Advanced Techniques

Some of the videos I have made with this app have really stretched it's capabilities to its limits, basically trying to do things that it is not really designed to do, things more suited to proper video editing software I would imagine ... but since I haven't managed to get to grips with how to use any other software, i will share a few extras here with you.

Adding external video footage

Have a look at this one . Do you wonder how I got the video of the dog running around?

Its actually very simple, and very low-tech! I found a suitable video clip, turned off the sound on my computer, and pointed my phone at the computer screen to record the video! 

Adding a soundtrack

This is more tricky, because of the timing. If you want to use a recorded accompaniment to your singing,  there are two techniques I have used to achieve this.

1. First record the listening track as usual, but for it use the music that you want as your accompaniment. Then on your FIRST recording only, don't use headphones, so it will record the listening track along with your first voice. It will be coming from the speaker of your phone so will not be particularly good quality sound. This is how I made my rather ambitious recording of 'One Day More'

2. To use a better quality soundtrack  (eg played through computer speakers) you will have to practice by trial and error, to start it at just the right moment when you record a track.  

Working without a listening track

I have experimented from time to time with using the option not to have a listening track, but I have found that this results in synchronisation problems. Maybe I am missing something - if anyone manages to get it working please let me know how! It would certainly make the soundtrack issue easier if no listening track was required.

My wishlist

Finally its time to dream. These are additional features that would be really useful...

• Allow you to hear the tracks recorded so far as you record the next track. You can hear them at each stage after recording is done, but it would be so much more helpful to be able to hear what you have done so far, especially when doing harmonies on the fly
• Allow sharing of part-completed projects, so that you could record some parts, then share the project with someone else who could add in more parts of their own. In its present form the only way for more than one performer to take part is for them to be in the same location and to share use of the phone/tablet.

Sharing your videos

So you have created a video that you would like to share. There are many different ways this can be done, and you can get some ideas of what is possible by selecting the Share icon:

 This icon appears in three different places withing the app:

1. On the last editor screen where you review your created video, before you give it a Tick as completed:

2. In the 'Video list' of finished videos you have made:

3. When you have selected a video from the list screen to watch, there is a share icon beneath the video in the player screen: (however using this one doesn't give you so many sharing options)

Selecting the 'Share' icon will give you all the sorts of options you would expect:

One of the most useful is to upload it straight to YouTube, the natural home of videos. Some are a bit weird - I can't imagine why you would want to put a video on Google maps! But maybe this list is not specific to video files made in this app, but is a more generic feature of the android operating system, I really have no idea!

Sharing your video with a Facebook Group

Anyway, the main reason for me writing this particular blog entry about sharing, is to give some instructions on how to share your video with a Facebook Group. This is mainly for the benefit of people in the Great British Home Chorus Friends group ... it was somebody from within that group who first introduced me to the app, and there has been some confusion there about how best to get videos onto Facebook in the group, without them being visible to your own Facebook friends, who are not a member of the private group. i seem to have stumbled upon the method, so here i will share it with you!

First choose 

then look for the little drop down arrow at the top of the page:

 

Click on it and you will see the 'Share in a group' option:

Select the option, choose your group name, then it is ready to post to your group.

Coming up next Advanced Techniques

Creating your finished video

When you are happy with all the recordings on the individual tiles, you are now ready to let this app do its special magic and stitch it all together!


So are we ready then?

I

At the top right of the Create Video grid screen is a menu item that simply says 'CREATE' - it's now time to touch this. (if you touch it too soon before all the tiles are recorded it gives you an error message). When you have selected it you have to wait a while for it to be processed, and meanwhile you see a screen like this:

When its finished processing you finally get to see (and hear) your video on a screen like this (below). It even tell you the file location of where it has saved it - but don't worry about that, you don't need to know.

Now your video is already saved BUT its not too late if you don't like it .... there is one last chance to change something!  See those three icons at the bottom of the screen?

