How technology is aiding music and video production for amateur creatives

Richard Arthur has been playing the guitar since he was twelve years old. He has played electric and acoustic guitar in various rock bands as well as a long-standing R&B band. He also composes and records his own music, while keeping his day job in high tech.

My Global Event Reports asked Richard to share more about his techniques on songwriting and recording. His guest report below provides advice on how technology is helping him produce professional-quality video and songs.

Welcome, Richard! We hope the music creatives out there will enjoy this blog:

Recording and creating a video for “All the songs”

The magic and innocence of youth inspired “All the songs”, a song I wrote and recorded in my home studio, where I also created the video below. In this short blog, I will cover the tools I used and my creation process, directed at those looking to record and create on their own, or who are already doing it and are interested in new ideas. I’ve been writing and recording for more than twenty years on Mac-based computers.

SONGWRITING
I’m a guitar and bass player, so my songs are generally written with a guitar. I usually start with a few lines and create melodies or chord progressions around them. I use Band In a Box to help try out chord progressions and changes. Recently I’ve also started to use Tonally on my iPad to work on chord suggestions. Tonally helps provide and test chord options and suggests chord patterns that work. BiaB is great to provide demos and song backing tracks.

RECORDING
For recording, I have been using Cubase for many years, so I stick with that even though I’m on a MAC platform. Occasionally I use Garageband for a song idea. I was enjoying the Music Memo app on IOS for song genesis, but unfortunately it has been discontinued.

Once I move to the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW – multi-track audio and MIDI recording software) to start recording I always lay down a percussion track first. I use a drummer, BiaB real tracks, Drums on Demand or other editable drum tracks depending on the sound I’m looking for. BiaB can export “real tracks” directly to your preferred Digital Audio Workstation. Many song packs exist if you are willing to spend a little money to get what you want. A format like REX allows tempo change with pre-recorded drum tracks so can be especially useful.

I then record my vocals and instruments into Cubase where I have Autotune and other plug-ins. Once recording is complete I master on Cubase using plug-ins such as the VST Dynamics, and overall Maximizer/Limiter.

VIDEO

Like all musicians, I would prefer to film a full video on-site or in a studio. But for budget reasons, I keep it simple.

For my videos I try to use my own footage captured over twenty years of photography, but sometimes will resort to stock and found material such as Wiki commons. I use both iMovie and Premiere Elements for video editing. I’m quite impressed by the cool clips I can create with MotionLeap by Photofox on the iPad. In the video for “All the Songs” I created a set of these and then took them from my Apple Photos into iMovie where I did syncing, titling and final edit.

What is strange about iMovie is how some features have been removed over the years. Beat matching used to be included but was removed. Also clip freezing (locking a clip so it doesn’t move when you edit in front on the timelines) was removed. This makes it a challenge to change clips and timing in a video that already has a full layout. Conversely, the Picture in Picture features have been improved. However, if I need to overlap multiple clips I use Premiere. It is also better for filters and full control over titling and graphics.

When I started to create the video for this song I was working in Premiere, but syncing audio to video in Premiere on my video computer is too choppy to work well. This may be a system resource problem, but iMovie works much better. It is also much quicker for titling as you can copy and paste text overlays much more easily.

Overall there are lots of great tools out there to help musician/video creators. Depending on what level of control you are looking for you can accomplish quite a bit with out-of-the-box software on the Mac platform. GarageBand and iMovie work well. To get more creative control you need to go up to the next level of software. In my case Cubase and Premiere elements. I owned Final Cut some years ago but these days it is too expensive for my budget. Note that you also have a steeper learning curve with these semi-pro applications so if you are trying to do something quickly start with the built-in software.

Find the video for “All the Songs” on YouTube.

All the songs by Zylin Production copyright 2021 Richard Arthur

Another COVID Christmas song!

The Brits LOVE quirky, witty Christmas songs.  Over the years they’ve shared songs such as “I wish it could be Christmas every day”, “Hey Mr Christmas” ,”Don’t Stop Me Eatin”, “Last Christmas”, “Merry Christmas Everybody”, “Someone Kissed Santa”, “Rockin around the Xmas tree” etc you get the idea. Some songs were recorded and shared to raise funds for charity such as Band Aid – Do They Know It’s Christmas and this year’s LadBaby’s “I love sausage rolls“. Many other songs were recorded just for fun. Nevertheless, it’s big business as only Slade know who still receive huge royalty cheques of $1 Million each Christmas from their 1973 hit “Merry Xmas Everybody”.

