Considering Vegas Movie Studio

ducnbyu wrote on 11/29/2004, 4:51 PM
Hello, I'm new to the forum. Read the manual and also searched posts here and don't find my particular questions discussed. And not ready to go through downloading and installing a demo just yet. So your experience is much appreciated.

The manual and specs state 3 audio tracks. Does that include the audio that is captured along with the video? In other words does it get layed down on the "voice" track leaving 2 tracks for additional audio elements? Or is it 3 tracks in addition to the captured audio? If the "video" audio is not counted among the 3, is it edittable? I don't see controls or discussion on how it can be manipulated. That leaves me to believe that the "video" audio goes into the "voice" track. However, looking at the example timeline screen shot in the manual shows breaks in the audio on the voice track leading me to believe that the "video" audio does not end up on that track. Also the description of the voice track in the manual lead me to believe it is not occupied by the "video" audio. Hence my uncertainty.

If the Primary video track has it's own audio separate from the 3 listed audio tracks, do the Video Overlay tracks also have their own audio? If any of these additional "video" audio tracks are present what type of manipulations can be performend on them?

Thanks,
Rye

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 11/29/2004, 5:18 PM
There are three stereo audio tracks total, but they are not dedicated to voice, music, and sound effects. They are generic and may be used for any audio. The audio from a video clip must reside on one of these three tracks if it is to be included in the video. However, once the audio and video events are on the timeline, either may be edited independantly of the other. The audio may be split, trimmed, moved, deleted, or otherwise altered on it's own or in conjuction with similar edits done to the audio.

Not only may any of the audio tracks contain the audio from the video clip, but each track can contain as many separate audio events as you wish. You can drop music files onto the voice track along with the voice and they may be mixed or crossfaded. You can split an audio event and drag the second half to another track lined up under the first so that both halves play simultaneously. You can do any of thousands of other things with any audio clips in any audio track.

Generally, video clips placed in the overlay or text tracks do not have audio associated with them. They can however, and if they do the audio clips must be placed in one of the three audio tracks. If you merely want to crossfade one video clip with it's audio into another clip then a single video track and a single audio track are all that's necessary. Overlap the clips on the same tracks for the desired duration of the fade and you're done. Unlike many other video editors you don't have to have separate tracks for A/B rolls. Because of this, 3 audio and 3 video tracks are enough to accomplish very complex compositions.
gogiants wrote on 11/29/2004, 11:18 PM
As always, well said Chienworks.

"3 audio and 3 video tracks are enough to accomplish very complex compositions." - In the extremely rare cases where 3 tracks each are not enough, I've just rendered out a small section and then placed the resultant file in the timeline.

For what it's worth, I've found the audio editing and video synching features to be very powerful in Vegas Movie Studio.
ducnbyu wrote on 11/30/2004, 9:51 AM
Thanks Chienworks and gogiants,

That's exactly what I was unclear about.

So I envision that if I have two audio events on a single track, event A shorter than B, then A can be positioned any where and entirely within B. Also, that A and B remain separate objects that can be moved independently throughout the duration of the project. The limitation being that the envelopes (volume and panning) are applied to the track (and therefore A and B) as a unit. Do I have that accurately?

Thanks,
Rye
Chienworks wrote on 11/30/2004, 10:05 AM
OK, i had to launch Vegas and try a few experiments to see for myself what would happen ...

If you have an event entirely within a longer event then the shorter one will take precedence for it's duration. The longer event will be muted while the shorter one plays, then resume after the shorter one is finished.

If the events overlap such that the second event starts after the first starts, and the first event ends before the second event ends, then the events will crossfade from the first to the second.

If you have two events of identical length and place them in exactly the same spot on the same track then one of them will be entirely muted. Which one seems to be somewhat random, with the event placed on the timeline first taking precedence more often than the event added later. I couldn't seem to find any pattern defining which one got precedence.

Yes, envelopes are for the entire track, regardless of what events are on that track. If you do need to have two audio events playing simultaneously with independant control then you will have to place them on separate tracks.
gogiants wrote on 11/30/2004, 10:20 AM
You are correct that the shorter event A can be placed entirely within B on one track. The effect of this, though, is that only A will be audible during the stretch where they overlap. You can crossfade A and B so that there is not a hard cut in/out.

If A and B are placed "on top of each other" on SEPARATE tracks, then both will be audible.

You are correct that the envelopes would be applied to a track. But, to be clear, you can set points within the track and thus adjust both volume and panning at any point in the timeline within the track. In other words, you're not locked into a single setting for volume or pan on the entire track. That said, you still can adjust the overall volume on the track if you want to. Also, audio track FX apply only to the entire track. I've worked around this small limitation by exporting segments of the timeline to .wav format and then editing those short segments in Audacity, a free audio editor that is fun to work with.

If you describe a bit more about what your final goal is in terms of editing and effects I bet you'll get some very interesting and creative input from the folks here on the forum!
ducnbyu wrote on 11/30/2004, 12:55 PM
Once again thank you so much for the detailed info.

My goal is to get a feel for the compromises I will encounter with Movie Studio. I'm not too concerned about the limited number of video tracks. 3 seems like plenty. But 3 audio tracks is another story. An example I have is a beach clip at somewhat slo mo. I want to include some ambient beach sounds that play at normal speed, sounds of children playing in the distance at normal speed, some music, and where the seagull takes flight seagull screeching panning from left of center to the right as the seagull travels that direction. The orginal audio has too much wind noise and other than that only has the ambient beach sound.

I have audacity and though I still have a lot to learn about it already agree it's a great tool. I could combine the ambient beach and children playing in audacity then that would leave 2 Movie Studio tracks one for music and the other for the seagull. It's easier to sync up audio and video and tune the panning and volume when all audio and video elements are in the same timeline. I'm leaning heavily towards Vegas due to its reputation of stability and other things, but not ready to invest in Vegas 5.

I'm sure that as I get deeper into this video habit I will encounter more complex situations that will be difficult and will need to upgrade. Just wanted to see how far it would go. I sure got excited when I thought you guys said it was possible to mix audio elements on a single track.

Currently working in Movie Maker 2 and get very frustrated with the surprises it springs on me. Like frames that don't appear in preview showing up in rendered output in one format and portions of clips omitted when rendered in another format. And in some projects video not being able to keep up in preview mode. Also tried a version of Ulead and had a different set of technical problems. My computer should have sufficient horsepower.

Thanks,
Rye

Chienworks wrote on 11/30/2004, 1:03 PM
You can always build up a composite sound from events on the three tracks and then render the result to a new .wav file. This new file can then be used in a project as a single audio clip on one track. If you need very complex composites you can repeat this process as much as necessary. 3 sets of composite sounds placed on 3 tracks can be rendered into a new single file which is now a composite of 9 tracks, etc. Since it's all digital there will be minimal loss of quality.
IanG wrote on 11/30/2004, 2:28 PM
It wont work well for sounds that need to be accurately synched to the video, but I use Acoustica's MP3 Audio Mixer to mix soundscapes. It has unlimited tracks and a very simple user interface.

Ian G.