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Old 07-17-2014, 12:37 PM   #1
NecroPolo
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Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: Land of confusion
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Default Playthrough video recorded with Zoom Q2HD, edited with Reaper

I started a short test project a couple of days ago where I wanted to test the capabilities of my recent loot, a Zoom Q2HD recorder as well as the video editing capabilities of my fav DAW. I heard some urban myths that said it can do some decent work on video too but I haven't tried it yet. I installed the FFMPEG library that Fran Guidry of Homebrewed Music blog suggested (kudos man) and hit the start button. I did not want to burn much time on mistakes and takes in general so I picked a rather simple yet aggressive track from our recent "Bleep and Destroy" chip rock album, shot 4 straight playthroughs from different camera positions, got them into synch with the simultaneously recorded audio tracks and started editing in 20 minutes. From recording the very first take to exporting the final cut required 3 hours and I'm total green for video (...okay okay I admit that I'm fast with Reaper audio ). There is no filtering / colour correction on the export and it is the raw 720p file that left Reaper, no post production. I wanted to see what this setup can do by itself.

Here you go:



These are the audio tracks that I recorded along with the separate video takes. Accidentally I locked all project tracks and cut it around 2 minutes but don't be fooled, these are solid one-takes. The last 2 tracks were recorded only to drive the VU meter of the TLAudio compressor / preamp that I used only in a couple of frames finally.



32 - what? - video tracks are here. Active takes enabled, all others are muted, just like they were audio tracks. Reaper displays the audio part of the video and it is very useful for synching. The upper 6 tracks are the total synch tracks, the rest are cutscenes and other stuff. I used this matrix method because this way you just take a single look on the track header and you always know the relation of the active video track to the rest. If you compile all the videos to one track (as the majority of simple video editor proggies do), later changes may be a little complicated.



Here are the playthrough synch tracks with the master audio file. I used the click track for synch, started the song with 4 clicks before that was recorded by the Q2HD then matched the tracks.




As for a final verdict, I can make a statement that Reaper is absolutely capable of editing a video. Well, unless you can't live with the fact that it is restricted for frame correct editing and sample correct syncing with separately recorded audio only. There are no fancy effects, colour correction and bells & whistles that all video editors advertise themselves with. But if you think about it, what else do you really need than frame correct editing and synchron with separate audio tracks at the end of the day?

In my opinion Reaper was immensely more effective and precise than all of the affordable or free video editors around I've tried. On the consumer level you have to score a full version of Vegas or Premiere Pro to get a comfortable flexible unrestricted workflow but these proggies are not cheap. With the footnote that Reaper's super flexible editing workflow is second to none. Okay it's subjective, everyone tastes puss different way but to me Reaper put ProTools hell into the coffin for a reason.

The only issue was occassional video playback frame drops. My machine is fine tuned for audio production so it's capable of making an album from zero to master in-da-box but it doesn't have any decent video supporting hardware just a normal video card. So playback for editing occassionally dropped frames, in dense cut parts it was like flying blind but frame grid and accurate audio peak files helped me a lot so finally the exported video was as intended. I guess, with a special video editing card or a faster machine Reaper would be pretty much capable of making precise jobs e.g. voice overdub for film. As usual, it was stabile even when the performance meter reported constant 95%+ processor use near to the RAM limit. I started adding random plug-ins and imported dummy tracks to reach the top but apart from the usual nice warning of running out of system resources there was no problem. It was a start / stop project without interruption.

As for a hi-def mid-side audio recorder with high resolution video recording capabilities, the Q2HD did quite a decent job I think. Of course it's as distant from a Panasonic movie-grade cam or a good DSLR as it can be but if you keep an eye on lights it performs much better than any classy trendy mobile phone that advertises itself with high-def video capabilities. Besides, its minimalistic OS never freezes. No apps.

Last edited by NecroPolo; 07-17-2014 at 07:37 PM.
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