A video about video in REAPER

[Fran Guidry]

When I started fooling around with video in REAPER I was knocked out. I've used FFmpeg for video conversion and spent hours poring over command line options in the process. Using REAPER as a skin for FFmpeg is a dream come true.

One of the first things I figured out about the low end video cameras I use - the audio sucks. ALC/AGC, noise, limited frequency response - music goes in sounding fine and comes out trashed. The solution is simple, just record audio on a separate system. Then comes the hard part, syncing the good audio to the video and producing the final file. When I started, Windows Movie Maker did the job. The video quality was pitiful, but at least the audio was decent.

But when cheap HD hit the scene, and YouTube upgraded their formats to support it, Windows Movie Maker (on XP) couldn't handle the new files. I invested in Premiere Elements but hated every minute of using it - talk about the anti-REAPER. I went through a collection of of free video tools and had some success with Avidemux, but the bare bones functionality and marginal stability made every project a headache.

Now with video in REAPER, making simple performance clips for YouTube is a drag and drop snap. I had so much fun playing with it that I decided to make a video about making a video, in order to demonstrate the process of parallel recording and syncing in post.

I have a blog entry http://www.homebrewedmusic.com/2010/...deo-in-reaper/ but there really isn't much there. The real meat of the demo is the video clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuZX06U51zA

And then there's a goofy little "performance" clip that resulted from the demo session: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6mNyIpJxkc

Fran

[schwa]

Nice! Homebrewed indeed.

[hopi]

very nicely done... thanks for posting it!

[minerman]

Nice tutorial Fran, I thought your username was familiar, just couldn't put my finger on it....Then I realized you've posted in the Zoom 2090 forum a while back!!! Good job on the vids, good to see ya!!!

[Kenny Gioia]

Awesome tutorial Fran.

Great voice too.

Kind of reminds me of my favorite voiceover guy. Mason adams.

Smuckers Commercial

Now if we could just get Reaper to let us edit the video, I wouldn't have to edit my Reaper Tutorials in Pro Tools.

[EvilDragon]

Originally Posted by Kenny Gioia

Now if we could just get Reaper to let us edit the video, I wouldn't have to edit my Reaper Tutorials in Pro Tools.

Just some fairly bog-standard transitions could do the trick. Fade in/outs, dissolves, wipes, splits, move-ins/outs. That sort of thing. Perhaps some picture editing stuff (hue, saturation, pallete changer, brightness, contrast, sepia, monochrome, and resize/image crop/image trim) as well. That would be even more than enough!

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Just some fairly bog-standard transitions could do the trick. Fade in/outs, dissolves, wipes, splits, move-ins/outs. That sort of thing. Perhaps some picture editing stuff (hue, saturation, pallete changer, brightness, contrast, sepia, monochrome, and resize/image crop/image trim) as well. That would be even more than enough!

That would be amazing.

Pro Tools only lets you do hard edits and nothing else.

Although I'm sure I would get carried away with the cheesy transitions.

[EvilDragon]

Oh, defineable color for fades :P So you can fade to black, or white, or gray, or blue, or red, or whatever. XD

[BobM]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Just some fairly bog-standard transitions could do the trick. Fade in/outs, dissolves, wipes, splits, move-ins/outs. That sort of thing. Perhaps some picture editing stuff (hue, saturation, pallete changer, brightness, contrast, sepia, monochrome, and resize/image crop/image trim) as well. That would be even more than enough!

+1.

BM.

[Kenny Gioia]

Perhaps a mod can split this thread.

I don't want to take away from Fran's great tutorial.

[audioguytodd]

Fran,
Good job. It is amazing to me how many people don't know about/use a clap sync.

[Justin]

Hehe right on! I did something similar a while back, but it was before REAPER could write video, so I had to use Vegas. It is so much easier and faster now! Video from my iPhone 3GS and audio from a Zoom H2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qLfTwNDEk

Of course I lacked the luxury of a clap, but not so bad.. the audio from the 3GS was worthless, so much gain.

