Music from the River Thames

**Steve Luckett** · 01-18-2021, 03:10 PM

My latest effort! Video of my band recording and playing an old Freddy Fender song. Recorded on an old Dutch sailing barge moored on the River Thames in West London using:

2 x Zoom Q2n cameras;
QSC Touchmix 16 Digital Mixer;
Various Rode, Shure and AKG Microphones.

I "edited" the audio in Reaper and the video and audio in Lightworks,

**TimStannard** · 01-18-2021, 05:50 PM

I like the look - appropriate Southern US for the country/rock music. There's a good mix of shots but you can never have too many variations with a music video. Try to capture some big close ups: People - eg mouths at microphones, fingers on guitars/keyboards, sticks on kit and feet on pedals: Things - guitar headstocks, drum cases, generally any "gear" you have around and "things" relating to the environment eg here you migt use ropes, capstans, ships wheel etc.

Not only will these add even more variety, but they are great for patching up awkward edits or covering mistakes.

Obviously "performer" cutaways (singesr musicians) have to be synchronised with the music.

If I have any gripes with the video it's the lack of synchronisation between the playing and the singing in the sound and the visuals. To be honest the playing matches quite well (and only musos tend to notice problems here) but the sisnging is way off in places. Mostly the singer on the screen closes his mouth way before the sound of his voice stops. It's not good enough to know the song - you have to know and reproduce exactly how it is sung on the audio track (and sing too - don't mime, it looks different). As we are all used to watching people talk everyone notices when this is off. (I see you had a guest singer on this so it might be difficult to get him fully on board with this).

I didn't particularly like the slight fish-eye look caused by the wide angle lens in a small environment. Personal taset though.

The audio recording and mix sounds pretty good to me. The lead vocals sound a bit separate, not sure what's required here - maybe a tad more/different reverb? It just doesn't quite blend in to my ears. I absolutely love the harmony vocals: the mix, the quality of the sound and the singing. It's very good without being perfect - by which I mean it sounds human rather than autotuned, and there are one or two very brief instances of a voice not quite blending in 100%.

If he sees/watches this, I'm sure bouldersoundguy will have more useful contributions to make about the audio aspect.

TBH I can take or leave modern country rock. I do like the classics from the 60s and 70s - The Band, The Eagles, Little Feat (not forgetting Joni Mitchell's venturing into the genre, Neil Young, some Dylan) and this performance for me has more in common with that than the modern bands. Big Thuimbs Up!