I'm Impressed!!

RalphM wrote on 1/24/2004, 11:27 AM
Having outgrown Pinnacle Studio 8, I decided on Vegas 4 and began learning with the help of this forum and DSE's Editing Workshop tutorial discs.

I volunteered (sort of) to tape an ordination of clergy in my church, and decided to use it as my first Vegas project. My source video consisted of two cameras - one static and one handheld, both running throughout.

I also had an additional sound source, an analog audio cassette runnning off the mixer. The tape is excellent in quality but somewhere between the rcording machine and the playback machine the tape is slow by about 1.5%.(Gotta get a minidisc)

The entire project will be about 1:45 long, and the cutting between the two video sources has been exceptionally easy. Changing the speed of the analog tape capture to lip sync on the closeups is another matter. BUT, it would have been so much more difficult using an external sound editor.

I will plug in about 60 stills, if provided, to salvage the music prelude before the service (when nothing is happening on the original video).

While I'm going to have to go back to the church to shoot some more B-roll to fill in some really boring gaps, I'm really impressed with how easy this has been in Vegas and how stable the system is.

Anyone visiting this forum considering purchase of Vegas - you have my recommendation.....


Comments

rextilleon wrote on 1/24/2004, 12:10 PM
Glad to have you aboard--enjoy the ride!
MUTTLEY wrote on 1/24/2004, 12:25 PM
Welcome to the club man, good call !

- Ray

www.undergroundplanet.com

DCV wrote on 1/24/2004, 1:17 PM
Unfortunately you won't be any better off with a Mini disc when you have to sync your audio. All secondary recording devices that are not clock synced to the camera will have drift of varying amounts.

I discovered a technique recently that gives great results using Vegas when you have to "compress" or slow down an audio track in order to sync it with the video. I described it in an earlier post to the forum:

http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=4&MessageID=242812

Hope your project goes well!

John
Chienworks wrote on 1/24/2004, 1:48 PM
While no external recording device will hold perfect sync, i do believe a MiniDisc will probably do much much better than a cassette tape. MiniDisc recording & playback should be digitzed at a pretty precise sampling frequency that is based on a crystal or a phase-locked-loop. I wouldn't expect these to be off even a tiny fraction of a percent over an hour's recording. Cassette tape recording & plaback speed are based on all sorts of mechanical systems that can vary with voltage, temperature, age, position of the deck, mechanical tolerances, stretching of rubber, wear & tear on the equipment, lack of precision calibrating the transport, etc .... It's quite possible that a MiniDisc recording could maintain useful sync (be close enough so as not to need adjustment) for an entire hour. Even if it does need some adjustment, it shouldn't be anywhere near as bad as an analog tape recording might be and this will make syncing easier and have less deleterious effect on the material.
rmack350 wrote on 1/24/2004, 10:25 PM
Some thoughts for dealing with the cassette tape until you find another recording medium.

First-off, just about all cassette decks seem to run at different speeds. As a kid I was always amazed how different a tape would sound from one player to the next. The pitch change can be very audible.

In the future you could get a head and tail slate to sync to (or use things in the shot). With this you have some good marks to do some time adjustment with.

It might be a little better if your audio is a little too long than too short. Better to waste some samples. To that end, if the audio is to short look for a deck with variable playback and dial the speed down. For instance, I have a Marantz PMD 4(something) that has a speed control. While you'll never be able to adjust it to be in sync you can make sure it's a little too long. Then you should be able to time compress it in Vegas after you've sampled it.

Rob Mack
ArmyVideo wrote on 1/25/2004, 6:25 AM
Welcome to the dakside.

Now you must convert 12 others to the Vegas realm or you will suffer bad luck for a year.

As far as the audio goes, holding CTRL and dragging the length of the audio track will speed up or slow down the audio. As long as you have "preserve pitch" checked in your preferences, and there isn't a huge difference in lenght, you should be able to get it pretty darn close.

Let us know how it turns out!
Brian
Jameson_Prod wrote on 1/25/2004, 7:05 AM
Another idea...for the future.....

As I have said several times on here I am a sound man first and a video guy when I have to be!. But I have used a feed from my sound board directly to my laptop and have never had a sync problem. I have used Vegas and I have used SF to record to. Both have worked flawlessly. Since the sound from the board is the same in most cases (same mics, same positions, etc)This process also allows me to use instances of audio from one project in another (crowd noise, room ambience, etc.). All you have to do is link up a sound in the file with a sound on the camera and the rest will be in sync. You can do this visually by expanding the track.

Good luck.
TorS wrote on 1/25/2004, 7:16 AM
Ralph,
You didn't ask for help on the syncing bit, and somehow you sound confident enough, so I'm sure you'll handle it. And you got some good advise anyway.
But I wanted to ask you: 1.45 you said. That sounds like you are making a 1:1 video, meaning it'll last as long as the original event. Is that so? And if it is, why would you want to do that? The ordinands will probably love it, but what about the rest of the world? Why not make it shorter, why not cut out the boring bits?
Tor
RalphM wrote on 1/25/2004, 8:58 AM
Thanks to all for the replies. I didn't know about holding down CTRL and stretching or contracting the end of the of the event. I worked that feature a little last evening and it's amazingly close, even on tight shots.

Tor - I definitely agree that close to two hours of video is a little long for most folks :-)). In this case, I was asked to just tape the ceremony because the ordinand's brother could not be there, so I'm reluctant to cut. It's a quantity-of-one production. I will put it on DVD for her and that way she can step through it and watch only the parts she wants. I am looking forward to some creative editing with Vegas, but this won't be the project where I get to do it.
TorS wrote on 1/25/2004, 9:48 AM
I see.
If you add markers in Vegas they will carry over in DVDA (if that's what you're using). Then one can jump between the best bits with the >| and |< buttons. Remember to select "Save project markers in media file" when you render.
Tor