<3 FFmpeg

[TimOBrien]

Clappers:

There is a REASON the old, old movies showed Hollywood studios running a kid out in front of the camera and clapping one of the classic arm'ed boards.... they had the same problems with sync and the editor needed some point to sync the audio with the film.

You can get a Hollywood-style clapper for $4:

http://www.amazon.com/Costume-SuperC.../dp/B000LNL0OG

...feel like a real Director....

[Fran Guidry]

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

Originally Posted by minerman

Nice tutorial Fran, I thought your username was familiar, just couldn't put my finger on it....Then I realized you've posted in the Zoom 2090 forum a while back!!! Good job on the vids, good to see ya!!!

Glad you liked it, mm, and thanks for the welcome. I still check by 2090 most days, I added an R16 to my bag of tricks along with the H2.

Originally Posted by Kenny Gioia

Awesome tutorial Fran.

Great voice too.

Kind of reminds me of my favorite voiceover guy. Mason adams.

Smuckers Commercial

Now if we could just get Reaper to let us edit the video, I wouldn't have to edit my Reaper Tutorials in Pro Tools.

Kenny, I can only be flattered by being compared to Mr. Adams. Thanks, even if there's a bit of a reach there.

You know, you can do simple cuts in Reaper - I tried real hard to do this video edit in Reaper, but I was using two different AVCHD formats plus audio and wound up blowing up the video handling. I just downloaded a later set of FFmpeg libs and I'm looking forward to trying another slightly ambitious REAPER edit.

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Just some fairly bog-standard transitions could do the trick. Fade in/outs, dissolves, wipes, splits, move-ins/outs. That sort of thing. Perhaps some picture editing stuff (hue, saturation, pallete changer, brightness, contrast, sepia, monochrome, and resize/image crop/image trim) as well. That would be even more than enough!

ED, I can see where you got your name <grin>. You know, you can do all this stuff - you just need to process the clips outside of REAPER, then mush them together with the audio when you're done. Avisynth is the tool for this job, or so I'm told. It simply requires that you learn an object oriented programming language, track down a hundred obscure plugins, and spend the rest of your life waiting for a render to complete.

Besides, real video shooters do all that stuff in the camera. The NLE is just for stitching together all those perfect shots <grin>.

Originally Posted by Kenny Gioia

That would be amazing.

Pro Tools only lets you do hard edits and nothing else.

Although I'm sure I would get carried away with the cheesy transitions.

You know, if you really want to do this stuff there's a program called Edius. In some ways I'd call it the REAPER of video. Fast, agnostic about formats, powerful, stable, and pretty reasonable in price for the Neo version.

Originally Posted by Justin

Hehe right on! I did something similar a while back, but it was before REAPER could write video, so I had to use Vegas. It is so much easier and faster now! Video from my iPhone 3GS and audio from a Zoom H2:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-qLfTwNDEk

Of course I lacked the luxury of a clap, but not so bad.. the audio from the 3GS was worthless, so much gain.

<3 FFmpeg

Man, I wouldn't want to have to sync that. At least with a closeup of a guitar in the frame I can work with the thumb hitting the bass string. Sweet stuff, though, I'm feeling downright Fillmore-ish when the bass thunders off into that modal bounce.

And speaking of Vegas, I'm obliged to always point out that Sony, owner of Vegas, introduced the rootkit to the world in an effort to enhance their own profits. Just sayin'...

Originally Posted by TimOBrien

Clappers:

There is a REASON the old, old movies showed Hollywood studios running a kid out in front of the camera and clapping one of the classic arm'ed boards.... they had the same problems with sync and the editor needed some point to sync the audio with the film.

You can get a Hollywood-style clapper for $4:

http://www.amazon.com/Costume-SuperC.../dp/B000LNL0OG

...feel like a real Director....

A slate is still standard issue on a serious shoot, and for the same reason as it was in those days. Well, actually, in those days the camera didn't have any audio capability at all. But no matter how good the mic on the camera is, it's on the camera which is almost certainly not the best place to capture the audio. Parallel recording is SOP for many reasons, and the slate is still a key part of the toolkit.

