Best practice to sync audio in Vegas Pro Edit

Former user wrote on 7/27/2020, 12:23 AM

I am running Vegas Pro 16 (edit) in a project with two audio sources for video. I made a goof and recorded primary lav audio at 48.0 khz and shotgun back up at 44.0 Khz. On top of that, I recorded shotgun too low, but the room is a studio, so it is insulated and quiet. I want to merge the audio sources. Normally, I would get a DAW and import, resample, boost the signal, and merge in the DAW, export and drop that into the VEGAS Pro timeline and edit. Thing is, my understanding is that Vegas Pro is already a DAW and maybe it can do all those things without me having to roundtrip. Thoughts for all those more VP savvy...?

Comments

rraud wrote on 7/27/2020, 9:54 AM

You can have multiple sample rate ( and bit depth) files/events in VP, even on the same track. Set your VP project file audio properties to 48k. and the video properties the same as the source.

Audio can be 'peak' normalized in VP which may increase an event's gain. Right-click the audio event and choose "Normalize". VP will normalize the event to the default 0.01 dBFS, based on the event's highest peak.

If the cam's or other audio tracks are stereo, these can be opened as two mono tracks and worked on independently ("Options> Preferences> General> Import Stereo as Dual Mono") or converted manually after the fact. Duplicated the track, Right-click audio event> Channels> choose left or right. Repeat for the duplicate and choose the opposite.

 

Musicvid wrote on 7/27/2020, 12:05 PM

Vegas is one of the best programs with mixed audio sample rates. No need to fret, but if one of your sources has clock drift, it can be problematic in any editor.

Alan-Tutt wrote on 7/27/2020, 1:49 PM

Regarding clock drift, this is something I have to deal with all the time. It sounds like the OP has 2 main clips with audio, so the best way to sync them up is to do it visually.

Expand the track heights so you can clearly see the waveforms. Align them as best you can, then zoom in near the beginning and refine the placement as best you can. There's a setting to allow audio events to be moved independently of video frame boundaries, which definitely helps.

If both audio sources are tied to video, then you may need to separate the tracks so you can move the audio separate from the video.

Once you have the beginnings of the 2 clips synchronized, go to the end and see how far off they've gotten at that point. Trim the one you want to adjust so it's just after a waveform you want to use for sync'ing. You can always stretch it out again later. Then just Ctrl-drag the end of the clip to time stretch it so it matches the other, and then both clips will be sync'ed the whole way through. Just apply whatever processing you want to blend them to taste.

Musicvid wrote on 7/27/2020, 7:09 PM

Stretching introduces quantization noise and phase flanging that has always been intolerable to me.

Cut one audio track into ~10 minute chunks, precisely at waveform zero-crossings, in quiet spots. Then sync each chunk by aligning peaks. It used to go much easier with Pluraleyes. Did many major productions this way (signature below).

Geoff_Wood wrote on 7/27/2020, 7:28 PM

Stretching introduces quantization noise and phase flanging that has always been intolerable to me.

Musicvid - Even with 'Elastique' selected ?

Former user wrote on 7/28/2020, 2:34 AM

@rraud@Musicvid Now that is my kind of program, that VP can factor my goofs and still deliver the goods! I had to right click and go to 'switches' and there was 'Nomalize'. Not all the wave forms were large enough to match, but the smaller ones were able to be aligned eventually. I am impressed! VP Having a DAW-like interface helps, where I can do my audio stuff in-program and bring in plugins as needed.

Musicvid wrote on 7/28/2020, 3:14 AM

Vegas started life as a DAW, and many features are under-appreciated. When I bought VV2, editing video was still a new feature.

Musicvid wrote on 7/28/2020, 3:33 AM

Yes, Geoff.