Tips & Tricks
Here are some tips and features that will help you make the best Upbeat Perform videos you can. Thank you to Jonathan Glawe for putting these together and sharing.
After every change, press the Reload button to regenerate a video that reflects your modifications.
While a video is reloading, you can step away, work on a different project, or even close the window and come back later.
If you are working on the audio and not the video, toggle the "Audio Only" option to speed up the reloading process.
Download the free preview to show your ensemble to discuss ways in which you can improve the project.
Click on the the column headings to sort the parts by Submitted Time, Name, or Instrument.
Preview the individual audio of each performer by clicking on the play button on the far left of the part line.
The audio level slider has a numeric system between 0-100. The default audio level for each performer is 50. Increase the volume of parts you want to bring out (like the backing track or soloists), and decrease the volume of performers who are too loud.
Use the mute button to completely mute a specific audio track. Performers can still be visible while muted
Use the hide video button to ensure that performers who have not signed off on media consent can still be heard but not seen.
Use the arrange button to put your performers in order by section, name, and more.
Click on the 3 dots to the right of the audio slider to recalibrate, rename, delete part, or download that specific audio track. You can rename parts and change the arrangement to lay out your performers in any order you want.
When recalibrating, use the white slider line to scroll through the entire selection to calibrate musicians that start at a later part of the selection.
Untoggle the "Accept new submissions" option to stop accepting recordings. Performers will get an error if they go to the recording link and your project is not accepting submissions.
The "Options" button gives you the ability to rename your project, rename the ensemble, and change how many submissions each participant can make. You can also change the backing track after the project has been created if you have not yet received any submissions.
Inside "Options", untoggle the "Limit participants to one submission each" option to allow performers to record multiple parts or to play multiple parts for your own project. Sometimes, you may want to encourage students to do mulacctiple takes of the same part, so that you have more tracks to choose from later.
You can delete your entire project with the Trash button. It cannot be recovered once it is deleted.
Choose project and group names clearly, so you can easily find your work later.
Tell all performers to pause for a full 2 seconds at the end of a recording so you can have a clean ending.
Encourage students to use their internal microphone instead of their headphone microphone; these are usually better for music.
If you're hearing metronome "bleeding" in the video, someone's metronome sound is getting picked up by their microphone. Confirm that everyone is wearing headphones. Then, suggest to students that they choose a quieter metronome style (like "snap" or "drum stick") that is less likely to bleed. Additionally, performers can lower their headset volume.
For larger instruments, either try wireless headphones or find a 6' long headphone extension cable so that the performer can be in frame while still wearing headphones.
To preview one section of an ensemble, mute and turn off the camera of everyone else, then download a preview for that section to watch.
After you have paid for and exported a video, you cannot add or delete submissions. You can remix the existing parts that are already there.