Last year when I played and uploaded a guitar solo to YouTube, I was wondering in my related post if I maybe should do this more often. Don’t get me wrong, I play guitar every second day and there are times when I do it every day, but what annoys me is the video editing. Since my computer does simulate the guitar amp, I record the sound file in my music editing program, and the video comes from the camera of course. So, I have to put both files together in Adobe Premiere, and it’s trial and error because you need to match the time of both files to have the sound synchronized to the video. There were other things that I disliked, but I found a couple of solutions to make the editing easier and not too time consuming. Because really, I don’t want to become a video editor, I just want to save some of my guitar ideas online on YouTube.
With the last video I created a nice vintage effect and I liked that type of overlay so much that I decided to use it in my new video as well, the one that I will show you below. I basically realized, why make it complicated if there is an easy solution? I basically renamed my previous file to “YouTube Guitar Video Upload” and next time when I recorded one again, I just have to swap the old video and sound with the most recent video. I also saved video settings that work well for YouTube and my files. So, in the future, the only work will be to synchronize sound and video after I recorded a new one. Yes, before I do that, I also have to play the guitar, but I don’t see that as work, it’s rather a lot of fun. My new Samsung Galaxy Tab A10.1 tablet makes it easier to record videos too, because I basically have it attached to my camera that sits on a tripod. I use one of those Android Live View apps to see if and how I am in the frame. I might purchase a mount to attach it to the tripod as well.
Before I show you my new video, I tell you something unrelated. I still change some things in my living room. I am happy that I refurbished my apartment last year, but from time to time I find things that I want to change. Today I found a white microfiber cover in one of the local stores and purchased it. I actually want to purchase a new but not too large sofa at some point. I found one that I like at Ikea but it’s white and this appears to be risky. And that’s where I come back to the white microfiber blanket, because I thought I could test if I would see Shyna’s black hairs on it at some point. So, it’s a temporary solution that I like. In case it works well, I can also put these blankets over the expensive Ikea sofa if I purchase it some day. With my new white cover over my old couch, it’s a big plus that it also looks great in my new guitar video, especially in combination with the vintage video effect. If you like, check my new guitar solo out, but this time it’s more of an alternative rock solo… or what would you say?
Diary of Dennis 
There are very specialized pieces of software for sound editing and I am betting you don’t have them. I also think that most of them are designed to work on a Mac rather than a PC. I have a bunch of sound engineering friends, you see, the result of having worked in and around TV and radio most of my life … IF you are interested, I’ll hook you up with one of them who might be able to direct you to something that would work better for you. Also, Tom Curley, who writes on my blog, is a sound engineer as well as a director (TV, but he started in radio) and he probably has software — and he works on PC.
I am using Adobe Premiere Pro, I think that is the industry standard video editing tool at least on PC. So, it’s not so much about the software but about the problem that video editing is not really a task that I do enjoy and it most likely will never be. I do understand all the tools I am using, it’s more that there is work that you like and work that you dislike. But I’d say when I like something, it’s not really work anymore. That’s why I was saying the guitar playing feels like fun, the music editing as well, but the video editing feels like a task.
Different software wouldn’t change that, especially since there is no tool designed to do it all, also as said, there are not much better tools out there. All I am using is pretty much high-end software that can do the job extremely well. For the sound part, I am using Ableton Live (one of the most popular DAW’s). And AmpliTube as VST plugin to simulate the guitar amp, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to get guitar sound from the PC at all, since I don’t record any physical amps (that would be a problem in an apartment). So, for the software part I am pretty well equipped. There are a couple of other plugins involved with music editing (like iZotope Ozone for the sound mastering part) but they all are very specialzed and not annoying to used because I love music editing.
What I was basically saying is that it might be that there are photographers that love to take photos, but hate to edit them. That’s not the case because I like both, but with recording myself playing guitar and doing video editing afterwards it’s very different. There is no way around video editing if I want to get something up to YouTube, which means it’s for me really something that has to be done, not something that I enjoy doing. 🙂 The reason is because you can’t just record the guitar and video with the same device because the internal clock would make the sound and video go asynchrone. The camera needs to record the video alone, and the PC the sound. That means at a later point you need to put both files together, that’s what happens in during video editing.
I solved my hate-love with video editing by just creating my own settings templates and files that I use as templates to set things quikly up, and to be able to jump over the whole process to have more time for the things I enjoy more 😀
Gosh, I want to start playing guitar too! Sounds good 🙂 Great idea with the toning down on colors and making it black a white. I’ve never editted a video before so I am clueless, but some kind of vintage look, perhaps just toning down the original colours (but keep them around) would be great as well. 🙂
I’d start doing it. 🙂 It’s one of those things that look and are difficult at first, but it really isn’t, that’s what you realize later on. I think the most difficulties beginner have are to get enough pressure to press the strings down, and especially barre chords are difficult at first. But once you can play barre chords, you can try out different chord combinations across the whole neck of the guitar, and that’s the point where you discover cool tunes more fast than you can grasp them in theory (lol that was my personal experience, because in fact I sometimes don’t know what kind of notes I play unless I look things up). So, learning and pressing chords is maybe a bit difficult at first, but since the chords you learn can be used on different positions across the neck, it’s also repetitive, which means if you can play them in the second fret for example, you will also be able to play them in the fourth fret and so on where it’s a different note. With that said, you really just need the basics and you need to train your fingers to press these chords, but when you can do both, you’re ready to discover many things on your own… and today all that is even easier thanks to YouTube teachers 🙂 But to be honest, it’s one of those things where you never learn out, you can always discover new tricks, it’s just that you can apply them more easily when you already can play guitar. I play since a decade or more, but I am still learning cool new things. I think you can get the basics down within a couple of months, and as said, from there it starts to feel like fun and less like learning. 🙂
You are right, just toning down the colours works great too. I tried a couple of different settings and it was a bit difficult to choose one because there are many interesting editing styles 🙂
That is precisely what I experience right now! I’ll turn to Youtube once the time comes, perhaps even wish for a guitar myself. Our son has one, but its half size (he is 4 years old) so its obviously not the best size for me 🙂 Maybe next Christmas, Santa brings ME a guitar 😛
Thank you for sharing your tips and thoughts 🙂
Your son will be a pro, that’s early to start 🙂 I started with 8 I think, although the interest rather really started somewhere at the age of 16 when I met other people in school that played instruments. Then we formed a teen rock band 😀 From there on I absolutely wanted to improve.
You could start with a very cheap guitar, they are enough to learn and play and in case you stick with it, you can still upgrade later.