Video Editing Questions for Mac Users

I have an idea of making a video of myself recording a song and I want to know if this is possible to do with the software that comes standard on a Mac or if additional software is needed. I don't own a Mac but my friend does and I want to find out if this is possible.

My idea is to record myself playing and recording all of the instruments separately, let's say acoustic rhythm guitar, bass, electric guitar solo, and vocals. So I would record myself, playing the acoutic guitar, then doing the vocals etc. Then I want to combine the 4 videos into one video where the screen is divided into 4 sections with each section showing each instrument, synced to the final song overlay on top of it.

Does that make sense? Is that possible with iMovie or something? Or I need more to do that?

Depending on the model and vintage, a factory box with factory software is enough. iMovie can 'see' the built in camera and microphone, allowing both recording and editing in the same package.

But not all Macs have had mics or cameras. Any imac/macbook config in the last 5 years should be good.

ElectronGuru said:

Depending on the model and vintage, a factory box with factory software is enough. iMovie can 'see' the built in camera and microphone, allowing both recording and editing in the same package.

But not all Macs have had mics or cameras. Any imac/macbook config in the last 5 years should be good.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the response. I guess I should have specified. I don't mean doing everything on the Mac. What I mean to say is that I record the video with a JVC camcorder, and the music I am actually using proper home recording equipment. It's just the video editing part that I am using the Mac for.

So assuming I already have 4 videos recorded digitally. And an MP3 or WAV file of the final song. I just need to put them together on my friend's Mac because all I have is a $400 windows laptop that has an integrated video card.

There are three Apple video packages:

iMovie - free with new macs
Final Cut Express - $100
Final Cut Studio - $1000

Studio is used by actual studios to make HD tv shows, so in most cases, the first two are plenty. Just make sure the Mac in question has a version new enough for what you want to do, feature wise. Oh, and plenty of RAM and drive space!

Centropolis said:

My idea is to record myself playing and recording all of the instruments separately, let's say acoustic rhythm guitar, bass, electric guitar solo, and vocals. So I would record myself, playing the acoutic guitar, then doing the vocals etc. Then I want to combine the 4 videos into one video where the screen is divided into 4 sections with each section showing each instrument, synced to the final song overlay on top of it.

Click to expand...

This isn't relevant to Mac software, but what you might want to consider doing is making your song recording first - and then for the videos "play" to a playback of that track. That way all 4 video tracks should be in much closer time synchronization than if you actually play the song "live" four times without a reference, and the final result should look much better.

Centropolis said:

So I would record myself, playing the acoutic guitar, then doing the vocals etc. Then I want to combine the 4 videos into one video where the screen is divided into 4 sections with each section showing each instrument, synced to the final song overlay on top of it.

Click to expand...

That would be difficult if not impossible to do with current basic editing software on the Mac.
Both iMovie and Quicktime Pro allow ONE incoming stream. You can have you playing the guitar followed by playing the base followed by... no P-in-P is possible.
Interestingly my Adobe Premiere LE 2.01 from 1992 can do it with some difficulty*** as it allows 2 simultaneous input videos. But it only works with CODECS up to Cinepak (the video game standard of the late '90s) and not the current MP4 or WMV. It also only runs on 68000/power PC macs and systems earlier than OS 8.6.

ADOBE PHOTOSHOP ELEMENTS 9 & ADOBE PREMIERE ELEMENTS 9 combo pak is available for the Windows PC. (OOPS And now Macs but I do not have the correct operating system 10.5.8 required I am running 10.4.11.)

You can download a trial version here. It won't save but you can find out if it will do what you want before handing over money. You can even get a Chinese Windows version!
https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_elements&loc=en_us&crosssell=selected

*** You can not grab a small video and move it around the screen like in a photo editor. So the easiest way I can think of is to film yourself in the 4 corners of the source video:
acoustic rhythm guitar - bottom left
bass - bottom right
electric guitar solo - top left
vocals - top right
Then mask each quadrant into the final video

EDIT
BTW what happened to the GTA CPF meets.