Help make this section useful (tips for riffing)

[RoninFox]

Greetings, veterans of iRifftopia,

A few friends of mine and I have finally gotten around to writing our first iRiff.  (Back in AZ we used to have mst parties and seriously script a movie etc etc while MST was still on the air as I bet most of you have) Anyway, I had some technical questions that I'd like to answer so we can record just as soon as the writing is ready.  I'm curious how, generally, the roughly 2 hour mp3 is recorded.  Do you generally hit record and just march straight through?  My thinking is to use Windows Movie Maker.  If I can import the movie, then I can also record the intro/synch lines/commentary as snippets and synch them to the movie, then extract a single mp3.  Or maybe that's the hard way.  I've seen Audacity mentioned a lot, along with a few others so maybe I'm barking up the wrong bush.  That's why I'm asking.  Thanks for taking the time and it's fantastic to finally get involved with such a rock solid mistie community.

ps I see almost 30 smileys available but no mst silhouettes?

The main appeal of using Audacity is that it's a free download. If you can use a version of movie maker it might be easier for you since you can import the movie, which you can't do with Audacity. I don't know of any riffers outside of improv groups that just record straight through. Myself I record in sections, often recording one page of my script at a time then stopping and reading through the next page as a refresher.

[Rick (of Ralph and)]

I'm curious how, generally, the roughly 2 hour mp3 is recorded.  Do you generally hit record and just march straight through?

Ralph and I are hardly veterans, having only a couple of completed titles to our credit, but we do indeed hit record at the beginning and go non-stop until the end (after a few equipment tests and such).

The catch is that we do it three times. We call the first an on-mike rehearsal as we're still working out the timing and delivery of each joke. Then we do our "production take." After that we do "wild lines," without playing the movie. That gives us the chance to get a clean recording of each line without accidentally interrupting each other, and it also allows us to experiment with different versions of a joke or jokes we thought of during the previous two takes. The goal is to use mostly the production take, but to have the other ones as backup for individual lines.

At least that's the system we've developed to this point. I think our forthcoming release has really benefited from it and is going to sound a lot more polished than our first project.* But we find ourselves wanting to include a couple of mistimed lines or flubbed lines to avoid coming off too slick and to preserve the illusion of being spontaneous and off-the-cuff. Whoops, I guess I just blew that. Oh, well, I don't think anyone ever reads my entire posts anyway. I know I don't. 

* Not that there's anything wrong with it!

[mikelesq]

I'm curious how, generally, the roughly 2 hour mp3 is recorded.  Do you generally hit record and just march straight through?

YMMV, but I'd be concerned that you're going to record the whole thing then find out when you go back to listen that, ten minutes in, one of you bumped your mic a half inch during a nose scratch and your audio is out of balance.  Recording in 10 minute clips or so gives you the ability to make adjustments as you're going.

My thinking is to use Windows Movie Maker.  If I can import the movie, then I can also record the intro/synch lines/commentary as snippets and synch them to the movie, then extract a single mp3.  Or maybe that's the hard way.  I've seen Audacity mentioned a lot, along with a few others so maybe I'm barking up the wrong bush. 

Using a program like WMM (I'm assuming you're talking about the original, not Live Movie Maker, which doesn't have a commentary track feature) lets you play the video, audio, and record the commentary in real time, which has a lot of big advantages.  You can easily move jokes a quarter second or so to get the timing right to both visual and audio queues.  That's how I do it (I started with WMM, then moved to Sony Vegas, but the function is the same).  Others record directly in Audacity because arguably the recording quality is superior, and gives you more control over audio settings while you're recording. 

I still use Audacity, though.  I just use it after recording.  Basically, after exporting the mp3, you can use Audacity to make adjustments to the audio quality using the various effects. 

Also, if you're doing a VOD, you'll probably need Audacity for ducking the audio, since WMM doesn't have an auto-ducking function (unless you prefer to do it manually).  Then you just import both the original audio and the commentary as separate tracks, apply effects as needed (I find the Compressor function does a good job of leveling out the audio), then use AutoDuck.  Export as a single MP3 and import it back to the video as a single audio track (don't forget to mute/delete the original audio track, or you'll wonder why you can't hear your commentary).

Others do it differently, and a lot of it has to do with how your recording process works with your own performing style.  The way you find that out is by doing it.  Try different ways and see which one works best for you.

