Advice for re-assembly of large project (newbie)

PepsiSteve wrote on 5/13/2009, 10:27 AM
Hi All,
I've just started using VMS 9 Pro Platinum. I previously played around with another package that shall rename nameless (but it's initials are Pinnacle Studio....) but never got in depth with that either, so I'm relatively new to video editing apps in general.

Here's my situation and then my plea for advice....

Back in 1987, my dad used an old (even at the time) camera/vcr combo to "convert" 46 reels of 8mm home movies on to VHS tape. At the next family Christmas gathering, we all sat down and watched the film and he dubbed the audio of the family's narration and comments on to the VHS tape.

So, 22 years go by and I sent the films off to be converted on to miniDV using a wetgate telecine...results were great!

I've captured the miniDV tapes in to AVI's of each reel of film. I've also captured the VHS tape in to 3 large AVI files (not reel by reel). I've pulled the audio off the VHS capture, cleaned it up and made it stereo, etc.

But, now I want to marry the family audio narration with the digitally recaptured films. When dad captured the films, most didn't have leaders on them, so he lost several seconds at the beginning and end while threading the projector and using the camera's fade-in/out feature...so the digital captured reels are a 5 to 10 seconds longer than the VHS audio narration.

I have a few thoughts on how to approach this, but not sure what's best. Right now, I'm leaning towards taking each individual digital reel AVI, splitting out it's piece of the audio narration from the VHS capture, marrying the two together in a VMS project, then rendering it out to AVI, then sticthing all the reels (now with their audio) in to the "master" video with titles, transitions, etc. Or...do I assemble all of the video reels in to one long time line, grab the entire VHS audio and put it on another track and split it where the gaps need to be because of the additional footage?

Any advise or other suggestions are welcome!
Thanks
Steve

Comments

Ivan Lietaert wrote on 5/13/2009, 11:01 AM
Leave the original audio with the avi reel. The audio will fill an audio track. Add the vhs audio to audio track two. Right-click on the audio track and insert<envelope<volume, do this on both tracks. A blue line will appear. Double clicking on it wil create points. Create double pairs of them which will allow to drag the volume down in between the pairs. By doing this on the two audio tracks, you have full control of audio without abrups audio breaks.