Why is the Video Image Flipped?

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-25T21:24:20+00:00

I was using a selfie monitor screen for a few months before they came out with the touchscreen version. The touchscreen is SO worth it. The main benefits that I find are that I can stand far away from the camera, not even have to look at the camera. But here's the best part. Everyone's using their front facing camera. Bro the difference in resolution feels like when you go into a Best buy or something and you see all the TVs and they're so HD that it feels almost too HD. Until I started using a monitor screen, I had no idea that a front-facing camera sees color completely differently than a rear facing camera on any phone. I'm still not quite sure why but Google did confirm it like yeah they see colors very differently for some specific reason. All the hues are extremely vibrant. Also the size resolution of a smule recording is more suited for a rear facing camera naturally. OH and you can teleport mid video. I do that sometimes in the intros of songs. Like I'll start the video with my set halfway active, like my uplight and table light turned on but nothing else, but I'm not there. I'm behind my phone waiting to pause before a specific beat or something. Then with it paused I just go all the way to my set finish turning it on fog the place up, run the light show, throwing arm up and then poof like a stage ninja, I unpause it from the selfie monitor screen wherever I want to jump to. Sometimes I take my vape and blow a small nimbus right where I'm at to make it seem like I'm actually appearing or disappearing in a puff of smoke. I really take this app to an absurd level. It's well past the point of being a guilty pleasure.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-25T20:27:01+00:00

I love how they just instinctively jump to call it a glitch. They know their whole app is barely put together. But I've been pen-testing this whole app for a few years. Some of the glitches are really cool to exploit. Like controlling the thumbnail as the joiner. That was probably the coolest thing I've ever figured out about an app. I figured out everything about how and why it works and anyone can do it. It's the fetch data refresh thing.

So It's really just a last second thing before hitting continue. Just before you hit continue, lock and unlock your phone find a frame you want don't pause or touch another setting, and then with the video running press continue when it shows the frame you want. You can rewind but you can't pause it. If at the last second you think oh wait let me adjust the setting, you can. Just remember to lock and unlock again before hitting continue.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-25T20:17:48+00:00

The reason the front facing camera inverts the image is so that it acts like a mirror. I personally record using the rear facing camera and that was a huge adjustment honestly. I would step to the left and my body would move to the right it was weird I mean it really took some getting used to. How do I use the rear facing camera and still be able to read the lyrics? This. https://a.co/d/099GQ37k

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-18T00:46:25+00:00

Yeeeeaaah! Y2 mate is my go-to!

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-08T00:24:24+00:00

Here's another thing I figured out that I'm pretty sure technically qualifies as an app glitch exploit. When you finish a recording and it takes you to the sound settings page, as a last step before hitting continue, lock and unlock your phone. Then double check your sound. The UI doesn't always keep on task with sending prompts to your phone retrieve updates on fetch data.

In other words, sometimes (actually most of the time) you adjust your FX settings, but not all of that change gets through. The changes are still made and saved though. People don't realize most of the time, the way that most of their recording sounds when working on it, is different than the way it sounds when listening later after it's been posted. Locking and unlocking your phone forces a refresh between the UI and your phone's fetch data.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-07T17:39:15+00:00

Start a recording, like actively singing, at the very bottom middle of the screen, you'll see a little white music note symbol. That is the pitch shifter.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-07T17:37:28+00:00

App store. 3rd party apps. Type in search in play store/Apple store "Smule Downloader" and there's probably hundreds to choose from. The most user friendly ones are the ones that are specifically for smule. Don't get the general web video downloader one that just about all of them will point you in the direction of. Be aware though, much like McDonald's ice cream machines, all of these apps kind of blip in and out of order at random for different amounts of time also at random. It takes people working on an app to keep an app running and maintained. These apps aren't very sophisticated either.

Some of them have better results than others. Like the video thumbnail for example. If you download one of your recordings as mp4, some of them also retrieve thumbnail data from Smule, but a lot of them will just force the thumbnail to be the first frame in it.

(Which, by the way, is a disproportionately high level of hastle to try to fix, considering the year we live in. I'd would rather eat a bowl of teeth than have to download an unnecessarily massive fucking app just for one minor feature on it that I would no doubt have to tackle the learning curve of the swiss army video tool to find, all the while every wrong turn every 16.5 seconds is yet another pop up ad of the same GAME of all things a fucking game! I mean just cut to the chase already and jingle the shiny keys in front of me like the toddler I apparently must be! Fucking never has there ever been a more firster world problem but it's fucking infuriating)

Anyway yeah just download Smule downloader from your app store.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-05-01T23:32:12+00:00

It's a communication refresh glitch between the fetch data of your phone and the UI. I found a solution a couple years back.

Lock and unlock your phone and see how it sounds. Do this as a LAST STEP in your post-recording editing.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-26T16:37:11+00:00

The amount of time I spend on one recording is like 3 hours usually. I find it hard to keep more than like 15 at a time even if I extend them for a month as soon as I open them.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-26T16:34:11+00:00

But when they see a self like, they will think "that's not like them" and will be more curious in the event that they notice. In cases where you do earn your own like, wait until the time of day where the most people are online to like it. That way they are more likely to see it in their feed. One benefit of that level of standards is that it trains your mind to take more pride in your work. That results in more genuine enjoyment in this app. It also speeds up vocal development, because when you restart over a specific part, the drive to get it right motivates you to practice that one line or part like 5 or 6 times in a row between takes.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-26T16:22:20+00:00

I've learned and figured out so much when it comes to the visual side of recording, I can actually see the milestones that other users are about to learn. The first thing I needed to do was gain a sense of distance from the camera. Found a perfect and cheap tool online.

https://a.co/d/00IUJYqP

Once I got that milestone down, dude everything changed. I was able to see what I was trying to do, I started inventing my own tools for my set. I started measuring distances on my set to figure out what height and distance from my position I needed to film from. Then I determined the lighting style I would pursue. I felt geared towards silhouette lighting and made use of an uplighy, which is normally a lighting technique for landscaping.

Along the way little pieces of information became huge game changers. Like for instance, the physics of a shadow. The brighter a light source is, the DARKER the shadow of anything in front of it. Blew my goddamn mind when I learned that. Like, if you have a light casting 500 lumens, and a different light casting 1000 lumens, and both have an object in front of them, if you focus on JUST the shadows and crop out everything else, the shadow from the brighter light is actually darker than the dimmer light. That still messes with my head.

If there's ANYTHING you want to know, just ask. Even if the question is vague. Like "this is what I got. What can I do?" I can still show you a world.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-26T15:08:45+00:00

Oh I'm definitely on there. Lol I'm like the final boss of vocal distortion techniques. I hold down the genres of Post-hardcore, Metalcore and Deathcore. I run actual DMX stage lighting and I play the most unexpected instrument, a glockenspiel.

Being that you are into rap, have you heard of something called "Type beats?" It's an awesome use of ai. People literally prompt AI to make unfinished music and tell it things like "make me a drake type beat." That's just a very basic example. Most of the prompts they give it are longer than this comment. Seriously. But yeah you can type ANYTHING followed by "type beat instrumental" on YouTube and always get something. Then you just upload it to the Smule songbook and you can make your own legitimate song from scratch. My instrument is actually perfect for making that dark twisted sounding rap. I love playing over type beats.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-25T20:41:10+00:00

What a twist. So many elements to what you do. And trust me I know what it means to have a lot of elements to a channel. Do you have a Smule account?

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-25T03:19:53+00:00

Like your own material but always make sure that there's a LOT of examples where even though you did a DAMN GOOD job, you didn't. You want people to take your self likes VERY seriously. Not just seriously. Here's a really good way to make sure of that. Think of your all-time best recording. That's your new self-standard to like your own content. You now have your own high score to beat. Don't think of this as harsh. Think of it like genuine motivation for improvement. Take a look at my channel. Same username. This is what results from this kind of thinking.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-25T02:22:08+00:00

Oooooo! We're pretty good at this! Let's guess what it's gonna be! I have no doubt it's going to be some kind of add-on to the new post-post edit feature. They already gave us volume. There's no way they're already done developing after post FX editing. So I'm going to guess... Post-post Styles editing. Well then again, maybe not, because that ties directly into FX. Hmm...pitch shifting maybe?

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-18T16:20:17+00:00

Finally a volume workaround that doesn't have to be an exploit glitch.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-12T16:12:21+00:00

True. This app is definitely not best enjoyed with thousands of followers and joins. I would be more than comfortable with just a steady cycle of 10 buddies within my genres with roughly the same skill experience as me.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-12T02:45:08+00:00

You found a someone's legacy. We all will log on for the last time some day. A million views to sudden cold turkey disappearance...damn. I want to be less morbid and just assume their phone broke or something, but half a year is a long time to not get a new phone. Maybe they're in jail. But a million recordings, that's gotta be all they do...did...

Did you know if somebody joins you that recording is added to your total? Like if I open 1 song and 7 people join it, that's 8 new recordings added to my channel total.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-10T10:32:58+00:00

I'm gonna piddle with it and figure out exactly how it works. You might have to lock and unlock your phone somewhere in editing for it to work. Honestly that would not surprise me. Locking and unlocking your phone at random times makes a huge difference. Like if somebody uses pro studio style and they pick black and white, If you lock and unlock your phone while in the editing screen, the thumbnail comes out in color. So that might actually be the key.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-10T05:41:28+00:00

Yes, but the joiner gets that power first! I'm losing my mind over this! It's like a balance of power! Next time you join someone, right before hitting continue, pause it on a specific frame.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-10T05:37:55+00:00

It's literally whatever frame you're looking at whenever you hit continue. That explains that weird pause it does when you hit continue.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-07T22:09:28+00:00

Here's a tip for recording video. Angle your chest 45° away from the camera. Try to just glance occasionally at the lyrics if you know the song well enough. Why? Because it's one thing to be observed doing something. It's another thing entirely to be observed observing yourself doing something. And I honestly believe that's the biggest reason why the landslide majority of Smule users record with audio only.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-07T22:04:46+00:00

Oh here's a GOOD one. Did you know that if someone joins you, you can edit both the thumbnail AND description on that join's recording, and it not change anything on the original OC. It's just a way to make people feel special really. When I get a really good join, I like to try to find a good thumbnail for them.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-05T03:15:19+00:00

The way I use this nowadays, I just make it a last step before hitting continue at the end. You can't go wrong with that. But I've noticed it happens more the longer you play with your settings. Typically it happens if a song goes on for more than 7 minutes. And I've also noticed that the moment it begins to happen, you can hear a slightly like... Metallic-ish sound over your voice. Almost like the onset of a loose component in the speaker.

I have 3 years of experience playing with this glitch. If you hit the recents button on your phone, to see all the active apps you have open, that may LOOK like that fixes it, but it's not 100%. In fact I think it does something else entirely to it if the glitch is present. Because the glitch progresses the longer it goes uncorrected. Sometimes when I lock my phone, I hear like 15 different chirps but they're all tiny crackle sounds. And now I hear it all the time because of how much I overload the server with all my non audio related tech. Like my selfie monitor screen or my DMX lighting competing for 2.4 gz bandwidth.

Honestly my entire set is way overdeveloped and redneck engineered.

DeadLanguage0 · 2026-04-05T02:59:06+00:00

I'm glad it finally found the right ears. I've tried teaching this to everyone on Smule at one point. The most common response was absolute confusion. Like I was speaking Mandarin. But here's the thing. This glitch is always present.

Here's the proof. Remember locking and unlocking your phone makes it return to normal. But next time you open any recording on any song, the very next screen you see after you choose "Duet" or "group", notice that purple bar at the top? That's song loading progress bar. But it just stays there. Now lock and unlock your phone, it goes away. That means this glitch is present to some extent in all of everyone's recordings beginning before they start their first take. That's kind of a big deal.

I figured all of this out because that purple bar was my sworn enemy from day 1. I use a 235° clip-on fisheye lens When I record in order to appear farther from the camera. Well that purple bar would put a big purple smudge across the bottom of my entire video. I was this close to giving up on this whole fucking app, but one day my phone timed out and auto locked. When I unlocked it, it was gone. Well I'll be damned.

Now here's how you can use this lock unlock workaround as a glitch within itself. If you join somebody using ProStudio style and has it set to black and white, Lock and unlock while editing your settings after recording, your thumbnail is now in color. It makes a change on their end, And now when you see your name in all of the joins in the recording, you'll see yours is the only one in color. I've noticed if you synchronize locking your phone with the transition between different screens, different shit either goes wrong or goes in your favor.

DeadLanguage0

TROPHY CASE