[Hor-RIFF-ic Productions]

Greetings, veterans of iRifftopia,

A few friends of mine and I have finally gotten around to writing our first iRiff.  (Back in AZ we used to have mst parties and seriously script a movie etc etc while MST was still on the air as I bet most of you have) Anyway, I had some technical questions that I'd like to answer so we can record just as soon as the writing is ready.  I'm curious how, generally, the roughly 2 hour mp3 is recorded.  Do you generally hit record and just march straight through?  My thinking is to use Windows Movie Maker.  If I can import the movie, then I can also record the intro/synch lines/commentary as snippets and synch them to the movie, then extract a single mp3.  Or maybe that's the hard way.  I've seen Audacity mentioned a lot, along with a few others so maybe I'm barking up the wrong bush.  That's why I'm asking.  Thanks for taking the time and it's fantastic to finally get involved with such a rock solid mistie community.

ps I see almost 30 smileys available but no mst silhouettes?

We use Audacity and watch the movie in Media Player or something and riff straight through.  Yes we screw up, but those are easily cut out and put in bloopers and we'll do retakes.  Then we'll check the syncing in Movie maker to make sure our cuts didn't screw up the timing.  Riffing straight through will give you a real time feel and if you've rehersed well it will be pretty good and allow you to through in some unscripted riffs and see if you can get your partner to crack up and if they fall flat you can just cut them out.  It also makes the recording sessions really quick.  But that's just us, so you know, whatever works for you. 

[mr.b.natural]

I'm curious how, generally, the roughly 2 hour mp3 is recorded.  Do you generally hit record and just march straight through? 

I always record straight through.  SOO much easier than trying to edit it all together.  And I make VODs, I can't imagine trying to edit it all together so that it sinks up with a DVD.    I can make all the noise I want because I then go in and manually "insert silence" between the jokes.  There is probably an automatic way to do this but let's be honest, if you want it done right you've got to do it yourself.  I use Adobe Soundbooth for audio recording/editing and like it very much.  For video editing I've used WMM, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Nero.  Of all of them Adobe is the easiest to work with but when it comes to editing AVIs and such Nero has worked the best.  Which leads me to my other very important tip, you need a really good video conversion program.  Whether it's rendering your final VOD or taking your enormous high quality video and converting it to a reasonable size or converting the AVI you want to edit into a less compressed format so your video editor can play it properly you need a good video converter.  Roninfox and I use "AVS Video Converter" and I HIGHLY recommend it.  I think you pay a one-time fee and that's it.  I think I inherited my copy.

If you do decide that recording it all at once isn't for you then heed the advice of the others and work with clips instead of trying to slip individual lines in.  It's such a headache.  And remember that for most video editors to properly display the movie it can't be in really compressed formats like AVI, and MOV and such.  It should be in like DV-AVI Type 2 for the best results.  If you rip straight from a DVD then you can probably work with it but videos you download from the interwebs will likely need to be converted for editing.  Then once you render the movie it will be HUGE at which point you will want to convert it to meet the iRiff restrictions.  

Using the narration feature of a video editor does make since as long as you have an audio editing program to clean it up and then afterwords you can import it back into the video editor. (This is super easy with Adobe stuff)  Now that I know that you have to convert the files before the video editor can display the video properly I may just try that myself.  

Oh, and I've never employed the practice of "Ducking."  Might be a good idea but the less work the better.  I don't usually have complaints and I wouldn't call it necessary.          

[RoninFox]

Wow a lot more people than I thought riff straight through. In my experience it's very hard to get my coriffers to do a lot of rehersal, so that leads to a lot of starting and stopping while we work things out.

[fireyf]

Greetings, veterans of iRifftopia,

A few friends of mine and I have finally gotten around to writing our first iRiff.  (Back in AZ we used to have mst parties and seriously script a movie etc etc while MST was still on the air as I bet most of you have) Anyway, I had some technical questions that I'd like to answer so we can record just as soon as the writing is ready.  I'm curious how, generally, the roughly 2 hour mp3 is recorded.  Do you generally hit record and just march straight through?  My thinking is to use Windows Movie Maker.  If I can import the movie, then I can also record the intro/synch lines/commentary as snippets and synch them to the movie, then extract a single mp3.  Or maybe that's the hard way.  I've seen Audacity mentioned a lot, along with a few others so maybe I'm barking up the wrong bush.  That's why I'm asking.  Thanks for taking the time and it's fantastic to finally get involved with such a rock solid mistie community.

ps I see almost 30 smileys available but no mst silhouettes?

Before I had Adobe Premiere I was recording in Audacity while playing in a dvd program.  Two separate programs was a pain in the butt and I finally caved and got Premiere.  I just use the narration feature.  You only have to click one button to play and record simultaneously.  If I screw up I stop and delete the clip with the error and record from my last save point.  Even if I don't screw up I generally stop every couple of minutes so if I make a mistake I don't lose to much.  When done I delete the movie audio line temporarily so I can export just the narration as one audio file.  After that I edit that file in Audacity and silence between all the riffs.  I can also boost the volume on lines that sound too quiet.  This is much easier than I was doing before and ensures that the riff syncs properly.

[mikelesq]

One other thing about WMM:  If you're doing VODs, keep in mind that the original  WMM is only going to export as WMV.  That means that uploads are going to have to transcode on the rifftrax server, or you're going to need to transcode before uploading.

Finding a video editor that plays well with mpeg4 will both mean that you'll be able to import public domain stuff (archive.org almost always has an mp4 version of everything) and save as mp4 upload to rifftrax without transcoding.  My $40 copy of the low-end versioin of Sony Vegas (Amazon now has it for under $30) saved me a ton of headaches, and does commentary (I still prefer Audacity for audio effects).  Xvid support helps as well, since a lot of archive.org items include this as a higher resolution option.

Most commercial software includes mp4 support (but read the box/check the internet to be sure).  Unfortunately, if there's a free/open source video editor that both allows commentary recording and supports mp4, I haven't seen it.

[torgosPizza]

I have a question.  Here it comes:

If you were to upload a video file (like a short or something) to your already existing iriffs as sort of an Easter Egg bonus, would it show up in the files available for download of the people who have already purchased your riff?  (I don't want to reward only new buyers with bonus content is what I'm saying.)

Are you even able to upload additional video to an existing MP3 riff?  I went to the page where I would do that and it said uploading disabled.  Is that a problem everyone is having or is it because they're both older Iriffs?

Uploading is disabled due to the migration to new servers, so it's not just you.  Here's the thread:
http://forum.rifftrax.com/index.php/topic,20732.0.html

I believe that, if you upload a new file, anyone who's purchased it has access, since others have mentioned in other threads adding/replacing files, and that the new file would be available to whoever had it.

That's incorrect. However I'll be working on a way to make this happen soon.

[wherethefishlives]

Good to know.  (Not that I'm anywhere close to being able to upload anything yet; I just wanted to know what my options were.)

[wherethefishlives]

Boy, I can't GIVE my latest riff away.  Seriously, I'm not sure how to grant files.  I type in a person's user name into the "Grant Files" prompt, then hit submit.  My sold page lists two of my riffs sold for $0.00, so it's recognizing it, but the people I granted them to say they aren't seeing it in their downloadable files.  Please to advise.

[k1]

Boy, I can't GIVE my latest riff away.  Seriously, I'm not sure how to grant files.  I type in a person's user name into the "Grant Files" prompt, then hit submit.  My sold page lists two of my riffs sold for $0.00, so it's recognizing it, but the people I granted them to say they aren't seeing it in their downloadable files.  Please to advise.

Yeah, granting is broken.  Sales reports are wonky too.

But all the old comments are back!

[mr.b.natural]

Boy, I can't GIVE my latest riff away.  Seriously, I'm not sure how to grant files.  I type in a person's user name into the "Grant Files" prompt, then hit submit.  My sold page lists two of my riffs sold for $0.00, so it's recognizing it, but the people I granted them to say they aren't seeing it in their downloadable files.  Please to advise.

Yeah, granting is broken.  Sales reports are wonky too.

But all the old comments are back!

Granting doesn't register as a sale at all. 

It seems to be shorts that have this problem.  Shorts show sales numbers but don't report the money earned.  There have been other problems with sales reports but this one seems to be universal.  Is your latest riff a short?  We have been told that the people who send the checks know the accurate amount owed to us and if you know how much you are supposed to make per sale then you can calculate how much you have made. 

Granting has been off and on but it sounds like you are doing it right so maybe it's just busted.  Perhaps it has something to do with when they were trying to make the forum and the website one entity where we would only have one username.  Or maybe they just got tired of people giving away their iRiffs in exchange for ratings.  Not that I would know anything about that... 

[k1]

It's not just shorts. Full length as well.

[mr.b.natural]

Oh, well it's only shorts for me.  The rest seem to report properly and I thought I had heard the same from others.  Sure wish Erik could get some temp help or something.  I've been here for almost three years and it seems like the site has never worked right.