The first is the Share icon, if you just cant wait to share your creation with others. It brings up a selection of social media and other apps where you can share your work.

The next one is the Edit icon. This might just save your bacon if you have only just noticed something you want to change. Use this one to go back to where you can re-record individual videos, or rearrange the tiles. Once you are done, you need to touch CREATE again... and then you are back here.

Finally there's the Tick. Whatever you do, don't touch that until you are completely happy with your result, as this is the point of no return! When you touch it, you are taken right back to the initial screen...

 Now your newly created video will be in the Video List tab. Lets have a look.....

There it is at the top! You can play any of the videos you have already made from this screen.

You will notice, once again, three icons beside each video:

• Share works exactly the same as it did on the previous screen, 
• Delete is self explanatory.
• Edit is different to before. All you can change now is the name of the video. So here's a chance to give your creation a meaningful name....

Type in the name, select OK and you're done!

Coming up next Sharing your videos

Recording your videos

Headphones

I can't stress enough the importance of using some sort of headphones when making your video recordings. You will be hearing your listening track through the headphones, while you capture each of the individual videos. Without headphones, what you record won't be a pure sound for that particular part, but will also include your backing track, and it will be replicated in each of your recorded tracks, thus creating a kind of echo.

The headphones may just be small earpieces, or large ones that cover the entire ear, it doesn't matter, it depends on what you have available and what sort of look you want to create.

For what its worth, the ones I use are just a very basic set of plastic earpieces:

More important info on headphones (updated)

Since I first created this blog I have treated myself to some better headphones, I thought to replace those ones pictured above. And the new ones are great for listening to music - excellent sound. But I came across a problem when I first tried to use the new headphones for Acapella maker ... it doesn't isolate the listening track, so that this track ends up on your recordings. This is not what you want, so I have gone back to using the old basic ones for this app only. The important difference between the two types seems to be the number of rings around the end bit  (is that called the jack?) that goes into the headphone socket. My old ones, (which work well with this app), have two rings, while the new ones have three:-

Use headphones like the red ones, that have two rings not three

Planning

Before you start to record, you need to have a bit of a plan as to what to record in each tile. If you want to rearrange the tiles afterwards that is possible. Each tile will have its own soundtrack so you need to work out how to achieve your planned result. This may involve singing individual parts from printed sheet music, ad libbing harmonies on the fly, or singing the same melody several times but with a delay (ie singing a round) .... I have done all of these in the week that I have been using the app so far! Even when ad libbing though, its good to have an approximate idea, like this track will be the melody, that one will be a descant higher than the melody, and that other one with be a lower part.

Now you are ready to start recording.

Recording

The tile that you originally clicked on before you recorded the listening track, is going to be the one you record first. The screen now shows a camera window at the top half (using the front camera) and a videocam icon in the bottom half. There is also a 'reverse' symbol at the top should you wish to use the camera on the back of your phone to shoot footage other than a selfie.

When you press the videocam icon, if you haven't plugged in your headphones, it will remind you, by asking if you want to use them. For some reason it doesn't let me take a screenshot of that particular message: it says:

 'No headphones detected! Do you want to play audio while recording?'  with YES and NO options. You can make this box go away by touching the screen elsewhere, and then insert your headphones.

So you press the videocam icon, and you see a countdown appear across the camera window. Once the countdown has completed you are now recording. First you will hear your spoken voice counting you in (assuming you followed my suggestion on the previous page), then you can start to sing or play your first track. Press the stop button when you get to the end. Then the screen will look something like this:

You can see a new option at the top of the screen - PRE-LISTEN. You can select this at any stage before your tracks are all complete, to hear what it all sounds like so far. After one tile recorded you will just hear the audio for that tile (ie not including the listening track).

If you click on the tile you have just recorded you can play it back, to check it looks OK. The screen looks like this:

There are two more options at the top of the screen this time  RE-RECORD and VOL-ADJUST which are fairly self explanatory - you can start afresh with this track, or adjust its volume (I must admit I haven't actually tried the second option in my recordings so far - only just noticed it!)

Use the back button to get back to the grid when you are happy with the track you have just recorded.

Then its time to repeat the process with your next tile in the grid!

HANDY HINT

From the grid screen you can switch video tiles around by dragging them to a new position. You can even select a completely different arrangement of tiles, from the array at the bottom of the screen, should you decide mid project that you actually need more or less tiles than you originally selected, or you want then arranged in a different pattern.

Coming up next Creating your Finished Video

Getting started

So you have downloaded the app onto your device, and want to start making music!

There isn't any help within the app, but do not fear. I seem to have figured out the basics. You will be producing your first video in no time.

When you open the app you are presented with a screen like this:

There are two tabs at the top of the screen, and it starts off in the 'Select Layout' tab ready to create a new video. The other tab is called 'Video List' which shows all the videos you have made so far. As you are just beginning, that screen will be empty at present.

Since you have probably started off with the free version, your screen will look slightly different to mine, as many of the possible layouts are not available to you in this version. I think the ones you cannot use are greyed out. You can select any of the others, a grid of up to four tiles. Choose the one that matches how you want your video to be presented.

When you touch your chosen design the first thing it wants to know is how long your recording will be. You need to choose a time a little bit longer than you actually need, as it will stop recording when the time is reached. In the free version you can only choose times up to one minute, but if you have the full version the options look like this:

Choose your time, then you will see the 'Make Video' screen containing the grid pattern you selected earlier, like this:

Now you are nearly ready to start recording your first video, but first there is a decision to be made. As soon as you click on one of the tiles it will ask you this:

Since you are a beginner, we will stick to the easiest way to get a good quality recording on your first attempt, so select 'Yes' at this point. (To be honest I haven't yet fully explored what happens when you select 'No' except that it gave me problems the one time I tried it, so I need to do further investigation and report back in a more advanced tutorial!)

So assuming you have listened to my advice, and selected 'Yes', you will next see this screen:

Once again, I'm a relative novice myself (have been using this app for just a week!) but the only option I have used at this point is the second one. I think they are fairly self explanatory anyway.

Let me explain a little bit what we are actually trying to achieve here. When you record your videos, the most important thing is to get the timing right, so that when the sound from the different video tiles is mixed, it will be synchronised correctly. The best way to achieve this is to have a 'listening track', playing in your headphones when you record each of the videos, that will guide you on the tempo (speed), pitch of the notes,  and most importantly when to start singing (or playing).

 I have found that an easy and effective way of creating a listening track, is to count yourself in, then start singing the main melody. This (counting followed by singing the whole melody) is what you record now, after selecting 'Record an audio file now'. Remember this one is not a video, (so it doesn't matter how you look!), you are just laying down your listening track to help you with pitch and timing.

Once you have recorded your 'listening track', get your headphones ready, and you can start recording your videos!

Coming up next Recording your videos

Introduction

This guide is about the Android app 'Acapella Maker', not to be confused with the similar app available for Apple devices which is just called Acapella.

You can download it from Google Play Store

This app enables you to create recordings (with video) of yourself singing or playing harmonies, by stitching together separate recordings that you make, into a visual collage, and blending the soundtracks. I think its amazingly clever, and it's exactly the sort of 'toy' I have wanted to play with all my life!!

The free version allows you to make videos of up to one minute, with up to 4 separate parts. For longer videos or for more parts, you will need to upgrade to the paid for version, which cost me £2.54 in April 2020.

A word of warning, you will see from user reviews in the Play Store that this app hasn't got a very good reputation, and hasn't been updated for several years. I did have some initial problems, especially when I first upgraded to the paid version. These appear to be memory related - once I cleared out some storage space in my phone's memory, I haven't had any further problems (touch wood!). When the app did stop working, I discovered that if I went into my phone Settings found the app, and selected 'Force Stop' it enabled it to start working again.

Coming up next Getting Started