Let's Play Help

[MopyDream44]

Hello, let me start off by saying I've never really created a Let's Play before using a capture board, but I'm super excited about getting my board and trying it out. I have done a few test LPs for Minecraft using FRAPS that went well apart from the audio static I was getting behind my voice. I imagine this was more from my headset than my audio settings, but I'm not sure. Anyhoo, it seems like the audio stuff might be a bit more complex with 3DScapture, and I was hoping to get help from fellow LPers on here about the setup.

I would like to know the best way to record the in-game sounds separately from my commentary. I don't want traces of my voice mixed in with the in-game sounds because I may want to cut out chunks of commentary depending on how bad it is lol. So what should I plug in where, and what do I use to record the separate audio tracks? Also, what do you use to record your voice? I have a cheap little headset (plantronics brand) and I can't really afford another few hundred on a head set. I do have a semi professional vocal mic that I use for my music, so I imagine I could use that, but I thought it might be awkward to have it hovering near my face while I play. I read somewhere that you can use a cheaper headset and put a clown nose on it to create a pop filter, though I'm not sure this would get rid of the ambient hiss my mic is creating. I would be willing to put in 50-70 for a headset if I knew it would do a good job, but I don't have a lot of knowledge in gaming headsets. So, what do you guys use?

I also have a few questions for the youtube aesthetics of the videos. Ideally, I would like to capture both screens independently so I can have the bigger screen in the upper right, and the smaller touch screen in the lower left displaying on youtube. I would like to create a template to display these videos, and I would like to know the ideal size for everything. How big should the background be (pixel size) and how big should the "holes" be for the video? I plan to make a background in Photoshop, and I imagine I can put that and the two videos together in a video editing program like adobe. I would really like to get started on this before my board arrives, so any help would be great.

Finally, since I'm a total newb at this. I would love any other general information, tips, or tricks on recording LPs specifically using a capture board. Are there any tutorials using Loopy's stuff that I can watch? I hope it's ok to post this here since most of my questions are specific to Loopy's stuff, but my apologies if it's not.

[Guest]

You're going to have to record the footage first, and then record your voice and use a video editing program to put the two together.

[KAYLAF0X]

Pretty much you can do everything you said with video editing software, combined with a program like Xsplit(which is the streaming software used by Twitch people).

[desocietas]

Pretty much you can do everything you said with video editing software, combined with a program like Xsplit(which is the streaming software used by Twitch people).

Just to clarify, Twitch folks have a few options when it comes to streaming programs: http://www.twitch.tv/broadcast

Many folks use OBS since it is free and is not super CPU-intensive.

Good luck! I haven't tried to split my audio from my video yet (mainly because I have a webcam up for my streams), but I'd be curious to know the solution as well.

[MopyDream44]

Hey everyone, thanks for the feedback so far. I was hoping to record the commentary live and still be able to split it up. I feel the commentary would be better that way, but if I'm doing a tutorial video, I suppose I can record the footage, edit the video, then record commentary while watching my video playback. I guess that would be the easiest solution to separating the audio vocals from the in-game vocals. I still would like to know if anyone has a setup where they can separate these vocals while recording both at the same time, and on the same machine. I found the following video that was helpful for some of my questions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9zmL4aXYbjc

Unfortunately, this setup requires a second computer for commentary. I do currently have a laptop, but it's on its last leg, and I'm not sure if it would be too reliable, though recording audio isn't as CPU intensive as recording video, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad? It also adds an extra step (albeit small) of getting the audio track back to the main computer. Again, I'm really looking for a setup that will allow me to do all of this easily on one system.

Thanks again

[TygerDave]

Mopy -

I am not smart when it comes to Lets Play. That being said ...

To separate voice from game audio, you will want a way to hear the game sounds yet not have it echoed in your microphone. I highly reccommend you get a gaming headset. This will allow you to route game sounds to your audience and to your ears, and your microphone will be a separate stream that you will need to record and still route to your broadcast. You will be able to then broadcast live commentary along with gameplay, but edit your commentary at a later date without "echo" from the game.

Because of this, you are also going to need to record two streams simultaneously. One stream would be pure gameplay, and the second stream would be your commentary track. Because they are recorded separately, you can then post-production overlay your edited chat over the gameplay video. Believe it or not, Windows Movie Maker has all the tools you will need to do this. I will say this however - I found editing longer duration gameplay (more than 30 minutes) a humongous task. If you are recording special events or you only broadcast once a week then fine, but if you are a regular daily broadcaster, you may want to consider just leaving things as they are and let the universe see your program just as you recorded it.

Now, I use XSplit, which also allows me to adjust the volumes of my input, so I can tone down the gameplay music (I still want it in there) but not so loud that you can't hear me speak. It took me some time to get everything "just so", but in the end I created a broadcast template that I really like.

Don't know if this completely solves your issues. I don't use Lets Play, so I have no idea what it is or isn't capable of.

[SirDesiAce]

For recording purposes, just use DxTory. It records audio in 2 separate audio tracks, video game and mic audio. This is incredibly useful for post production. As for the overlays, use Photoshop/Gimp, and to put it all together most video editing programs will work. Not windows video editor though, lol.

[Stoic]

Once you start the video recording, use the computers pre-installed voice recorder. Mark a moment in the video game by saying something in that particular moment in-game.

ie. If you hit start to enter the games menu, say something you remember, usually "Start." That way, when you edit the video with a separate editing software, you can line up the moment you said "start" or whatever with the video at the point where spoke.

It's simple, easy, but trust me, editing takes a lot of dedication and some time if you're going for something wild and attractive, or something simple, yet hopefully unique.