How to Project a VIDEO Image behind your Band using SONAR X2

 
I have always wanted to play a video on the wall or on a projection screen behind my Band when we play live currently using SONAR X2a in this case.
Now that I’m retired I have had time to try and figure it out and it has been quite a trip so far.  Here is how I got it to work. 
(Note:  Tech support at Cakewalk tells me that it “might” or “should” be a bit easier to do in SONAR X3d since, I am told, they have reengineered the Video engine.. heh!)  Well,  I don’t care to spent the extra dollars at this point to upgrade from X2a Studio to X3 either Studio or Producer.  It seems every few months it’s another $99.00 or more to Upgrade to the next newest thing.  I’ve been with Twelve Tone Systems/Cakewalk and Greg Hendershot since around 1982 starting with Version 3 of Cakewalk for DOS.  Needless to say,  I have paid my “dues” and my “dollars” to stay with this software.)  
 
Here is my blow by blow details and all about how your Band or studio can get this to work.
 

1. In my home studio I am using a separate monitor and have my Dell Laptop spread between two monitors using the “extend” feature of Windows.  (This is for Beta Testing and later I will replace the “second screen” with a Projector.)

 

1. In your PROJECT, simply open the VIDEO View, Alt+Shift+2, is the shortcut to “extend” your screen to TWO monitors. 

Now “undock” your Video View from your project in SOANR and then “click and drag” it over to your other monitor screen.  I am assuming you know how to operate Windows features and how to “extend your screen to another monitor?  (To help you catch the vision:  The second screen will actually end up being a PROJECTOR that I bought.  The video will come from the Laptop, out the HDMI port on my laptop computer, and into the Projector that I will “hang” or “fly” from my light truss or tree and that will projector onto a screen or white wall behind the band.) 
Most of the newer Projectors that I looked at will accept USB, HDMI but NOT Firewire.
In all of the Cakewalk (hereafter simply referred to as CW), documentation it keeps referring ONLY to “IEEE 1394, commonly called “firewire”.  In several telephone calls to CW,  I was told that the documentation is not as up to date as it could or should be and that PERHAPS HDMI would work.  (I replied, well, I sure hope so because I can not find, in all my hours of searching and reading, any projector that will accept a Firewire input.   Sooo,  (the plot thickens), I ran an HDMI cable from my laptop over to my HDMI compliant Monitor and moved forward.  (Note:  I have the BIG touch screen monitor that is also used by CW on their videos about how to use “touch screen capability” with Windows 7 and 8.  I upgraded to SONAR Xa and my Laptop to Windows 8.0 sometime back just so I could play with SONAR on a touch screen monitor, but you don’t need 8.0 or a touch screen to make this Video show work on a second monitor.  You do, however,  need a fairly fast laptop to run CW SONAR, in my humble opinion!  Anyway, as it turns out… HDMI gives the BEST resolution, best output and is a common input for Projectors now-a-days as compared with say, S-Video, USB, etc.!!! 
I use a Dell Studio 17 with 2 USB ports, an eSATA for my external G-Techology hard drive, 1 HDMI, and firewire.  My two USB ports were taken up already with my M-Audio 8X8 MIDIsport interface and my Roland UA 25ex audio interface, and USB is not the best option, and as it turns out, HDMI was.
 
My Band does all COVER tunes and I have an extensive “war chest” of MIDI songs that I have been working on for yearsssss…  So,  you’ll need a “CW Project” created to test this on.  Some of my songs have real audio background vocals and guitar parts on them and some don’t… no biggie!
 
Next,  I have found that the best place to get some neat video, without taking the time to shoot it myself with my Handicam at this point, is from YouTube.  For example:  I found a neat 5 minute video of a guy showing off his Ford Mustang in detail, without himself in the video, and I used that video to put in the song we do called, “Mustang Sally, by Wilson Pickett… sweeeettttt… IT was in 1920 X 1080 HD format, the only format I will consider.
 
