video editing for a DIY teleprompter system

[adessmith]

Hi guys,
I'm new to the forums, I'm hoping this is the best place to post this.
It is sort of a software question, but sort of a video editing question too.

I need some creative ideas for a project I am working on.
Our praise and worship team (which includes me) have decided to move from songbooks to a teleprompter type system.
We've got the hardware and stuff figured out.
We use ableton live (a software sequencer) for playback of multiple instruments we do not have (including drums and bass) and we play to a click track to keep everything in sync.

Ableton has the ability to sync a quicktime .mov file with audio tracks.
We are going to be running some little external LCD displays and the preliminary tests looks like it is going to work great.

I have played around with creating quicktime videos with our lyrics and chords and made something that "works" but if possible I would like to approach this from another angle.

Here is what I am doing:

I create a powerpoint file, each slide representing a section of the song.
I save the powerpoint as "JPEG Interchange format" to get a JPG file for each slide. I import these slides into windows movie maker and then bring in a master audio track (a "mixed down" wave file of all the parts in ableton live) and I set up the timings on the slides while listening to the music (sometimes playing along with my guitar to check the timing from the musicians point of view)
I then remove the audio and save as a wmv, and use a freeware video converter to convert this to a .mov file.
I then import this into my ableton live set, and all is well. It plays back in sync with the ableton live set, and the video progresses auto-magically as we play.

There are only 2 minor issues with this "system"...

1) it is a little time consuming. I doubt there is much I can do about this, because I cant really find a better way.
2) the "slideshow" format isnt ideal. I think it'll work, and still be worthwhile. We can get used to it... BUT...

It would be nice if there was an easy way to create videos of SCROLLING text to sync with the audio. Some areas of some songs seem problematic because the slides will change too early for the vocalists, but at the same time too late for the musicians.
Problem is I cant figure out anyway to do this without increasing the amount of effort per song exponentially. I have set up multiple songs with the slideshow format and I can usually get one song done in less than 30 minutes. I played around with windows movie maker trying to create scrolling text to sync and after hours and hours of work I gave up because it was so time consuming.

Does anyone out there know any sort of video editing package that will allow me to import a song, add background music, and overlay scrolling text while somehow easily syncing the text with the music? Having the words light up would be cool too, but our timing is good and that isnt an issue.

I havent ever messed with karaokee but I would imagine it works similar to this... I wonder if there are any software packages for creating karaokee files to go along with regular CD soundtracks.

I have been to concerts where they had some sort of similar system, but for all I know they could have some crazy custom designed software which is midi controlled, etc... We dont have a budget for anything like this, just trying to work with what we have.

I really want to handle this through ableton live (which means we are stuck to the quicktime video format) because once the video is imported it is saved as part of the song. There is nothing more to do, no additional team members needed, etc... We start the track just as we normally do, and the video is just "there" and handled as part of the file. If we move around in the song (repeat sections, etc) the video jump to that section with us.

Anyone out there got any ideas?

[tpichler]

I've never used Ableton Live software. Do you open each song before you play it and then hit play? How do you transition between songs? We wrote software that we intend to sell (some day) for scrolling our song text and it would be very easy for us to add a midi trigger to scroll the lines for you but i'm not sure how you would start the songs. If they play just like midi files we could even start them for you. Does the Ableton Live software accept command line parameters for playback?

We had the same problem for teleprompting the worship team vs the audience so we allow different sized look ahead buffers for our promting. The audience sees the current line in bold bright with a dark outline and a slightly dimmer line with the next line. The worship team sees the current line bright and the next 6 lines slightly dimmer. Because the text scrolls the worship team always has a good look into the future. We also allow for notes for the worship team like {piano only} {driving bass} {start softly} {build} and these comments only show on the worship team teleprompt.

The prompting is all rendered live so it works over picture backgounds as well as video backgrounds (we're still working on live video feeds). So this system would not work if you are really set on the video recording technique.

[adessmith]

Yeah, typically there is one file per song.
In many cases, I just reach over on the laptop and click on the file for the next song in the "recent sets" list. (It is confusing, because each file is called a "set").
It looks like typical DAW recording software. There is one row for each instrument, and time is expressed horizontally. You can mute the channels you dont need for that service (for instance, if you have a musician is going to miss some services, you can record his part and mute it when he/she is there). You can set markers at different places in the song and use a midi trigger to cue up a jump from one section to the next at the end of the current measure. (typically, you would just put one marker in a song and use this as your "repeat point" to just jump back in the song, and/or set up a "jump to the outro")

In most sets we'll have at least a couple of songs run together, so I'll merge them into one file before the set and put a marker where each song starts. Then we can start, stop, and select songs via midi controler. We actually arent using a midi controller just yet, so all these functions are being assigned hotkeys on the laptop's keyboard.

It really is quite powerfull and flexable software. We dont have a drummer or bass right now, so we are primarily using tracks with only those two instruments, but have found that we can layer heavy effect driven guitar parts, strings, etc with it to thicken up a song a bit.

Right now, video files are treated just like an audio file in the timeline.
You just create a new track for it and drop the video in... I just create a slideshow in windows movie maker with the music in the background, adjust the slide timings, and then delete the audio from it and save it, then convert to .mov format (the only video format ableton live will accept)

I know it responds to MIDI events, and it can send midi to a keyboard (not a function we use, but I've played around with it, so there is probably some posibility of creating MIDI events to control another program, but I really dont want to have an additional piece of software to run, and worry about cuing up song in 2 different programs... We dont have a lot of tech-minded people in the church so I end up handling all of this sort of stuff. Thats why I thought if we can embed the video into our track there would be no additional steps to take, and the control would be automated.

