Britney Spears: If U Seek Amy - STRING TRIO COVER (split screen) video free download

* "HQ" --- Make sure you watch in "High Quality"

Britney Spears: If U Seek Amy - STRING TRIO + TIMPANI COVER

This is the 12th video in my continuing series of classicalized popular music. As usual, the song was by request. The original video of the song may be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FehBgQeVKFQ

This performance is the 7th of my split screen videos where I play with myself, and the 3nd where I play a trio with myself. To be more precise, it is a string trio of 1 violin and 2 violas, with Timpani drums added. Disclaimer: I dont know how to play the timpani, but at least the part (one note) was simple and I basically got what I was looking for in terms of sound. To do this video, I listened to the original song and by ear wrote out a sheet music score, arranged it as a trio*, and then performed it. I recorded each part separately. I was able to sync up and mix the 4 parts on my computer with a sound wave editor. To do the split screen, I used AviSynth (scripting based video editing and effects utility) in combination with VirtualDubMod (a free video editing utility) to sync up and render the two videos into a single split screen video. The sound then had to be synced to the 4 videos playing simultaneously and properly mixed. My AviSynth script for this video:

violin = crop(AVISource("E:\BritneySpears_IfUSeekAmy\Violin.avi"),172,0,-148,0)

viola1 = crop(AVISource("E:\BritneySpears_IfUSeekAmy\Viola1.avi"),204,0,-120,0)

viola2 = crop(AVISource("E:\BritneySpears_IfUSeekAmy\Viola2.avi"),156,48,-164,280)

timp = crop(ReduceBy2(AVISource("E:\BritneySpears_IfUSeekAmy\Timp.avi")),0,16,0,196)

rightside = crop(StackVertical(viola2,AddBorders(timp,0,4,0,0,$000000)),4,0,0,0)

video = StackHorizontal(violin,AddBorders(viola1,4,0,0,0,$000000),AddBorders(rightside,4,0,0,0,$000000))

audio = WAVSource("E:\BritneySpears_IfUSeekAmy\BritneySpears_IfUSeekAmy_finalSound.wav")

AudioDub(video, audio)

Trim(0,6459)

FadeOut(90)

Other technical considerations: I am still looking for the ideal codec and format for youtube. What I eventually uploaded was something that makes use of thier high quality widescreen format, my source is 960x540 H264/AVC in an MP4 container at a bitrate of 3360kbps -- converted by: "Super (Version 35)". I am not happy with the video quality in youtube's low quality version, it jitters like its dropping frames, but if you click on HQ, in my tests it played very smoothly and clearly. Other notes: My camera has been through hell and back, but it mostly works still. The audio is crackly intermittently, the video is ghosty ... so buy me one of those new hi-def cameras ... only about $3,500 for a half way decent one :)

For those that do not know what a viola is, its basically like the violin but bigger and lower sounding. It plays 5 notes or about half an octave lower than a violin, on the notes it shares with violin the viola sounds deeper, and it reads a different clef (alto) for its sheet music. Description of a viola for violinists: "A big honkin violin, missing the E string at the top of the range and gaining a C string at the bottom of the range and reads a funny looking clef". Also, in a survival situation, the viola would be preferred, as it burns longer. The viola is just a Knilling student model, 17 inch.

Lastly, this is my 3rd attempt at covering a Britney Spears song and again I am not satisfied with how it went. I am posting it anyways, enjoy what's good in it. Looking at my Britney history: My Womanizer cover went horribly, although I really didnt practice it more than a day and just slapped it together quickly. Circus was better, but I almost felt forces of nature preventing me from playing it well, even though I did practice it a week. This one, If U Seek Amy, was the easiest of the 3, and I even practiced it for almost a week, and the test recording sounded very good the day before I recorded this video. But as soon as I go for the real recording, it was like Zeus clouded my wits, I couldn't play in tune, I couldnt keep time, I was helpless. I'm spooked. So I may have to give up on trying to do Britney.