Just a simple little video

[Bikewer]

I'd been wanting to shoot a little tutorial video on "Travis Picking" for YouTube. I have a long weekend so I set up the DSLR and my new on-camera microphone and went to town.

First take...I forgot to turn the mic on...

Second take....The mic is terrible. Waste of money...Cuts out, noisy, etc.

Third take....My old setup with an AKG voice mic plugged in to the camera. Works fine but the video goes too long and the DSLR cuts off. (About 10 minutes of video....)

Grrrr...

So I try it again, cutting out a few things...And the camera cuts off a few seconds too early.
NP....I'll edit!

Well....The camera shoots in .MOV format. I try Windows Movie Maker. Wont accept the format.
Internet says....Download the right codec. So I try the recommended codec set. Doesn't work.
So...Convert the .MOV to something else. Free converter, convert to MPEG 4, run Movie Maker...Snip off the offending end of the video and post...
About 2 hours....

For the 2nd video of the day, I used my old Kodak compact camera which will take 720P video for as long as the battery or the SD card lasts.

 

[marplots]

What is "Travis picking?"

 

[HighRiser]

What is "Travis picking?"

I think it's ok as long as Travis doesn't mind.

 

[marplots]

I think it's ok as long as Travis doesn't mind.

Found it:

Travis Picking, named after Merle Travis, involves playing a steady bass pattern with the thumb and filling out some syncopated rhythms with the fingers of the right hand (assuming a right handed guitarist). It is a great accompanimental style for folk and ragtime music amongst other styles.

 

[Elagabalus]

Try avidemux.

 

[Vermonter]

You can try Handbrake, I think that will convert to MPEG from MOV. Windows Media Maker hates MOV with a passion.

What kind of microphone were you using the second time around?

 

[The_Fire]

If you are not affraid of the command prompt, ffmpeg can handle pretty much everything supported by your codecs. You'll probably have to mess around a bit so start out with a short piece of video first, a minute or so should surfice, to test quality. You may need to fiddle with the parametres a bit.

 

[Bikewer]

Actually, I can post videos from the Canon perfectly....It's the editing that was driving me nuts. The free converter I downloaded worked just fine, and then the MS "Moviemaker" program worked fine as well.

Quick Time has an editor....IF you spring for the "Pro" version.

As Marplots noted, "Travis" picking (more correctly, "pattern" picking, is a fingerstyle technique often used in folk music and such. Think....Bob Dylan doing "Don't Think Twice".

Actually has little in common with anything Merle Travis did, but the name caught on back in the 60s.