Anyway,  I think I have determined that most all YouTube videos are in MPEG4 format?  I say “think” because I am not a “video guy”.  I am a techie, electronics, software, musician, singer, etc., but this video thingy is all pretty new to me.  So you guys who know more may have to correct me as you read this.
 

1. You will need to download and install a couple of FREE programs from the internet.  I will make a suggestion based on what has worked for me.
   
   I dearly LOVE  DVDVIDEOSOFT, free software.  It has worked great and seamlessly for me and my Band for years.

When my Band is learning a new song or breaking in a new musician, I like to “chart” the song in MS Word with lyrics and chords, verses, choruses and bridges, etc.,  AND give the musician an MP3 to listen to and learn the song.  We can send both charts and MP3’s by email so we keep in good contact without having to meet face to face to exchange these tools.  I do NOT buy CD’s or MP3’s from anyone or anywhere… it’s all free.
I have used a DvdVideoSoft program called  “Free YouTube To MP3.”  I highly recommend it and it’s fast.  It rips the audio from the YouTube video… voila!!!  You don’t need this program for our Video saga here, but I’m just adding this to help out you new Bands with how the software can help your Band work smarter not harder? 
Man,  I wish we would have had these tools back in the day when I was trying to learn the solo to Purple Haze…  <sigh>
 

1. Now, for our Video adventure, you are going to need, as I said, a couple of free programs.  For me, it was the following:
   1. From dvdvideosoft.com, download and install, “Free YouTube Download.”  This program is how we are going to rip an HD video of your choice from YouTube to an AVI file.  (SONAR only recognizes an .avi file to “import” a video into your Project!)
       
   2. The next program I suggest is SolveigMM AVI Trimmer +MKV.  This program was a lifesaver!  I tried many other programs in my quest but this was Eureka!!  It allows us to pick and choose just what parts or segments of a video we want to keep and how long the total video needs to be.  (You will find that most cool videos you want to rip are too long for your Project or cover tune.  You’ll need to “trim” it down and even cut out some parts, etc.  So, you don’t want your video to keep playing on past the end of your Project’s audio or MIDI song, so you’ll need to customize or edit the length of your Video.)  Let me add, that the detailed instructions of just how to use these new apps are beyond this write-up,  I have found them to very intuitive and quick and easy to learn and use, and I am assuming that you are pretty sharp on Windows, apps and such??
   3. Now, time to create!  Go to YouTube, use your newly installed application software to rip the video.  After you have chosen a video, right click on the actual video in YouTube and look at “the nerd stats” to see IF it is Full HD 1920 X 1080?  If it is not, it won’t work with the choices I have settled on with my monitor/projector.  The SIZE of the video is very important because you want all your videos in each Project to be the same size on the screen or when projected as you move from one Project (cover song in my case), to the next.  You don’t have the luxury of making adjustments on the fly while performing on stage!! 
      (Important:  I have chosen only High Definition  HD recorded YouTube videos.  Why?  Because ultimately when it gets projected at 10 to 15 feet behind the Band, I want DETAILS,  not grainy pixels on-screen or washed out video.  More on this as we go but I  use only HD 1920 X 1080 screen resolution.  Make sure in your app settings that you take note of this.  I suggest you use the highest you possibly can to get good sharp images to project!!
      This new file you ripped, XXXX.avi will need to be placed in the appropriate CW <Video> folder on your hard drive.  This is where YOU/CW will look for AVIs to Import into you Project.  You tell the program, in its options or settings window, where to store the new file after it has been ripped.  For ease of mind,  I store all my AVIs in the same sub-directory/folder just under my Projects folder.

