Syncing wav to video problem

RobMac wrote on 8/30/2010, 3:42 AM

Some of you guys helped me before, and I thank you for it. Here is another problem.

I make music videos for youtube. I record my sound with a Zoom H2 recorder as a wav file. My camera is the Panasonic SD60 recording AVCHD files. I use Vegas Movie Studio 9.0c.

I can align the wav soundfile exactly with the sound wave of the video - exactly. But when I click 'Make Movie' and look at the result, the sound enters before the finger movement (I play guitar and banjo).

So, I have gotten used to placing the wav file a little to the right, about a quarter of a second. The results can be perfect, or not quite - and not quite is not quite good enough. There must be an easier and more accurate way?

Rob

Comments

richard-amirault wrote on 8/30/2010, 6:13 AM

I'll give a couple of hints that help me .. but, I don't need that degree of accuracy.

Fist, you need to zoom into the timeline .. considerably. Generally I zoom in until it is obvious that I've zoomed too far .. then back off a couple of times.

Second, it helps to convert the stereo tracks (both the camcorder and the Zoom) to mono (right click and "combine" the L & R tracks in Vegas) This makes it a *lot* easier to see and sync the waveforms.

When finished syncing .. convert the Zoom back to stereo for your render. (I assume you will have the camcorder track muted)

RobMac wrote on 8/30/2010, 8:22 AM

Thanks for the response. Yes, I can zoom in to the smallest detail and align the two wav files absolutely perfectly. I then mute the original sound from the video. It all looks perfect.

The problem seems to be after that stage, when I hit 'Make Movie'. The rendering puts the motion behind the sound.

I have strong computer power and masses of free disc space, so operation should not be a problem. Something in the rendering process is not working the way I would like it to, the way it should.

RobMac wrote on 8/31/2010, 12:23 PM

Any more responses, please?

I emailed the help desk people and got an answer along the lines of 'try to align the wav files carefully'. Well, thanks a lot, but did you read my email? I can align them perfectly, but that is not the problem. I can zoom in to incredible detail and align perfectly, but once rendered, the sound is out with the motion.

For most people adding sound to a film, that would be acceptable. But this means that no music videos can be made with Vegas Movie Studio as it's extremely difficult to align sound and vision perfectly.

richard-amirault wrote on 8/31/2010, 3:37 PM

I can align them perfectly, but that is not the problem. I can zoom in to incredible detail and align perfectly, but once rendered, the sound is out with the motion.

Hmmm ... did you try to render to another format? If not try and see if it is stil out of sync.

If you can find a format that remains in sync .. then try using that file to convert to your desired format.

musicvid10 wrote on 8/31/2010, 11:24 PM

How long are the files?
Are you doing the alignment at the beginning, middle, or end of the files?
Where is the H2 positioned relative to the camera and subject?
What is the camera->subject distance?
Too bad you don't have Vegas Pro and Pluraleyes. Your life could be much easier.

Rainer wrote on 9/1/2010, 3:27 PM

Hi Rob, Since you are losing synch during the render this is a codec issue, most probably with the AVCHD. Try first transcoding the AVCHD to another format before you synch it with the audio on the timeline. If that doesn't work, try a different format or codec for the render.

RobMac wrote on 9/2/2010, 2:29 PM

Thanks, Rainer. How do I 'transcode the AVCHD to another format'?

Rainer wrote on 9/2/2010, 4:06 PM

Hi Rob. Google is your friend. But essentially it just means using a codec to convert the AVCHD to something that your editor likes better. The three most popular codecs for this are Cineform (popular but costs) Avid’s DNxHD (free but a bit obscure), and Matrox vfw codec, also free, its supposed to be lossy, but seriously, I can't see it. I prefer the Matrox. There's a good description of how to use it at http://buildyourown.wordpress.com/2010/08/08/how-to-transcode-mov-files-using-matrox-codecs/

RobMac wrote on 9/4/2010, 3:21 AM

many thanks :-)