I just finished going through one of the events, Hawaii Music Works performance.  They had 4 bands (!!!) perform that day, 11 songs total.  We recorded everything through our PreSonus StudioLive 16 channel mixer; it records 16 tracks separately to our computer. I also had 2 cameras shooting video from the event.  I got all the tracks from our computer last night and uploaded the video to my computer over the past week (500 gigs of video, 2 hours worth!).

So I started with the audio, mixing everything in Cubase 5. I compressed and gated the drum tracks and got a good mix on just the kit. Then I added the bass guitar, other instruments, grouped everything, then tackled the vocals.  There were 4 bands and all the players play differently, so I had to create different mixes for each band, sometimes each song too. One of the best parts of Cubase 5 is the new Reverb effect. It just adds so much depth to the sound and makes it really sound like it’s in a room, and not directly in your face.

I’m continually surprised at how well the audio comes through that PreSonus StudioLive.  We have some issues with the drums being so close to the vocal mics, but other than that, it’s very pristine and sounds really good. And with 16 separate tracks, I can really get each part to sound its best (assuming I know what I’m doing!).

After mixing the audio, I export each song to its own WAV file (48kHz, 16 bit for video) and then dump it into Final Cut Express, where my video is waiting.  I align both cameras and sync up all the audio, then I make my 2 camera cuts.

Here’s what my computer usually looks like running all the programs:

After all this editing, I can finally render the videos. We use YouTube for our video hosting, and they allow up to 10 minute videos, so I have to decide where to chop my hour long video so it makes sense when viewing the smaller chunks.

All in all, I had about 2 hours of raw video (x2, 1 for each camera) and 2 hours of raw audio (x16 tracks!) and I had to make them all cohesive and sound good.  I’d say the audio mixing took me about 3 hours, the video editing took 2 hours, and then the proofing and exporting takes another 3-4 hours.  Rendering all that video takes a while.  I’ll be posting the resulting videos on our YouTube and linking them to this website, probably later tonight at home after they upload. I usually upload a batch overnight, since each video can take up to an hour to upload as well.

I have one more clinic to do from that day, and I have to hurry up because we have another clinic coming up on Tuesday! So I have to clear my drives and cameras to make room for the new data.

We will soon be offering this process as a service to any band who wants to make a quick album or video.  We’ll share the details of that later, but know that the service is available!  You can do video with audio, or just audio. So let us know; we have a few people here who can mix down the audio for you.

– Chris