In this video I'm going to talk about Multicorder, a great
feature within vMix, which allows you, if you want to edit your
Remote Guest interviews, which you've captured using vMix Call,
well, Multicorder allows you to leverage higher quality recordings
and introduce more editing flexibility into your post
production workflow. That's coming right up!
Hello again, World! Carlos here from Feelgood Footage. I'm a
Producer Director and Content Creator working in London, and my
channel, Feelgood Footage, is all about how to create better content.
Whether that's equipment, workflow or techniques, I want to help you
make better content. So if that sounds interesting, well consider
subscribing.
Since I came across vMix for the first time last year, I've become a
really big fan of the product. I think it's really powerful
software, competitively priced, easy to use, and from what I can
tell, has got some really good guys running the company, people who are
very keen to stay in close contact with their user base, and always
keep striving to improve the product. Now one of the best things
with vMix is vMix Call, its built-in Remote Guest live
interview solution. Now vMix Call leaves alternatives, such as trying
to capture a Remote Guest interview via a Zoom call, well it leaves
those sort of alternatives a long, long way behind in terms of
functionality and, critically for me, the quality of the audio and
video you can obtain using vMix Call. If you're running a live
production, a vMix Call becomes one of your inputs. And just like any
other input you can then cut to and from that at will, bringing it in
and out of the Programme Output. And if you're running vMix Pro,
well, that means that you could have up to eight different vMix
Callers coming in as Remote Guests, coming into your production. Last
year I used vMix for a client job where we had six remote callers for
the live stream and I was just so grateful that I'd come across vMix
as the project would have been a nightmare without it. Have a look
at my clip on the workflow if you're interested.
I think it stands to reason that the vast majority of times people
are using vMix it will be a live environment - it is a live
production switcher. However, there will be times perhaps when you will
use vMix and vMix Call, and you are not live. For example, perhaps you
want to conduct a Remote Guest interview and pre-record that ahead
of time using vMix Call? Or perhaps you do want to hold a remote guest
interview using vMix Call and send that straight into your stream,
live, but after the fact, after you've stopped going live, you want
to return to that interview, and you want to re-edit it? Most likely
make it a lot shorter. Of course, if you bring a Remote Guest into
your live production using vMix Call, you can record any interview
you have with them as part of your Master... your Programme Output.
But of course, the recording of the Programme Master will reflect
exactly what your camera switches, your input switches were during the
interview. So you may have the whole interview as a side by side
shot of a Host and the Remote Guest who's coming in via vMix Call. Or
it could be switching to a single of the Guest, or a single of the
Host. But typically, you won't have more than that. The audio as well
will be pooled, it will be sent to the Programme Master Output unless
of course you've set a separate audio bus recording to be made of
any given input. But that's a, that's another step you'd need to
take. And we won't talk about that during this clip. The point is if
you want to re-edit that interview - after the fact - and use just the
Programme Master recording, you will only ever have as part of that
recording what you were switched to during the live record of that
interview.
However, vMix does allow you to make a simultaneous recording of
those inputs. So afterwards, you would have a Clean, or Isolated
recording, of, say, the Host and the Guest, both their video and
their audio. This feature is called Multicorder. And I think it's
absolutely genius! I used it recently on a booking I was brought
in for and I'll discuss that more fully in a moment. But first two
really important points to bear in mind.
First, Multicorder is only available on vMix 4K and vMix Pro,
the top two licence options. Second, the exact functionality or
performance you can expect from vMix Multicorder will depend on
your PC specification. As a bare minimum, vMix states you will need
an SSD to store the recordings, plus an Intel Core i7 Quad-core
processor or higher with at least one gigabyte of onboard memory.
Even then the number of simultaneous recordings and
recording formats will depend on your PC specific capability.
For reference, here are the specs for my streaming laptop. On this
job I recorded the Programme Output and two of my inputs via
Multicorder. These inputs were my two vMix Call Guests. So in total,
my laptop was recording three video streams simultaneously. Until
recently, I was using the vMix HD version, which allows just one vMix
Call and doesn't allow Multicorder. So a couple of days before filming,
I upgraded to the 4K version, which is very straightforward and fair. I
just had to pay the difference between the two licences. And now I
have another 12 months of upgrades [sic: updates] included as well.
Again, for me, this is another example of vMix being competitive
and customer focused.
The setup was we were in London at the Host's apartment. Upon arrival,
I did a speed test and from memory, the speed was 60 megabits per
second download, 12 megabits per second upload. So not blazing fast,
but satisfactory for our needs. Our Guest was in Rome. He's a young
Italian influencer and musician called Valerio Mazzei and for the
interview, he was in his agent's office, I believe. I'm not sure
what his internet connection speed was but we were assured, in
advance, it was adequate. Even though the Host was in the room at
the same time as us I decided to bring him into the live production
as a vMix Call Remote Guest, even though he was, as I say, just a
couple of metres away. I decided to do that, rather than capture him on
the professional Broadcast quality camera I had with me, and feed that
into the production via HDMI. That would have been the best quality in
terms of image quality, and also audio, if we plumbed in a
microphone with the with the camera as well at the same time. But I
decided not to do that. And the reason is very simple. We wanted
this interview to be as relaxed, as comfortable, as 'normal' in these
somewhat unusual times for both the Host and the Guest. And both of
them are expecting as an experience something that's pretty much like a
Zoom call, they want to be able to see each other at the time that
they are speaking. So if I asked the host to look into a big lens
while he was having the interview, obviously he wouldn't be able to
see the reference feed I was sending of the... of the... the two
of them speaking together. He wouldn't be able to see that, he'd
be looking down a lens. And if I asked him to look into a monitor
that I could send the the Programme Master Output, where I'd put both
the Host and the Guest on screen at the same time, so he could see
himself, well, if that was a monitor, then his eyeline would be
wandering. It would be obviously away from the lens. It just doesn't
look right when somebody is not looking directly at their lens
during the conversation. Plus, I knew for a fact that he was using
an iPhone X. And previously, I've tested the quality that you can
expect when somebody is using a phone like an iPhone X, which has a
great lens and sensor. I knew that in terms of image quality, even
though he was a vMix Call Guest the the quality would be more than
adequate.
