Syncing drums & music on Android

Merlin5

Gold Member
I would like to record video and audio of acoustic drums at home while playing to mp3s. I'd record the audio and video of the drums with my Zoom Q3 HD using its built in twin mics, while listening and playing to the mp3 song. I would then need to sync that recording with the mp3.

Currently I don't have a computer available so I want to try and edit it all on my phone. What I would need is software to import the video, plus it's drum audio track in visible waveform, plus the mp3 audio in waveform. So three timeline layers that I could move backwards and forwards to sync it all up. I've looked at PowerDirector for Android but it looks like there's only one audio layer even though you can have multiple video layers.

Is there other software for Android that can do this? It's a pity that using the line-in on my Q3 disables the mics, otherwise I could have fed the mp3 to the line-in (with electric drums it's easy as they and any mp3 both get recorded together via line-in) and recorded everything together without any need to sync it afterwards. It's basically one or the other, either the mics or the line-in.
 
Can you play the MP3 on a stereo in the same room as the drums, and record everything with the Zoom with the built-in mics? There would be no need to sync the two if you recorded everything at the same time.
 
man, I've tried to do that with a computer, video and cubase and failed.

To do it on android would be huge ball-ache.

What I did was run the music into my foldback mixer, then into my ears, recorded drums via mics and then imported the mp3 into cubase. I then opened the video file, extracted the audio and replaced it with the mixdown. Just ended up with no sound at all.

It takes a while to get it synced up but this is how I start a lot of tunes that I write: Play along to a song I like and then put something completely different to it.

To do this on android would be hugely problematic and can't think of any way to do I'm afraid
 
Thanks for the replies guys, much appreciated. Yeah, just as I thought, that it would be very difficult to do. If I had my laptop, I've got some decent AV software on there and would have been able to sync the Q3 and mp3 track quite easily.

Playing the mp3 through speakers and have the Q3 mics record it would unfortunately sound quite naff to be honest. The mp3 really needs to be fed via direct input to have proper nice quality, otherwise it wouldn't sound that much better than recording everything on a phone.
 
Yeah I have a Zoom Q2HD and I just record the music and me simultaneously so no need to synch-it doesn't record toms very well and placement of camera gives big differences in results-but it's ok for my amateur bullshit needs. I was almost to the point of taking the plunge and learning to mic and record my drums but after following so many threads and issues on DW I decided WTF have I lost my mind all that effort for my amateur bull noodling and the better part of valor I decided I'd be better off spending my time playing drums rather than recording them.
 
There's an android app called Triller that allows you to make music videos, this could work. Or check the similar apps section if you search for it.
 
I recorded my buddy's band last week with a single overhead mic---2 guitars, bass, vocals, and drums. I don't see why you couldn't do the same with drums and MP3 tracks using the Zoom?
 
There's an android app called Triller that allows you to make music videos, this could work. Or check the similar apps section if you search for it.

Interesting, I'll have a gander meself
 
Thanks for the replies guys. However, I think I might possibly have found a good all in one solution. It would mean upgrading to the Zoom Q8 (about £300) which has 2 x XLR inputs for extra mics or line in sources. Has anyone here experience of the Q8?

As far as I can tell, the built in X/Y mic capsule doesn't get disabled when plugging in extra sources into the XLRs. So I presume that means that I could feed an mp3 into an XLR socket and the Q8 should hear and record the song, while simultaneously recording the drums from the built in mics, and of course the video. Can anyone confirm?

Also, since there would be one spare XLR input remaining, I could plug a mic in for the bass drum which would really enhance the weight of the overall sound.
 
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