Several second delay after hitting "Record" button

hahvahdsquah wrote on 6/20/2013, 10:55 AM
Hello,

I am trying to use the "record" feature to record an audio voiceover for a simple video. I believe I am properly following a fairly simple three-step procedure:

1. Click "arm track for audio".
2. Click in the timeline where I want to start recording.
3. Click "record".

Sometimes, this works fine. However, sometimes there is a rather strange several-second delay where the video will start playing, but audio doesn't start recording right away. I can't find anything consistent that causes this - one time I tried restarting the software and it worked fine, but then after I record a couple audio segments, the delay starts again.

Here's a screenshot: http://imgur.com/4TUd5XP

I'm a new user so apologies if this is something dumb. I tried googling around for "sony vegas record audio delay" but the top hits were all about millisecond-level delay problems with audio syncing, which doesn't seem to be the issue here.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 6/20/2013, 11:30 AM
This isn't how the program is designed to work -- and it's not what I see on my computers. It could be a lag in your system.

What model of camcorder is your video coming from and what format and resolution is it? Have you set your project properties to Match Project Settings to Media?

Do you have a lot of graphics, text, effects and/or layers of video in your project?

How fast is your processor and how much RAM do you have? Are you running Windows 7 or 8 64-bit or a previous version of this operating system?

All of these things can affect how responsive the program is.
hahvahdsquah wrote on 6/20/2013, 12:30 PM
You probably answered my question in that the likely source of the problem is just my machine lagging, and not some hidden setting that lets you set an X second delay when you start recording audio. This is an older machine so that wouldn't surprise me at all (I need to go look up the recommended system specs for Movie Studio). Just find it strange that sometimes it works and sometimes there's a lag.

For the record though, this is a 5-year old prebuilt HP machine running Vista. 3GB Ram, Intel Core2 Quad @ 2.66 GHz.

I'm using a Canon Vixia HFR200. I didn't do anything with "Match Project Settings to Media" - when I created a new project I just picked the AVCHD 1920x1080 template or whatever it was. I'm not sure what your definition of "a lot of graphics, text etc." is. I have the main video and audio tracks from the camera, a separate audio track for the voiceover, and a couple additional video tracks just for text. No effects other than fading to/from black between video clips.

* EDIT - just checked the system specs here and it seems that I meet the requirements:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudio/techspec
Steve Grisetti wrote on 6/20/2013, 12:35 PM
Yes, editing AVCHD on an older Vista machine could certainly cause a lag like you describe. Especially with version 11. (Version 12 is much peppier on a Windows 7 or 8 64-bit with a good RAM load.)

You could try pre-rendering your timeline regularly to take some of the pressure of your processor to create every effect and visual on the fly.

You'll find pre-rendering options under the Tools menu. As I show you in my book, the Selectively Pre-Render option best for general pre-rendering.
hahvahdsquah wrote on 6/20/2013, 12:49 PM
So, now I'm confused about what's available in the store:

http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegassoftware

Is there any such thing as Movie Studio 12? Or only Movie Studio Platinum 12? I bought the $45 version of Movie Studio 11 because I'm on a tight budget.
vkmast wrote on 6/20/2013, 1:29 PM
No Movie Studio 12 at the moment, only MS Platinum 12.
The latest build of Movie Studio 11 downloadable here
http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/download/updates/moviestudio
Steve Grisetti wrote on 6/20/2013, 7:44 PM
And, for what it's worth, MS Platinum 12 is worth every penny (in my not so humble opinion anyway)!

It runs 64-bit on a Windows 7 64-bit, so it takes much greater advantage of multi-core processors and heavy RAM loads. The first version to do that.