I'm thinking about just finding some good screen capture software now, Pulling our music up in a word processor, blowing it up really big, then , changing the colors, and do a screen capture of a section of the screen while I listen to the song and scroll through it. Im not too concerned with highligting the line we are on or anything... as long as I can keep it moving slowly with the current line towards the middle of the screen.

[tpichler]

Wow, you are running the audience prompting from your laptop on stage while singing and playing an instrument, selecting files in between songs? YOU DA MAN

I'll keep my eye out for a video scrolling recording solution.

God bless you, keep serving!

[adessmith]

Not doing audience prompting from stage. We've got a girl up front that handles that. The prompting I am doing (will be doing... not yet) is for the band (video monitors turned towards the performers)
I also don't sing, I just play an instrument. (But that's enough for me)

So yeah, I play guitar (with both hands, lol), and I switch between 2 guitars between songs. I load up loops and backing tracks between songs (sometimes I merge multiple songs into one file so the next song can be started with one keystroke) and currently have to flip through a songbook between songs too.

The idea of this is to make things LESS complicated. Get rid of the songbook and have our lyrics and music onscreen synced with the backing tracks.
Less things to do between songs. I will just have to load up the file (which I already do), and not fiddle with the song book anymore... furthermore, no one else will have to fight with song books, and we are all on the same page (quite literally) This frees them up to speak without being distracted while I load up the next track...

[tpichler]

That sounds pretty smooth. I'm right with you on making things LESS complicated, keeping everyone on the same page and eliminating distractions.

I'm curious about your plans for the song book part. Do you intend to put the entire bass and treble clef music format or are you refering to cord letters above lines of lyrics or some other idea? I am not a musician, just a technical director but I am very interested in what is valueable to the artists.

[adessmith]

Furthermore, I've got two vocalists that do not play instruments... One is the worship leader, so I don't think I want him distracted, but I think I might have the other cue up the files on the laptop in the future, once I get all the details worked out...
Oh, and I am the most experienced "sound person" our church has (and that isnt saying much) so I am running around like crazy prior to the service when we do a sound check because our sound person is looking at me saying "what do I do?". So if anything ever goes horribly awry, guess who has to put down the guitar to figure it out? This extends to the projection system upfront, the online video stream, the nursery feed, the keyboard player, etc...

The great thing about the way we want to do it, is that all we have to do is load up a song file and hit the space bar on the laptop (just as we currently do now). Our click track starts, along with any backing instruments, and (hopefully, if this works out) our lyrics and chords display on "confidence monitors" in sync with the music...
This will free me up to swap guitars when necessary, change my effect patches and amp models, place my capo, get my ebow ready, or whatever else is necessary for that particular song... The keyboard player will be free to ready the proper voices, because she uses multiple sounds, (organs, strings, piano, violin, etc...) and set up any transposing, splits, layers, etc. she has to do.

So by syncing our words and music to the backing tracks, on displays facing the performers, and handing the control of that system to the vocalist that currently has no other jobs, we can distribute the load, and free everyone up to "do what they do".

And put an end to those unsightly music stands and song books...

[adessmith]

tpichler,
We mostly play by ear. Some of us can "read music", but some better than others, and some cant at all.

We might use the bass and treble clef music you refer to during rehearsal while we are learning parts of songs, or teaching parts to others, but durring services we use "cheat sheets". Just the lyrics, with the cords over them.
We rehearse any lead parts, special hooks and melodies, etc.. and memorize them. We just have our cheat sheets to keep us on the basic chord progression at a glance, without having to stare at sheet music while we are playing. (Some of us still stare at the cheat sheets though)
We make notes on these cheat sheets to signify things like lead breaks, changing of voices with the keyboard, dynamics (play softly, build up, etc)

But to directly answer your question, we are just putting those "cheat sheets" we currently use with chords and lyrics on the video monitors, Not the sheet music.

[tpichler]

Thanks, that is the same conclusion that our worship team came too. I think it is really interesting how many of us are solving the same problems all over the world. Where are you located?

[adessmith]

We are in North Carolina.

church website is http://www.opendoorbaptistministries.org
band website is http://www.visionmusicministries.org

We're a pretty small church, but I try not to let that stop us from doing big things! We have grown tremendously over the last couple of years.

At the same time, our worship band has fewer members than ever. In fact, right now I play guitar, we have a keyboard player who sings, and two other vocalists, and that's IT. Our drummer, and a guitarist left after about 3 years with the band. Our bass player also left to go to school.

This is where ableton live came in. We had always wanted to start using a click track when we went to all "in ear" monitors. After struggling for a month or so with no drummer or bass guitarist, I stumbled on this idea (using ableton live for worship) online. I happend to have a "lite" copy that came with a soundcard I bought.
We have taken this setup and ran with it, and it's working out GREAT for us.
It has a pretty good drum sequencer that doesn't feel like a drum machine at all. For most songs I dont just program simple loops, I record a "full out" drum track, with fills and everything, adding reverb and necessary effects to make it sound as natural as possible. Then I record any additional instruments we need for the song (such as bass, and extra guitar parts)
Because we tend to stick strickly to the arangements we setup before hand we havent dove much into triggering parts of songs on the fly. However I have experimented with it some, and I could see how bands who like to change things up on the fly could still easily use this software.

Still experimenting with this teleprompter/confidance monitor idea, but it looks like it's going to work out pretty good. We'll be running it in tandem with our song books for a little while, untill I get all the songs setup on it and everyone decides they feel comfortable enough to put their books down.

I just rigged up a little 8" LCD I found on ebay for the keyboard player today, its a sweet little setup. I might try to get more of those to replace CRTs on the floor.

I think the video feature in live was designed more for things like making music videos, or adding video effects when DJ-ing, etc... But I like to think "outside the box". It seems like the way we are utilizing this is pretty unique.