, you won't have any blurring between frames, and things won't look noticeably jaggy as long as any source is at least around 30fps. Cams are tricky, though: some may say they record at 30, but actually record at 15 and then just double the frames... not cool.

One thing about your face camming that I've noticed is the wide variation in color and lighting in each vid, which is natural considering you're recording indoors from, I suppose, a living room or bedroom, but they could use more quality and consistency. Proper lighting wherever you can, and/or good color correction wherever you can't, will work wonders, but that's outside the scope of the advice I can offer right now; I can't claim to be an expert on it at any rate, but know that Vegas has many great tools for color correction, including Color Corrector and White Balance. I'm sure there are good tutorials out there for it; maybe I can link something later.

Thanks man!  I have a  LED lamp that I am using for lighting.  I didn't realize it when I got it, but it is a super bright white.  As dumb as it sounds, I've been taping some paper over it like a rigged up light filter.  I tried yellow paper first and now I'm using white.  Plus, I had it in different positions around my desk, trying to figure out where is the best place to put it without blinding myself.  I think I finally found a decent spot for it now.  I found a few random ones scattered around the net, but nothing that really explains all of the features and how to use them.  Everything is trial and error at the moment.  If you do find something, let me know.

[InfernoZN]

I would actually recommend Adobe Creative Cloud especially if you're a student since they do a discount, it's about $22 a month and they offer basically all of their programs, so you could dabble in other programs as well if need be. 

[noTuX]

46 minutes ago, InfernoZN said:

I would actually recommend Adobe Creative Cloud especially if you're a student since they do a discount, it's about $22 a month and they offer basically all of their programs, so you could dabble in other programs as well if need be. 

I was looking into that.  Adobe's software just seems a little too complicated for me at the moment, but I am planning on stepping up to their stuff once I get a better understanding of editing and, hopefully gain a decent following.  I have a long ways to go, but my goal is to grow to a point where I can monetize my YT channel, and maybe have them pay for all that good stuff.

[Daylectorbr]

Regarding Adobe it depends on which of the CS 5 suites you have. It will be in the Master Collection and Production Premium suites.
A free one to consider is DaVinci Resolve 14 - scroll down to the bottom for the link to a free download.