Fran

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

You know, if you really want to do this stuff there's a program called Edius. In some ways I'd call it the REAPER of video. Fast, agnostic about formats, powerful, stable, and pretty reasonable in price for the Neo version.

Fran

Yeah. That's PC only. Right?

I'm using a Mac otherwise I'd probably be using Vegas.

I do have a copy of Final Cut Express lying around but never figured out how to use that thing. Pro Tools is just easy because I can at least handle the audio side.

[Kenny Gioia]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

You know, you can do simple cuts in Reaper - I tried real hard to do this video edit in Reaper, but I was using two different AVCHD formats plus audio and wound up blowing up the video handling. I just downloaded a later set of FFmpeg libs and I'm looking forward to trying another slightly ambitious REAPER edit.

Fran

Just tried it and you're right. You can have multiple clips and cut them up. I'm excited.

I was really excited when I went to glue the video clips together but the render dialog popped up and said "ETA - Infinity". No joke.

So I had to Force Quit, first time in Reaper. I just couldn't wait that long.

[Solar]

Thanx a lot Mr Fran for this Video Tutorial in Reaper... wooow and as mentioned would be amazing if Justin and Co would think of adding some amazing simple Video Editing inside Reaper, that would make Reaper "Creme de la Creme". I'm sure we will see that pretty soon!

Thanx again!

Cheers!!

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by Kenny Gioia

Just tried it and you're right. You can have multiple clips and cut them up. I'm excited.

I was really excited when I went to glue the video clips together but the render dialog popped up and said "ETA - Infinity". No joke.

So I had to Force Quit, first time in Reaper. I just couldn't wait that long.

Yeah, playing with video is a way to explore the more experimental side of REAPER. I'm sure you don't have time or inclination to futz around, but I've managed to assemble a three minute clip from a dozen or so segments without locking things up. I don't know if it made a difference, but I went to http://ffmpeg.arrozcru.org/autobuilds/ and got the latest shared build for my FFmpeg libraries. Then I really cheated - I transcoded a clip that was giving me trouble. That is, I loaded it into REAPER and rendered it to a different format. This was an MP4 from a Sanyo camera, I converted it to an AVI using the Xvid codec. The result was about the same size and it was much more stable and seekable in REAPER.

This business of juggling formats is just part of video editing as it exists today, but if you have a workflow that doesn't require jumping through hoops you're ahead of the game.

Fran

[Kenny Gioia]

I'm definitely a rookie when it comes to video.

I use a screen capture program that outputs to quicktime and I pretty much stay in that format til the end.

I'm gonna play around with using Reaper for this simple task.

[BobM]

Hi Fran,

A very good explanation, so,

Could you suggest some some rendering settings suitable for Youtube, having a good balance between Video, Audio and file size.

Many Thanks,

Bob M.

[frankielouis]

That was GREAT. Thanks a bunch!

[Fran Guidry]

First, let me apologize for leaving out the critical info about downloading and installing the FFmpeg libraries. This led to some serious frustration at another forum. Check the CockosWiki for details: http://cockos.com/wiki/index.php/Video_Support

Originally Posted by BobM

Hi Fran,

A very good explanation, so,

Could you suggest some some rendering settings suitable for Youtube, having a good balance between Video, Audio and file size.

Many Thanks,

Bob M.

Please don't think of me as an expert, I'm just feeling my way along in the dark. Digital video is a wildly complex world that I've barely explored.

But I can tell you what I've done that worked. I don't worry about file size much, it's pretty easy to keep a 3-5 minute clip under the 1 GB limit that YouTube has set. I got my general idea of upload formats from reading at YouTube: http://www.google.com/support/youtub...&answer=132460

The H.264 codec is the latest and greatest so far, so I use that. AAC likewise for audio. In my experiments so far I've used the .MOV container (format), but FLV should work as well. I haven't figured out how to choose an MP4 container from the current interface in REAPER.