I challenged my Canadian husband, Richard Arthur, to write a Canadian Xmas song – for fun!  This year he responded with this news-worthy song, “Another COVID Christmas: that I hope you enjoy.

Thanks to the magic of band in the box software, PC video and editing as well as studio recording material and his talent to play various instruments he took up the challenge.

He composed, played and performed this original song. He ran out of time making his video and had to scale back his original, complex video skit to the fun video shared below. It makes you appreciate all the hard work artists do to deliver their songs.

Do share and see if we can get this played on Canadian radio!

ANOTHER COVID CHRISTMAS

Thanks to the Red Cross Tracing Service

German Red Cross tracing service extended to 2025

Approximately twelve million people were displaced in Europe after WW2. This was due to forced labour camps, prisoner of war release, concentration camps, army releases, displaced people not living in their country of origin and much more.

“Between 1945-50 over fourteen million enquiries were received by the Red Cross. From all those enquiries only eight million were resolved. Today between 8,000-10,000 continue to be received – EACH YEAR.”

You are probably aware that thanks to millions of dollars and countless hours of volunteer labour and fundraising efforts, the Red Cross provided food parcels and supplementary medical supplies etc for Prisoners of war during World War II (WW2).

In addition, thanks to the services of the Red Cross Tracing Service, thousands of people were able to find their “lost” families after WW2. The Red Cross staff and volunteers worked hard to reconnect loved ones through letters and phone calls. This tracing service was established shortly after the end of World War II, tasked with searching for more than 20 million people who disappeared. Today that work continues for people trapped in war zones and areas of conflict but also those who may have been arrested, abducted, killed, or who may have been displaced as a result of emergencies and disasters and are unable to reach loved ones.

The wartime Enquiry Bureau which attempted to trace missing troops transformed over time into a Tracing and Reunion service which helped re-establish contact with, first, displaced persons in Europe in the aftermath of the war, and, later, any family members or overseas with whom contact was lost as a result of war.

This valuable service focused on helping WW2 families to reconnect was slated to close but the Red Cross in Germany has said it will extend the operation of its service to find individuals who went missing in the Second World War until 2025. The decision reflects an increased interest from families. The service has continued to do extraordinary work, such as reuniting two brothers in 2010 after being separated for more than 60 years. Improved technology and unclassified documents in other countries, especially Russia, have meant that some queries which were once unanswerable can now be solved. Despite this good news, the Red Cross had said in 2018 time that it estimated that the fate of some 1.2 million people would remain a mystery.

Last year alone, inquiries about people who went missing during the war or in its immediate aftermath through forced displacement totalled 10,091.

It is THANKS to this wonderful service that my husband’s father was able to reconnect with his family after 19 years! As a tribute to all those wonderful people who volunteered with the red cross to help with this valuable service, I thank you.

The children who were stolen and taken against their will to work and fight would be in their 90’s today and I sincerely hope if there are still people seeking their families that they may find closure.

Amongst other issues, family separation was a plight faced by ethnically Polish families living in Lithuania during WWII. This has rarely been reported and shared with the world. Many of the documents and oral history around this period have not survived and what little information that does exist is not in English.

The stress of being removed from your family during WW2 is the foundation of a new story and is the basis of the book, Against my Will: Lithuania to Freedom. Although fictionalized the majority of the events featured were recounted to the author by surviving family members. This oral history, coupled with the author’s extensive research into the period, provides both a dramatic storyline as well as insight into wartime and post-war Europe

I hope this novel offers a glimpse of what happened to many… and spoiler alert – the Red Cross is an important link in the history shared in this novel.

If you enjoy historical fiction, you might be interested to read this account – written with love and gratitude.

Kindle Unlimited members can download an ebook free on Amazon or purchase it as a paperback or ebook.

You can learn more about this untold history on this video presented by the author, Sandra Arthur: