The Longest Time by Billy Joel – A Capella Cover

I made this for my wife on her birthday. There are a number of mistakes but I had a very small window of time to learn and record the song in secret. I was somewhat familiar with the song already so that helped but the specific background parts were a bit tricky. As you can probably tell, I was looking at the sheet music – which was about 8 pages long. If I had time I would have relaid a few of the tracks. I spent about an hour recording all the parts. This included learning some of the notes as well!

Technical Notes

All the video was orginally recorded in Quicktime using the webcam and usb mic. I first recorded the lead while listening to the original in my hearphones. This gave me the foundation and kept me in tune! I then laid the bass part the same way. I then exported the audio for those two tracks, imported them into Logic (multi-track software) and lined them up. Next I recorded the baritone part while listening to the bass and lead from Logic – in order to lock the harmonies with myself. I then exported the baritone audio and brought that into Logic. From here, I repeated this process with the remaining 3 background parts until it was finished.

I then pulled all the video into ScreenFlow which makes it super easy to lay out and line up. I had to sync up all the videos so the parts were in time together. I adjusted the volume levels and added a bit of reverb, trimmed the ends, added some titles and that was it!

What I used to make the video:
Camera: Logitech HD Pro C920
Mic: Blue Yeti USB Mic
Software: Logic, Quicktime Pro & ScreenFlow
Computer: MacBook Pro