I'm shooting 720P (1280x720 @ 30 frames per second) and as suggested by the help file above, I keep those settings when I render from REAPER. That only leaves the bit rate. 6 Mbps or 6000 Kbps seems to do a pretty good job, giving me a 500 MB file for 4.5 minutes of video. The quality is excellent except for large fast movement - people walking briskly past the camera are a little ghosty.

The only way to really know what works is to create some short sample files, transcode them with a range of codecs, containers, and settings, and see what happens, but I think these settings will get you started if you're shooting 720P. YouTube is a moving target, though. They're made some substantial strides in the last few months and we'll probably see another shift as HTML5 becomes more widely supported.

Fran

[BobM]

Hi Fran,

Thanks for your post, I've been experimenting as you suggest, and have tried all the settings in the Render window, Im on a Mac and don't have as many options as on your video, am still uncertain about the "bitrate" settings. I would rather have better sound at the expense of video quality if it means keeping the file size down,

Cheers,

BM.

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by BobM

Hi Fran,

Thanks for your post, I've been experimenting as you suggest, and have tried all the settings in the Render window, Im on a Mac and don't have as many options as on your video, am still uncertain about the "bitrate" settings. I would rather have better sound at the expense of video quality if it means keeping the file size down,

Cheers,

BM.

Have you installed the FFmpeg libraries? As I understand it, you'll have QuickTime options on the Mac by default, but can expand your options with FFmpeg.

The bitrate applies to video compression, the audio compression is specified separately, so you can put the bitrate where you want it for file size vs video quality and adjust the audio codec and bit rate separately.

You can also reduce file size by reducing the display size. I use 1280 by 720 but going to a smaller size will reduce file size.

Can you explain why file size is a concern (assuming normal music video length)?

Fran

[BobM]

Originally Posted by Fran Guidry

Have you installed the FFmpeg libraries? As I understand it, you'll have QuickTime options on the Mac by default, but can expand your options with FFmpeg.

The bitrate applies to video compression, the audio compression is specified separately, so you can put the bitrate where you want it for file size vs video quality and adjust the audio codec and bit rate separately.

You can also reduce file size by reducing the display size. I use 1280 by 720 but going to a smaller size will reduce file size.

Can you explain why file size is a concern (assuming normal music video length)?

Fran

The quick time options aren't inside the Reaper render window, so I'm unsure how to integrate them.

The file size is a concern because I use a Mobile internet service, so a large upload is going to dig into my account.

I'll take a look at the FFmpeg libraries but I might just put a video up on Youtube and just see how it looks with some lower resolution settings.

Cheers, BM.

[DeyBwah]

Great video Fran!

You have a natural talent made for camera. Keep it up!

[ugh]

nice tutorial, was fun to watch

[JonnyGinese]

Hmm.. When i go to Video for th render.. i only have MKV and AVI for outputs. What am i missing here?

[JonnyGinese]

NVM.. found it...

[JonnyGinese]

So i've been messing with this for a little bit.. Maybe I'm trying to do more then was intended... But I'm trying to slice up video inside reaper. I don't care about Xfades at this point. But I have had about 8 Reaper Crashes so far. It usually happens when I'm cutting the video and moving it around. Anyone else have this problem? My videos are in MP4 and at a Res of 1280x720.

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by JonnyGinese

So i've been messing with this for a little bit.. Maybe I'm trying to do more then was intended... But I'm trying to slice up video inside reaper. I don't care about Xfades at this point. But I have had about 8 Reaper Crashes so far. It usually happens when I'm cutting the video and moving it around. Anyone else have this problem? My videos are in MP4 and at a Res of 1280x720.

I had this issue with one of the formats I tried, and I think it was an MP4 ... but video formats are a lot more complex than audio. MP4 means whatever the camera maker wanted it to mean <grin>. Some MP4s worked, some didn't.

I got around this problem by transcoding the file - using REAPER to save it in a new format. Probably MPG or AVI, sorry I don't remember the details. Once it was in the new format I was able to cut and rearrange without crashing REAPER.

Fran

[JonnyGinese]

OK.. so i tried this on my Win 7 32bit and 64 bit PC.. using the original MP4.. i did an average amount of editing..

