Tags: guitar

Phased Path

The governing rule is that guitar session time remains short and structured, following the template outlined in davinci_resolve_obs_workflow.md. Resolve learning occurs in separate, short, scheduled blocks, not during actual playing time or as an afterthought during a session. If a phase begins encroaching on practice time, it’s a signal to shorten the phase, not push through it.

Each phase should last approximately 15–20 minutes and be completed twice a week for two weeks. Use footage you already have, such as old session .mov files, rather than new recordings, to avoid tying up guitar time with Resolve work. Transition to the next phase when the current one feels monotonous, not when it feels mastered. Boredom is the honest indicator that the skill has become routine.

Phase 0 — Confirm the Capture Chain Solves the FPS Problem ✅ Done

Completed before Resolve work began — good, this was the right order.

The original plan (OBS + built-in camera) was replaced mid-test by a better option: iPhone + Blackmagic Camera app + Blue Yeti (connected directly to the iPhone via the Apple Lightning-to-USB adapter), after QuickTime’s built-in-camera path showed both unreliable frame rate and a 96ms audio/video sync offset.

Confirmed via ffprobe and direct listening: - Frame rate: locked and stable at both 24fps and 30fps tested (24fps chosen for the final workflow — see davinci_resolve_obs_workflow.md). - Audio/video sync: 20ms offset — within the range generally considered imperceptible. - Audio gain: manual gain on Blackmagic Camera held steady through a real quiet-to-loud dynamic swing, no AGC pumping.

Why this still qualifies as Phase 0, despite the tool’s change, is because the original goal wasn’t to “validate OBS specifically.” It was to “confirm the reliability of the capture chain before building anything on top of it.” That goal was achieved, albeit through a more efficient path than initially planned. This serves as a valuable lesson for future phases: the plan can be revised when testing reveals a better option.

Phase 1 — Edit Page: Just Cutting (Weeks 1–2)

Goal: Be comfortable transitioning from a timeline clip to a finished export, without any colour or audio work.

• Import one of your Phase 0 test clips.
• Trim the clip to your desired length, making one cut and joining two clips if necessary.
• Add a basic text title (using Fusion Title or Text+) that will eventually be reused in your template.
• Export the clip once using the Delivery page’s default settings to complete the start-to-finish process.

Skip entirely: Colour, audio, multi-track work. The focus is on understanding the timeline’s orientation and structure, not on crafting the final product.

Phase 2 — Color Page: Reading Before Adjusting (Weeks 3–4)

Goal: Understand what you’re looking at before you start adjusting settings.

• Open the Waveform and Vectorscope scopes. Select the Colour page and then the scope selector. While playing back a clip, observe them to get a feel for a well-exposed shot on a waveform and how skin tone and wood tone appear on a vectorscope.
  
• Add one node and one adjustment: lift or lower exposure using the Primary wheel, and watch the scope move in response. This is the entire lesson: connect the tool to the readout.
  
• Try the same with a second clip using different lighting. Notice the differences.

Why this order? Grading by eye alone (often the first step in tutorials) leads to plateaus. Reading the scopes first ensures that every subsequent adjustment is informed, not guesswork.

Phase 3 — Build the Warm/Natural Grade, Deliberately (Weeks 5–6)

Goal: Construct the actual grade node-by-node, understanding each node’s purpose, rather than copying settings from a document.

• Begin with an iPhone/Blackmagic Camera test clip shot on the Film picture profile.
• Node 1: Adjust the white balance and exposure using the scopes from Phase 2 to guide you, rather than relying solely on your eye. Expect to put in more effort here than with a standard picture profile, as Film footage starts flat by design.
• Node 2: Adjust the warmth by turning the offset wheel and observing its effect on the vectorscope. Find the point where it reads “warm room light” instead of “orange filter.”
• Node 3: Apply a soft S-curve. This is where Resolve’s Curves panel becomes valuable, not just a tool to accept default handle positions.
• Since the capture source is now a single, consistent source (the iPhone, regardless of the Mac you edit on), one grade should suffice. There’s no need to build and compare across two camera sources, as was required in an earlier built-in-camera plan.
• Only now, grab a still image and save the PowerGrade into your master project.

This is the phase where production and learning truly converge. From here on, your guitar sessions can begin using the fast template, as you’ve gained a genuine understanding of its functionality, not just inherited settings.

Phase 4 — Delivery & Loudness, With Real Listening (Week 7)

Goal: Understand loudness normalization well enough to trust the single number you’re relying on, since there’s no Fairlight chain upstream shaping the audio.

• Render the same clip at a few different Integrated LUFS targets: −12, −14, and −16, all at −1 dBTP.
• Listen to all three clips back-to-back, ideally on a few different playback setups (laptop speakers, headphones, etc.).
• Choose the target that maintains the natural sound of your quiet fingerstyle passages, avoiding compression and flattening. This decision is more reliable than adhering to a fixed specification.
• Lock that number into the Delivery preset in your master project.

Optional, low-cost add-on: Even without building a Fairlight chain, open the Loudness Meter on the Fairlight page during this phase and observe it while a clip plays. It costs nothing and is a valuable piece of Fairlight knowledge, even if you’ve intentionally excluded Fairlight from your current scope.

Phase 5 — Handoff to the Template (Ongoing)

Use the provided davinci_resolve_obs_workflow.md as a guide. Duplicate your project, drag the appropriate PowerGrade, trim your footage, and render it. Sessions should now be faster because the underlying understanding of each step is built in. The template no longer obscures complexity; it simply condenses steps you’ve already mastered.

Maintain a dedicated “Resolve study” block, separate from your guitar practice. Schedule this block once a month, for about 20–30 minutes. Utilize Blackmagic’s free training resources, which offer structured Resolve courses, or simply select a new feature to experiment with on your existing footage. Consider exploring Power Windows, keyframing a grade, a second camera angle, or a proper multi-band EQ if you revisit Fairlight. This ongoing practice prevents the tool from becoming a rigid checklist and disrupts the “try it for a season, abandon it” cycle. A small, consistent study session is more effective than a large, initial push that quickly loses momentum.

Time Budget Summary

For about 7 weeks, you’ll have separate learning time before the template takes over. After that, your guitar practice will follow the fast, templated workflow, while your proficiency in Resolve will continue to grow gradually each month, rather than stagnating once the template is established.