The Guest in Rome connected via vMix Call and that was fairly
straightforward. We'd provided very clear instructions beforehand and
the people on the other side were fairly tech savvy. Once the vMix
Calls were up and running, I just needed to start the recordings. As
I say I would be recording three streams. The first was Output 1,
which was the Master you'd usually send to the live stream if this was
going live. But in this case, it was what the Host and Guest saw on
their phones as the return feed. This I had at 1920 x 1080, PAL 25p,
bitrate 16 megabits per second, audio at 128 kilobits per second.
This was simply a side by side shot using the vMix multiview template.
It was really just a reference record as the entire interview
would be edited after the fact using the Multicorder files. I set
the Multicorder to record both my vMix call inputs. Here again, you
have lots of options and you can go very high quality AVI if you're
involved with Broadcast Television, for example. This was for internet
distribution only so we decided to cut our cloth accordingly. You also
need to think about the file size and how much storage space you have
on your SSD. Finally, I also considered the fact that vMix Call
will only allow at maximum up to 720p to be sent from a Guest. And
that's if their internet connection supports that, plus of course, if
the device they are connecting with has a camera capable of capturing
at least 720p. Now compared to the dreadful quality Remote Guest feeds
I so often see even on Broadcast Television these days, 720p,
captured in a well lit environment with a good quality connection is
going to look great for a Remote Guest, in my opinion. So we set the
Multicorder records for mp4, video bit rate 12 megabits per second,
audio 192 kilobits per second, with the audio source for each
Multicorder set to the input source itself. The main chunk of the
interview was about 17 minutes, and each recording created a 1.2
gigabyte file in my Multicorder folder. I was really happy with the
quality of the recordings, especially the Host. I think his
image looked superb. A lot of that has to do with the iPhone X camera.
However, I did have additional LED lights on him. I also recorded a
second camera angle to cut into the edit and add some variety. This was
completely standalone and recorded to the camera only. And finally, as
a failsafe for the Host, we also recorded everything he said to
lapel mic, again, going to the camera only. The Guest was not
quite as clean. I'm not sure what phone he was using, or the lighting
setup at that end, or indeed the internet connection speed. However,
it was perfectly acceptable as a Remote Guest. Remember, even though
it was recorded as a 1920 x 1080 file, the incoming video resolution
is 1280 x 720. So it does not fill the frame. If you want to make the
video image full frame and remove the black you need to scale up.
However crucially, the Multicorder files captured clean, isolated audio
for both the Host and the Guest. Their audio wasn't mixed with any
other source. And having that clean audio is absolutely critical for
post production work. If you have clean, isolated audio from an
interview, you can get by and overcome any other problems -
usually - that may arise. You can always put some sort of visual
overlay on to cover any sort of drop out in video quality, for
example. But fortunately, we didn't have any of those problems. But to
reiterate a golden rule, any vMix Call Remote Guest, in fact anyone
on any sort of conferencing sort of situation like this, they really
need to wear headphones. Even if they're in a quiet location, they
need to wear headphones to really minimise the chance of echo or any
sort of audio distortion feedback going back into the system, which
always sounds so, so painful to listen to and is incredibly
distracting. Ideally, of course, they should also use an external
microphone plugged into to their phone or whatever device they're
looking into the little lens of, but in these sort of indoor
locations with no other extraneous noise you can get by without them.
But certainly headphones are a must. The conversation was added to
make a five minute package for a show I'm working on as a Technical
Producer. If you're interested in viewing that you can watch this
episode of the YouTube show in question.
Remember though, even though at first glance it may look like a
live stream chat that's been captured as live, it is in fact an
edited package using the Multicorder files as the rushes and
was edited completely afterwards. The background and graphics and
camera changes were added in post. Even though I didn't do that post
production work myself - a colleague took care of that - when
I was looking at the files to produce this clip I did find that
they were very intensive on my PC at home, my desktop PC which I use
for all my editing. I was using Adobe Premiere Pro. My takeaway
from that is I will certainly have a play with the settings I use for
my recording, and or I will also transcode any Multicorder files
that I use in the future before I edit with them. That said that
doesn't stop me being once again really impressed by vMix. I do
think this Multicorder functionality, if you can make use
of it, is just so so useful in certain situations.
If you enjoyed this clip, if you learned something along the way a
Like would be fantastic, as would a Comment, or a Question - I try and
answer those questions just as soon as I possibly can - love hearing
the feedback to the videos. If you're interested in how to use an
external encoder like vMix with something like Microsoft Teams Live
Event, well take a look at the clip that's on screen right now where I
detail in full the workflow I used to do just that. In the meantime, I
wish you every success making great content for yourselves and thank
you for watching.