Audio for video

  • Thread starter Thread starter dastrick
  • Start date Start date
dastrick

dastrick

huh???
So here's the deal. I recorded a choir concert tonight. I also recorded the performance onto video (miniDV) to make a DVD. I would like to use the audio that I recorded with my Firestudio to use on the DVD.

Have any of you ever done this?
What are your suggestions before I get started?
Should I have synced the audio to the video somehow before recording? If so, how?


I haven't started the editing & mixing yet. Any help would be appreciated. :)

Thanks,
Dwayne
 
I'm no expert!!

You need a video editor like Sony Vegas. Then just drop your firestudio recording into the music track and you should be able to zoom in and line it up with the audio track from the camera. (Assuming the camera and firestudio were recording the same event.) For syncing audio to video, you can use a transient that you can hear and see, like those snap boards you see used on production sets. Then you can line up the transients. If not, then probably when the choir starts or hits a certain note would work for syncing.

I've had problems in the past with keeping my mp3 sync'd up with the video and someone suggested to always record your music at 48khz for that very reason. He had a technical explanation that I can't remember, but sounded credible. Something to do with the video frame rate and dropped frames or something. I don't know if resampling to 48khz would work or not.

hth,
 
Thanks for the input.

I have a video editor (Pinnacle StudioPlus 10). It's not great, but it works ok. Actually I don't like it at all, but it gets the job done. It seems like I've tried this before and had a lot of problems with it, but it's been a while so I can't remember.

And I was wondering about recording at 48khz. I've heard a lot of people say that 48khz is for video, but I don't know why. I didn't think about it until after the fact so my recording is at 44.1.

The audio and video was recorded at the same time.
 
dastrick said:
Thanks for the input.

I have a video editor (Pinnacle StudioPlus 10). It's not great, but it works ok. Actually I don't like it at all, but it gets the job done. It seems like I've tried this before and had a lot of problems with it, but it's been a while so I can't remember.

And I was wondering about recording at 48khz. I've heard a lot of people say that 48khz is for video, but I don't know why. I didn't think about it until after the fact so my recording is at 44.1.

The audio and video was recorded at the same time.
Click to expand...

I feel your pain, I had the Pinnacle StudioPlus before. Sony vegas is so worth the money. It's about $90, but it feels like a pro level editor. ha ha... It doesn't have that We-Think-Your-Stupid-and-Will-Make-All-The-Decisions feel to it.

There's something about using 44.1khz audio with 24 frames per second video that throws it out of sync. It ends up with half a frame left over every second. I guess that's why it doesn't sync up. Your camera is going to record audio at 48khz, so your other recorders should be at the same rate. Again, I'm no expert on this and don't have a good explanation. And I'm curious if you can resample your audio to 48khz and have it sync up with the video.
 
I've put together a quite few videos using concert footage and audio recorded separately.

I use Vegas, which works well for me.

As Chili and others have said: load up the video, add in the music file, and line up the audio using a transient or other easily identifiable bit of sound.

As for sample rates: I just load up the video at whatever rate it is, and my audio is invariably 44.1. This has not caused me any synching problems so far. However, my videos tend to be short (less than ten minutes), so maybe they are not long enough for "dropped frames" or whatever to manifest themselves.
 
We provide audio recordings (3to 4 hours worth) to a video company and they do all the post production . I'll call them tomorrow and get back to you on what I find out.



:cool:
 
moresound said:
We provide audio recordings (3to 4 hours worth) to a video company and they do all the post production . I'll call them tomorrow and get back to you on what I find out.



:cool:
Click to expand...

That would be awesome. Thanks. The concert was roughly 1 hour long.
 
Did you use more than 1 camera? What usually happens is that if the sound and vision drift out a little you cut to another camera for a moment and then cut back in aligning the picture to the sound.

Film friends of mine always use a long shot camera and a mobile so if there is a missing piece of footage of the sound drifts they cut to a long shot.

Cheers

alan.
 
Only one camera.

And I'm experimenting with it now. Reminds me of how much I hate Pinnacle.:mad: I might have to install Avid DV and actually try to learn it since I have a copy of it.
 
I installed Avid Xpress DV 4.6 today. It looks promising once I figure out how to use it.:rolleyes:
 
dastrick said:
And I was wondering about recording at 48khz. I've heard a lot of people say that 48khz is for video, but I don't know why. I didn't think about it until after the fact so my recording is at 44.1.
Click to expand...

Doesn't matter much, but when you go to DV, it's likely to be converted to 48 kHz, though DV does support 44.1 kHz, too (and 32 kHz for 4-channel audio).

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#LockedAudio

Either way, there's so much slop in the tolerances for DV audio versus video these days due to manufacturers playing fast and loose with the specs that it probably doesn't matter much at all. :)
 
dgatwood said:
Doesn't matter much, but when you go to DV, it's likely to be converted to 48 kHz, though DV does support 44.1 kHz, too (and 32 kHz for 4-channel audio).

http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-tech.html#LockedAudio

Either way, there's so much slop in the tolerances for DV audio versus video these days due to manufacturers playing fast and loose with the specs that it probably doesn't matter much at all. :)
Click to expand...

As far as quality goes, would it make a difference which program converts it to 48khz...Avid or Cubase?
 
I wouldn't worry about doing this conversion to start off with.

Just load your WAV files into the video program and see how they line up. You could save yourself a mess of trouble.

When rendering the video, it will do its own conversion according to what format you are rendering to.

If it does prove to be a problem, I don't think it matters which application you use.

There's a possibility you can do this conversion within the video program itself.
 
Pro AudioVisual production companies require 48k sample rate.
Studio's that do soundtrack work record and mix everything according to
the 48k spec for this reason. If this is a home project don't worry about it.
 
Well...learning Avid DV is not what I would call fun, but it can't be any worse than Pinnacle. I finally got the video imported. And when I imported the .avi the first couple of times it was only audio and no video. Then I tried a .mov file. Same thing. Did some research and found out that I needed to be a "PowerUser" in XP. I'd never even heard of that before now. So I had to change some settings in XP. I re-imported the .avi file and it seems to be working fine, now. And when I imported the .avi it imported the audio at 44.1.

Fun times. Fun times. :rolleyes:
 
success?

following up with dastrick.

how did it turn out? since it is only one camera, hopefully it wasn't too difficult for you.
 
Man, I've got the video imported and that's it. I've been swamped at work. Plus another project (a slide show for a school graduation) came up that has a deadline so my attention has been on that.

I plan on getting back to it towards the end of next week depending on my work schedule. The thing is that I'm also making CD's of the performance along with DVD's. So I'm editing the audio, too. My plan it to edit the audio w/ no cuts or other time edits. Then import that into the video. Edit the video w/ the new audio. Then go back and edit the audio with time cuts, etc and make the cd's. It's really a pain in the butt, but it's good practice and brings in a little $$$. Which makes it easier to explain to my wife when I buy gear.

"But honey....I can make money with this stuff." :D:D:D



And thanks for checking up. I'm sure I'll have some more questions when I really get started.
 
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