How to Record Playback Video of The Score

Hi guys,
A while back i stumbled upon an excellent YouTube channel @ChristophePochon that records the great works of some of the great composers prepared in Dorico and Noteperformer and was wondering how to do that if i wanted to record my scores like that.

Just File->Export->Audioā€¦

Jesper

Unless you meant Video also.

The hint is in the title :wink:

3 Likes

Ha, missed that completly.

Jesper

1 Like

This person is clearly just using a screen recorder and cropping out the bits of the screen (status bar) they donā€™t want you to see. Many of us have our own opinions on which program we prefer for this task. Mine is Camtasia. Others use screenflow, or even QuickTime. There are free ones available as well. I think you can use OBS for this as well.

2 Likes

I do use OBS but its apparent that its just too clean for moving through systems to be a basic screen recordingā€¦

No, itā€™s not. His recordings are just as jittery as Dorico normally is. Thereā€™s obviously editing done on his end to stylize the video, but the playhead appears pretty stock Dorico to me.

Of course, you could always send him a message via YouTube to ask how he goes about editing his videos and what he uses.

Heā€™s on here and already said ā€œjust askā€ ā€¦

Where is he? This misterious video magician?!

1 Like

on Windows PCs, the XBox game bar (which I think is there even if you never play games) can capture the current window & associated audio. I think you can also switch between windows and the capture follows you, but havenā€™t verified that.

Iā€™ve found the Xbox recording to be quite jittery / choppy when using it on other programs (Sibelius, Staffpad), where audio skips, and i the same video will be ahead, then in sync, then behind, then get back on trackā€¦ wasnā€™t super useful. But may be a settings / machine problem that it wasnā€™t worth it for me to figure out

The quick & dirty way: It can be done directly from Quicktime, exported and the file uploaded directly to youtube, if setting the Dorico audio device properly, to use a software-loopback device installed, so that Quicktime can record both the video and audio at the same time. Make the Quicktime capture box the exact pixel resolution size which is desired for the final output because rescaling will look poor. You might have to set the audio device buffer size to be large, which will make the audio lag the videoā€™s playback cursor a bit. Once playback is done, Export the video from Quicktime as HD or 4K (it will have strange framerate, ranging from 5fps to 80 fps depending on CPU load at the time of recording and the window animation rate, etc). My example:

However this has some drawbacks, i.e. the video capture of window redrawing has variable frame rate; titling is not possible; the audio will be lower quality (AAC from the quicktime captureā€¦), etc. So with a little more effort and better results, donā€™t bother setting the Dorico audio device output for a capture, and instead Export the audio as wav, which will also guarantee that the audio is the best quality for the result. Capture the video as before (the captured audio will not be used), and Export it from Quicktime as 4K. Then use a simple video editor (I use Reaper for this, very fast), drop the video and drop in the exported audio, align the audio to match the playhead cursor, mute the videoā€™s audio track, add titles, add video fx or etc, then export as desired resolution (4K 30) . My example:

Even if Dorico had a ā€œExport as Videoā€ feature like Sibelius, I donā€™t think I would use it, because likely it would not provide the resolution output or format which I prefer.

Another good option when going the more time consuming video editor method, is that you can then easily chop up the video to export Shorts, in proper 9:16 resolution orientation, for uploading to youtube, or to twitter (if anyone still uses twitter anymoreā€¦ I deleted mine last month because of Musk), or probably to insta (I dont use insta either, because of Zuckerberg). Shorts can be a bit ā€˜backwardsā€™ to figure out as capture due to the portrait resolution. Shorts might seem like a waste of time, but, Shorts are preferred by a different type of audience.

I hope there are many more Dorico users who start uploading score playbacks, because the social media field is too crowded with DAW piano roll composers, and the art of sheet music needs to be brought back in strong numbers, especially playing back contemporary scores which show modern engraving styles.

3 Likes

Wow that seems pretty detailedā€¦ Ummm thanks. But the guy does it differently without the background showing and very clean cut. Itā€™s really interesting to follow. But your videos look good as well.
Thanks for sharing!

Now you made me wonder whoā€™s behind YouTube .

(oops I deleted my post while I only wanted to edit it)

Iā€™m here :slight_smile: Iā€™m not mysterious and I already explained how I do, here and there.

  1. I export the audio using the Dorico export function. I used to capture the video and the audio together, but I prefer now to have both in their own files.
  2. I made a special extra large layout, that I called ā€œCinema conductorā€.
  3. I ask Dorico to zoom on this layout so my screen can show a full ā€œpageā€ of this ā€œCinema conductorā€
  4. I configure Quicktime to capture the screen. Record and press play in Dorico
  5. I import both files in Final Cut.
  6. Move the audio to be in sync with the video
  7. Change the Fusion mode of the video to ā€œMultiplyā€, so the white become transparent
  8. Add a background paper found on internet behind the video
  9. Crop the score to keep only it, making believe the background and the music are a whole paper
  10. Zoom a bit the video to fill the paper
  11. Check at each ā€œpage turnā€ if I have to move, rescale, record

Thatā€™s it !

7 Likes

I knew it wasnā€™t that simple as screen recording! Thatā€™s genius man great job figuring out the layout, its perfect!
Maybe share the layout here if its possible. Iā€™d love to record my score for social media content. :blush:

Depending on the style of video you prefer, either Page mode or Galley mode has different visual affect.

In Page mode, you can create a custom page size (non-standard dimensions of paper, since it is just to fit on screen). You can use Landscape orientation to get more horizontal space between page breaks. This can look better than Galley mode.

You can change the Dorico background colors to a green-screen color which you then mask out in the video editor, so the page break is not visible, thus the score appears seamless.

Another good effect is to invert or remap the color palette, to create a different visualization. My example (although this is a static image the filtering ideas are the same for motion video):

Normally I would say, ā€œwho cares about how it looks; it is the music which is importantā€ā€¦ but it is also good to remember that some people have a psychological fear of sheet music (blame faulty music academia for that), so moving slightly away from the typical black-dots-on-white-paper look, can broaden the audience.

It is possible to churn out a playthrough video in under 10 minutes (in addition to waiting through the entire piece to play back) after figuring out the style and workflow. So, it is not difficult.

There is one thing I would like to specifically recommend to avoid. Donā€™t use those hard-to-read ā€œJazzā€ fonts. Use clearly legible fonts. Artists like those ā€œit looks like a hand-written jazz chartā€ styles and that might be romantic but they are simply not as readable, the typography is very annoying in that respect.

So, go for it and make some videos.

7 Likes

Thanks for the tips @superblonde !

ā€¦except that it was, albeit with a custom score size. And he did it with QuickTimeā€¦ just like I said, and merely applied some effects afterward.

Iā€™m glad you have a definitive answer, at any rate, and that youā€™re happy.

2 Likes

Thanks @Romanos :pray:t2: