Video recommendation for Sonar (updated)

   I would like to shoot video of my band with the ability to edit the video and sync it to audio from within SPLAT.
   Does any one have a recommendation for video cameras that record in a format that's easy to import into Sonar?
   Also, does anyone know of video tutorials on how to work with video within Sonar? I'm too stressed and time constrained to read manuals 
  And one more thing. Can anyone recommend inexpensive video editing software. I'd like to work with 2 cameras and be able to switch between camera angles.
  Thanks
 

I will make this recommendation - don't try to do this yourself if you are stressed and time constrained.  To do what you want will require a ton of effort on your part and could possibly end up not meeting your expectations when done.
 
As a rule of thumb, for every minute of video you want to produce, you should count on spending 1 hour of filming time.  Then you have the editing/post production time to consider as well.
 
Also, if you are trying to film and play in your band at the same time, you will probably end up doubling that 1 hour of filming per minute time.
 
i would recommend finding someone perhaps at a local university to work on this with you, that way you don't have to worry about learning new software, techniques and workflows.

Hey Jb1. Karyn is absolutely right. The video function in Sonar is just for playback, and it makes more sense to edit your audio first. You can get away with a whole lot more fudging of video shots and angles than audio takes! There are lots of consumer digital cameras that will give you great results. I have a couple of Canon handycams that have served me well. Get creative and throw in a couple of GoPro's as well! Most consumer models use very compressed formats, such as avchd. Most editing suites now support these formats, but due largely to the compression they are processor hungry and do not support smart rendering, so production is a bit slower than the pro formats. This doesn't stop you from getting great results of course. If you are recording live gigs, one of the specs you should look at when choosing a camera is its low light recording performance as conditions will often be less than ideal.  Check the price, the specs, then watch some amateur video demos on YouTube - they will give you a much better idea than any manufacturers promo.
 
Video editing is great fun - and a nice break from audio. If you are familiar with a DAW, video editing software is not a huge leap, and there are many very capable editors for under $100: Sony Movie Studio,  Corel Video Studio, Cyberlink power director etc. My goto editor for many years has been Sony Vegas, but it is a bit more expensive (and recently discontinued!).
 
If you get the chance, record in the same venue over a couple of gigs. Then your 2 cameras turn into 4. If you do record the gig on a single night, I suggest one camera be raised up on a tripod and the other be hand held and mobile. That way you always have a stable shoot to return to when editing, but have the variety and creativity of the mobile camera. 
 
Good luck and have fun:)

   Thank you guys for all of your input.
   We're renting a rehearsal room with a stage on Sunday as preparation for an upcoming show. I thought that it would be a good time to shoot some video to use to promote more gigs.
   We had a person lined up to shoot video that canceled. So now I'm the guitarist,engineer,music producer and video producer! 
   I'm thinking that I'll record the audio with a pair of mics into my laptop and then edit the video and line the audio up to it within Sonar. 

Karyn
You can't work with video within Sonar.  It will playback video in sync so you can do your normal audio stuff, but that's it.
 
The usual way to do what you want is to import your finished audio to your video editor, then edit the video to match the audio.

I'm just asking not being a smart butt... I don't know in Splat but in Sonar8, I imported video then added and edited audio to the finished video. Deleted original audio and added new audio... that can't be done in Splat? 
 
I did this a few years back the, dog voice was added in Sonar 8 as the video played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbsKKhTiJxQ

Dave000

Karyn
You can't work with video within Sonar.  It will playback video in sync so you can do your normal audio stuff, but that's it.
 
The usual way to do what you want is to import your finished audio to your video editor, then edit the video to match the audio.

I'm just asking not being a smart butt... I don't know in Splat but in Sonar8, I imported video then added and edited audio to the finished video. Deleted original audio and added new audio... that can't be done in Splat? 
 
I did this a few years back the, dog voice was added in Sonar 8 as the video played. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbsKKhTiJxQ

Well, yes, you can still do that in Platinum. If you prefer to import you edited video into SONAR, you can record, mix, and edit the audio to the video in SONAR. You just can no longer edit the video in SONAR. So many seem to prefer (for music related projects) to do all the audio in SONAR and import that audio into a video editor like Sony Vegas for video editing.
 
However, if you have a gig doing a score, sound design, foley, ADR, etc... for post production video, then you would normally be handed the already edited video which you would import into SONAR to do all the audio.

I am happy to hear that you got something usable out of your efforts.
 
There is as much that goes into video to get a good quality picture (maybe more, but don't ever let any video guys know this) than getting good audio.  Lighting, camera settings (white balance, etc.) are all things that need to be taken into account.
 
If you continue to try to go on this path, I wish you luck.  There is awful lot of learning involved.  Finding an inexpensive contractor to do this stuff for you (at least the shooting part) will likely get you much better results faster.

joeb1cannoli
 
With little time to learn how to use it and to small of a memory card (Best Buy employee recommendation), I ended up with a bit dark and a bit grainy video.

+1 on the experimenting (and have fun with the learning). Test takes are as important as with doing audio to check picture quality and performance. Lighting may be the main issue with "dark" but when you mentioned "grainy" it may also be affected some by resolution (lower quality). When you mentioned "memory card," I wanted to throw out that high quality video consumes massive amounts of memory quickly (1GB or so per minute +/-) ... definitely puts audio consumption to shame. The best recording method for highest quality is to stream the video/audio from the camera to a computer (and possibly a separate computer from the one capturing audio, depending on performance). Streaming not to process, but simply write to disk.
 
The memory card is useful for "on the fly" portable scenarios, but if you can stream to disk, it will allow you to capture the highest possible quality and then "dither it down" as you do post-production (chop it up into songs, adjust resolution, etc.)
 
When testing, try maxing out resolution in a good lighting situation (brightest lights behind the camera focused on the subject), and note the memory consumption. Can be short-and-sweet (like 15 seconds) and then look at that in Movie Studio. Note the memory usage and use that as a thumb rule for planning your setup going forward.
 
Note: For audio, the camera mic is often captured, but the "real audio" comes from a second source (good mic), which is where the "obvious hand claps" are useful for aligning the mic audio to the video audio (then deleting the video audio track).

Brian Walton
Many DSLRs have a ~10min record time limitation which is brutal for shooting a live band.  

My relatively cheap (~250$ US) Bridge Camera Panasonic Lumix FZ200 does not have that limit, it is limited by the size of the SD card.  It IS HD, but not 4K.
 
I agree that they are less forgiving than a dedicated camera, but I have gotten fairly good results with it. 
+1 on experimentation  If possible try to get there early and set up some tests with different lighting.  Fluorescents can cause issues if that is the lighting!
 

mettelus

joeb1cannoli
 
With little time to learn how to use it and to small of a memory card (Best Buy employee recommendation), I ended up with a bit dark and a bit grainy video.

+1 on the experimenting (and have fun with the learning). Test takes are as important as with doing audio to check picture quality and performance. Lighting may be the main issue with "dark" but when you mentioned "grainy" it may also be affected some by resolution (lower quality). When you mentioned "memory card," I wanted to throw out that high quality video consumes massive amounts of memory quickly (1GB or so per minute +/-) ... definitely puts audio consumption to shame. The best recording method for highest quality is to stream the video/audio from the camera to a computer (and possibly a separate computer from the one capturing audio, depending on performance). Streaming not to process, but simply write to disk.
 
The memory card is useful for "on the fly" portable scenarios, but if you can stream to disk, it will allow you to capture the highest possible quality and then "dither it down" as you do post-production (chop it up into songs, adjust resolution, etc.)
 
When testing, try maxing out resolution in a good lighting situation (brightest lights behind the camera focused on the subject), and note the memory consumption. Can be short-and-sweet (like 15 seconds) and then look at that in Movie Studio. Note the memory usage and use that as a thumb rule for planning your setup going forward.
 
Note: For audio, the camera mic is often captured, but the "real audio" comes from a second source (good mic), which is where the "obvious hand claps" are useful for aligning the mic audio to the video audio (then deleting the video audio track).

Thanks
What do i need to stream video to a PC, a USB video capture device?
 

joeb1cannoli

mettelus

joeb1cannoli
 
With little time to learn how to use it and to small of a memory card (Best Buy employee recommendation), I ended up with a bit dark and a bit grainy video.

+1 on the experimenting (and have fun with the learning). Test takes are as important as with doing audio to check picture quality and performance. Lighting may be the main issue with "dark" but when you mentioned "grainy" it may also be affected some by resolution (lower quality). When you mentioned "memory card," I wanted to throw out that high quality video consumes massive amounts of memory quickly (1GB or so per minute +/-) ... definitely puts audio consumption to shame. The best recording method for highest quality is to stream the video/audio from the camera to a computer (and possibly a separate computer from the one capturing audio, depending on performance). Streaming not to process, but simply write to disk.
 
The memory card is useful for "on the fly" portable scenarios, but if you can stream to disk, it will allow you to capture the highest possible quality and then "dither it down" as you do post-production (chop it up into songs, adjust resolution, etc.)
 
When testing, try maxing out resolution in a good lighting situation (brightest lights behind the camera focused on the subject), and note the memory consumption. Can be short-and-sweet (like 15 seconds) and then look at that in Movie Studio. Note the memory usage and use that as a thumb rule for planning your setup going forward.
 
Note: For audio, the camera mic is often captured, but the "real audio" comes from a second source (good mic), which is where the "obvious hand claps" are useful for aligning the mic audio to the video audio (then deleting the video audio track).

Thanks
What do i need to stream video to a PC, a USB video capture device?
 

There is a usb socket in the most newer camera´s,
so that you need only a usb cable.
Hope I understood your question right.

Brian Walton
The Panasonic Lumix FZ200 isn't actually a DSLR though.

 
True it is a Bridge camera...It is all I have...I have done hours of video with it though.  I used DSLR because pretty much everyone knows what that is, while less know what a bridge camera is.