I had 2 original video Files in MP4 from Camtasia @ 1280x720

Total of 20 minutes of video cut down to about 10 min.

Win 7 32bit 3gb ram laptop Dual-Corekept crashing in the early stages of editing.

Win 7 64bit 8gb ram Desktop Quad-Core worked fine, no crashes, all the way to end EXCEPT for the last minute or 2 of the video... I noticed my system was running slowly and realized i was using ALL 8gbs Ram... Now.. moth MP4s combined at only 300mb... Is it possible that there is a memory whole with the video editing? do you think its the format messing up Reaper? Or am I doing too much video editing on something that isn't quite ready for it?

[Fran Guidry]

Originally Posted by JonnyGinese

OK.. so i tried this on my Win 7 32bit and 64 bit PC.. using the original MP4.. i did an average amount of editing..

I had 2 original video Files in MP4 from Camtasia @ 1280x720

Total of 20 minutes of video cut down to about 10 min.

Win 7 32bit 3gb ram laptop Dual-Corekept crashing in the early stages of editing.

Win 7 64bit 8gb ram Desktop Quad-Core worked fine, no crashes, all the way to end EXCEPT for the last minute or 2 of the video... I noticed my system was running slowly and realized i was using ALL 8gbs Ram... Now.. moth MP4s combined at only 300mb... Is it possible that there is a memory whole with the video editing? do you think its the format messing up Reaper? Or am I doing too much video editing on something that isn't quite ready for it?

REAPER is still definitely on the light weight side for video editing. The video features are still marked as ALPHA if I recall correctly. If you really want to edit video you need an NLE. I love Edius Neo 2.5 but there are others available.

Fran

[JonnyGinese]

Hmm.. ok.. maybe I'll have to wait a bit till its improved.

I have Sony Vegas Movie HD 10 Plat... SO i can use that... But I wanted to try to use the same program for everything. :-).. Guess I'll stick to that for now.

[brainwreck]

Originally Posted by EvilDragon

Just some fairly bog-standard transitions could do the trick. Fade in/outs, dissolves, wipes, splits, move-ins/outs. That sort of thing. Perhaps some picture editing stuff (hue, saturation, pallete changer, brightness, contrast, sepia, monochrome, and resize/image crop/image trim) as well. That would be even more than enough!

big +1. i've made some short videos, edited in reaper, using licecap for capturing titles in my image editor. so far it's worked out great. having the ability to fade/dissolve clips would be awesome, though.

[Limestone]

I've got a group of .mp4 files I need to render in order to burn some dvd's. Can someone give me some tips on the best way to set up the render? TIA

[caotico]

Thanks for the info! I didn't know it could be done so easily in reaper.

Originally Posted by brainwreck

big +1. i've made some short videos, edited in reaper, using licecap for capturing titles in my image editor. so far it's worked out great. having the ability to fade/dissolve clips would be awesome, though.

I've mostly just worked with vegas and camtasia for screencapturing and simple video editing.

While, I could see some problems if reaper tried to be everything (well, maybe not a problem...), the audio side of things is what bothers me in other programs. Since I don't do a lot of hefty editing, having the basic video editing features in reaper would be great.

camtasia's audio editing in particular drives me crazy. At least with the default, you have to name every single take if you record a voice-over. But at least now I can do voice over in reaper instead.

[Limestone]

Can someone spot the problem with these settings? My rendered file does not have audio. Video is fine.

[airon]

Originally Posted by Limestone

Can someone spot the problem with these settings? My rendered file does not have audio. Video is fine.

Seems fine.

If you need to make a DVD, which MPEG2 suggests, use a lossless compressed AVI and feed that to a proper encoder(forum.doom9.net for info on that).

MKV container, with H264 video and MP3 audio works very well btw. That's a combo that works for me every time. Everyone with VLC can play that.

[Lawrence]

Nice tutorial! Thanks man.

I don't know about the other editing stuff though. Once you start getting into fades and wipes and transitions and color there is really no end. Then you gotta have titles and masks and other stuff and before you know it you're a video editing app.

"Reaper Video". It's a slippery slope.