vidding con't

[lierdumoa]

I had an epiphany. I realized why this vid is taking me so damn long to finish. A compound reason, really. The timing in this vid is tedious like whoa, and I'm doing it mostly by ear.

I had a chat with permetaform a week and a half or so ago. She told me she was vidding without headphones. She knew how the song went, and all she had to do was follow the waveform. When she told me this, I think I just blinked at her a few times and said, "Huh? I don't get it." So I was talking to her tonight and it finally occurred to me to look at her waveform. I then put my waveform next to it, for comparison's sake. And promptly laughed myself sick.





OMGWTF?!? How is this even music?!? This isn't a beat pattern, it's a serrated, uber-long sausage link! I think I crapped this out the last time I ate too much roughage!



Yeah...remember how I was feeling sorry for you, permetaform, because your source had no internal motion? I retract all of my pity. I am never feeling sorry for you ever again.



In conclusion, my eyes hurt.

Comments

[permetaform]

XD umm.

yes.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

How close are you to your waveform? Are you both looking at the same number of frames per screen? Like, is she at 4 frames and you're at 1 second? The waveform looks better and better the closer you zoom into it - you might be able to find a beat :)

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

That's at the same magnification for both waveforms. I just put one on top of the other in premiere and zoomed in. This is at about 1 inch = 2 seconds.

Here's what it looks like at 1 inch = approx. 13 frames @ 29.7 fps.



It gets easier to differentiate beats in certain sections, but this is the level of complication for about 80% of the song. I think the main issue is that the song has so many beats at about the same volume and the way to differentiate which beats are important is by pitch. Pitch changes, of course, don't show up on the waveform.

It's not a big deal, really. I just have to rely more on my ears than on the waveform. I used to do all of my timing by ear before someone pointed out to me, "Hey! It's easier this way!"

So...yeah. This was just a big whining post. Wherein I whined a lot. My favorite outlet for dealing with the stress of vidding.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

Wow.

This is where timing by lyric comes in handy LOL.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

Hee! I tend to hear lyrics as beats, so I'm never really sure what people mean when they say timing by lyrics. When I'm choosing clips, I'll concentrate on their meaning, but when I'm timing I just hear them as stressed and unstressed syllables. In this song, the percussion beats go 1, 2, 3, 4. Stressed syllables usually fall on the 1 beat and unstressed syllables on the syncopated 3 beat.

The beat isn't difficult to hear. Everything's pretty much at the same volume, though, and since the waveform only displays differences in volume, it has trouble differentiating one noise from another and you get serrated sausage.

I have this beautiful dream that one day they'll come out with a version of premiere that takes an average of the pitch at a given moment and grayscales the waveform to suit. Till then, I have complaining and chocolate to keep me going.

;-)

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

You're vidding Postal Service right? Syncopated beats, yeah? That sucks. But it's the price you pay, cos if I remember correctly, you're vidding an awesome song.

Or was that a different vid idea? Now I can't seem to remember ...

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

No, actually. I'm going to be vidding Postal Service. Later. Muuuuuch later.

Actually, syncopation has nothing to do with it. The waveform you see on the right is the one permetaform is vidding, and it's syncopated. The waveform on the left is the one I'm vidding. "The Chemicals Between Us" by Bush. It has a lot of noise going on in back of the main beat. Noise is what makes it hard to differentiate beats on a waveform. Postal Service has a very clean, noise free sound and would probably look more like the waveform on the right.

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I *did* know you were doing "The Chemicals Between Us"! Duh. And yeah, the song is ... crashy and strummy, if you'll forgive my totally made up words.

Well, good luck. I can't wait til the vids finished.

[lierdumoa.livejournal.com]

And yeah, the song is ... crashy and strummy, if you'll forgive my totally made up words.

Hee! I make up words all the time when I'm vidding. I think I told someone once that this song "whooshes and whines a lot." I think crashy and strummy describes it perfectly.

[twistinside82.livejournal.com]

Wow, with your whoosing and whining, and my strummy, crashiness, I think we've summed that song up pretty well. =D