Excuse me guys, I just bought a Mac today, and I know it's possible to record electric guitar with a backing track using garage band BUT is it possible to also record myself playing through the mac's webcam at the same time? So people can actually see me playing as a video file and not just listen to my playing as an audio file. And if it's possible, after I'm done recording, what program do I use to combine the audio and video together?

Also, if I would like to separate the song into parts, and play one part then stop, then play the next part, stop, and so on, so I can make each part the best as I can, and later it will sound good without mistakes as a whole. Is this possible? I mean, I know if I'm just recording the audio part by part I might be able to synchronize them together and make it sounds smooth. But I'm recording myself playing as a video too, so my fingers are moving all the time, in this case, is it still possible to synchronize both the audio and video all together and make it look like I recorded the whole thing all at once and not part by part?

Please excuse me for my bad English.. I hope you guys understand my questions ><

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Well, as a Windows PC user, I would use an XP computer with WMM, my webcam, and a line in to the mic port.

Do the same with the video software on there, and use the video software to add the backing track later.

Should be a clear enough explanation, if not, I'll be back on here later.

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I did something like this for an ICT project at school. I used audacity, a free open source programme (I have linux here) to record the guitar using my microphone, and make sure the audio was as I wanted. I then exported it and took it to school, and used Windows Movie Maker (WMM) to put the video together with video that I filmed later, after recording the audio-I just pretended to play it You can record the video with a camera at the same time as the audio. I don't have a mac and never have done so don't know too much about programs on there.

Instead of using the mac's webcam, wouldn't you get better video quality using a camera or video camera? It is easy to recombine the video and audio later into one synchronised video.

BTW, your english is very good. I would have thought english was your first language until you mentioned it. What is your first language?

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Hello mate! thanks for the explanation!! Really appreciate it I did thought about that too, but I'm kind of improvising on this one with a backing track. Thus I'm not sure if I can pretend to improvise the same way I did if I do the audio first the the video lol XD I kinda want to record both audio and video at the same time, but doing it part by part. Then synchronize them together in the end, but I'm just worry the sound won't be smooth, and I want to try to make it look like I played through the whole song all at once and not part by part if you know what I mean. It doesn't have to be perfect though, I'm just doing it for fun. Maybe I could just add in a few pics transition between parts XD And thanks! I'm surprised to hear that, I think my grammar is really bad lol. My first language is Chinese, I'm from Taiwan. Cheers

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I see-you are correct it would be difficult to improvise the same thing multiple times. My ICT project was with a backing track (Black Night-Deep Purple), but there was little improvisation so it was fine.

It would be easy to record from one camera angle at the same time as recording audio. Just hit record on both at the same time! But to make your video more interesting, using multiple camera angles makes a huge difference-how many cameras do you have available? Because if you have the macbook's, and a digital camera on video mode, that's two. If you have a video camera or another digital camera or professional SLR camera, use that too. If your phone has a workable camera on it then use that too-the lower quality clips, from say the mac and your phone, can be made to look that way on purpose by using video effects-these give the video a nice, old-school retro feel that is quite popular

Basically use as many cameras (therefore camera angles) as possible, and spend some time trimming the clips later and fitting them together so that they are synchronised (in time) with the audio. And if you do it part by part, you have time to adjust the cameras etc. Also, if you use multiple cameras then filming it in parts won't be a problem-the change from part to part could just be the change to another angle, thus making the video more interesting

Good luck, and show us your results!

English is my first language, although I know how difficult learning a language can be-I'm attempting to learn german at school-been at it for a few years now. My teacher says I'm really good but it is definitely difficult And english and german are related-I think they're both of the west germanic language family-english and chinese are very different. Well done

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"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

so sad I guess I can't record now... I just figured my bro's new mac doesn't have a line-in Input and only has a headphone Input on the side like this..

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Hi Jimmy, you would need a USB guitar interface. Something like this:
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Line-6-POD- ... 1427099.gc

If the laptop has a camera built in, it more than likely has a mike built in too. On a Mac, try using iMovie. I have it on my iMac. I never really messed with it too much, but I know it works. I don't know if Garage Band syncs with iMovie, but you probably could play to the backing track minimize Garage Band and record everything with iMovie.
The more ram the laptop has the better. I use my Mac mostly for photography business, as soon as I get some time, I want to start messing with Garage Band.

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No problem! Although you may need a bit of extra kit-you can look on eBay (Second hand) or equivalent in Taiwan, for these things, because that would be cheaper, or buy them new.

If you have a microphone (you can get a decent one for a low price now), use a USB microphone interface such a this:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/3 ... terling_uk

or a mixing desk like this:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/6 ... terling_uk

that could be a good option as there is a line in so you can go ahead as planned, and there is the option of microphones in the future.

or use a USB microphone like this:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/2 ... terling_uk

If you have a microphone, this could be a cheap but good option:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/5 ... terling_uk

As 63Supro says, a USB Guitar converter would also be a very good option:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/5 ... terling_uk

Sorry the prices are in Sterling, but it's a good website for finding examples.

Have a look around-I just grabbed examples from the site-they're not necessarily the cheapest or best options there.

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

THANKS A LOT FOR THE GREAT INFO GUYS~ btw can't I use the headphone input as line in? Is there any way it would work if I plug my guitar to the headphone input..?

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No Jimmy, the headphone jack is an output for headphones or speakers.

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I see what you mean-that is the way a lot of guitar - iPad or iPhone interfaces work. I don't think that works for the Mac though unfortunately. Besides, the sound quality would be bad if you did that.

_________________
"reach for the sky and aim for the moon, for if you miss you will end up among the stars"

Zoom MS50G
72 tele dlx RI
2011 standard strat
Blackstar HT-5R
Taylor Big Baby

http://www.youtube.com/user/Almungo/videos?flow=grid&view=0

If you use the iRig by IKMultimedia, you can because it splits the signal path
and has it's own headphone out and line in, but it's a noisy device.

From the iRig site:
"Got a Mac? Get an iRig!

Now for the hidden features… if you have a newer Mac computer, you can use the iRig as an audio interface for it. The newer Mac models feature a headphone jack that act as a headphone/microphone input for headsets. This means that you can also use your iRig with your Mac laptop or desktop machine to take advantage of the higher processing power of your machine and you don't need an additional audio interface to use it. Simply plug the iRig into your headphone jack, plug your headphones/line out into your iRig and you've got a fully functioning audio interface for guitar/bass/keyboards, or any other instrument with a ¼" out. Pretty cool."

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Hey guys, it's actually working now! I somehow got the sound coming out from the mac's speaker by connecting the mac's headphone jack to my Micro Cube Amp's RecOut/Phones jack, and then the Micro Cube Amp's Input jack to my electric guitar's jack. There were no sound when I connected it straight from mac's headphone jack to my electric guitar's jack though, not until I added in my Micro Cube amp in the middle. I can record now and the sound comes out from the mac's speaker. I know it won't sound good but until I get an interface as you guys suggested, I think at least it's working now. Besides, I'm just doing it for fun anyways. Cheers Now, everything is set, I can record my guitar playing with the backing track in Garage Band as an audio, and record myself playing at the same time using Photo Booth as a video. I have one question, what program do you guys use to combine / synchronize the video and audio on Mac? Imovie is not working on the mac somehow... It keeps saying "imovie quit unexpectedly"...

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Facetime will work.

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Excuse me, how do I add a transition and let it black out for a few min in between videos in Imovie? everytime I drag another video in it just connect together with the video before like a magnet and I can't drag the video apart leaving some space in between....

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