In your Project, you will now add your video.  (CW notes that IF we use AVI files that the video file is not actually loaded into our project, but simply that the Project “points” to the location of your video.  They say, this way the CPU      does not get loaded down.  So, for my way of thinking,  I do not want to upload any video in another format that would increase the SIZE of the project file NOR slow or load down the CPU with any other format besides .avi!!  I can not afford in a live performance on-stage, to have CW “lurch” or “hiccup” in the middle of a song… so THIS IS the best format to use in my opinion…  AVI.
     Click on FILE   >Import> VIDEO and choose your new avi video to load into your Project.  The video will      appear at the top of your TRACK view onscreen and then the AUDIO for the file will load in its own track, (the last track in your Project.)… it may take a minute or two the first time.

As soon as the audio file is loaded, you are almost ready.  Go to the new audio track,  it will be at the end or the last track in your track view and it will be an MP3 file, and MUTE that track.  (I also turn its volume all the way down, and in the track description I type, “Don’t Delete.”  I have had mixed results with the audio and the video together, so now I just leave it in and don’t use it.  I don’t think I would “archive” that track either, just MUTE it.)  

Now press the space bar and play your project.  You should see your video appear on the other monitor.  You can delay when the video starts by right clicking on the video in the gray area or the video track and looking at the properties.  The far right tab will have your settings for the time and you can delay when the video actually starts.  I try to do this when I want the singer in one of my videos to start just when I do in the cover tune.  I have found it is impossible to perfectly align the whole video with the whole Project but I  get it close.  I suppose IF you’re a real video Guru, you can get into SMPTE and other ways of “syncing” things together, but that is not my intention at this juncture! 
I finally chose the BENQ MW523, about ($490.00 and free shipping), after much research and deliberation.  I wanted to keep the price at or below $500.00 and have all the features I needed such as “lumens”, remote control, etc.  I also chose the eHotCafe projector hanger AND the 50 foot HDMI cable.  The hanger was only $25.00 dollars on Am-a-zon, and it is Perfect for this projector.  No need to spend $80 to $100.00 dollars on hanging hardware IMHO.  Believe me,  I really scour the internet for the best prices once I know WHAT I truly want and Amazon seems to always win! I say all this because I know some of you guys are on a budget and you've already invested a lot in your other hardware and software!
 
I went to my local O’Reilly’s auto parts store and bought a muffler C-clamp that would fit my ultimate support stand circular Cross-T truss bars and a small length of hose that I slid over the clamp so that it would not scratch the shiny truss tube and it would also hold the projector firmly when I tightened it down and positioned it.  It looks very professional, if I do say so myself!! LOL  Of course this projector ceiling mount has pitch, yaw, roll and a quick disconnect capabilities to adjust it as needed.  I did have to drill two new holes on the flat ceiling mount plate so that the C-clamp would fit better and it worked out great~!!  Measure and mark twice and then drill once… take your time and be detail oriented. 
I also order a 50 foot HDMI cable at the same time and have tested it with my setup and it works fine.  Some of reviews online say that they have run 100 feet of HDMI with no problem, but I don’t need near that much for the venues we play. 
You can go wireless, IF you want to spent another $250.00 or more…  I opted for the $25.00, 50 foot cable that I will run from my laptop, up the lighting stand to the truss and into the projector.  Be careful here, there are several different “flavors” of HDMI cables out there and all you need is the basic one.  I did get one with a good waterproof neoprene jacket that is very strong.  It’s not too stiff but would stand up to someone walking over it repeatedly.  So, make sure you research your HDMI cable options before buying! 
Lastly, after testing the projector at 10 to 15 feet to see how big the screen image might be at that distance, I ordered an Epson portable screen that extends out sideways and supports a wide HD format  16 X 9 or 10 format as opposed to a 4:3 aspect ratio type screen.  It will cost you about $115.00 dollars.  There were bigger screens  I could have gone with but in a smaller corner of a Sport Bar where a lot of Band have to set up, it would not fit.  Of course,  you can always project on a wall if it's flat and behind the Band?
 
Voila,  I did it!!  So far so good.
 
Johnnymack7 at mindspring dot com
 
Long Live Rock N’ Roll
Johnny