Comments

jetdv wrote on 8/21/2002, 1:36 PM
No, Vegas will not capture Stereo 2 over firewire. An easy solution is to download Sceanlyzer Live and use it to capture when you need Stereo 2 (cost is $33 plus it has some other interesting features). Otherwise, you could always capture via your analog sound card - I would consider this as a last resort.

I have submitted this feature to be added to the program (EditDV did this over 3 years ago). Please submit the request so they will know that a significant number of people want this feature.
Luxo wrote on 8/21/2002, 2:47 PM
Yeah, we've been asking for this feature for awhile. Still, in the meantime, I capture audio 2 like jetdv says through my analog card, and it works fine. More importantly, that method allows you to capture both audio 1 and 2 in a single pass. Even if SF impliments audio 2 capture capability, you'll only be able to choose one or the other at a time, since the firewire spec doesn't allow for more.

Obviously capturing audio 2 through your analog input isn't ideal, and isn't acceptable for audio-centric recordings like concerts where you're taking your feed from the soundboard, but for my purposes (weddings where audio 2 is a lav mic) it works fine.

Here are the steps:

1) Just run a cable from either the stereo RCAs or the headphone plug on the rear of the camera into your sound card's line-in port.

2) Be sure you're monitoring audio 2 on the camera (audio monitor button on the side).

3) start up audio recording software like Sound Forge or Goldwave, and make a project a little longer than the material you're capturing. Be sure the project is set to 32000 Hz, so that it will sync perfectly when you import it to Vegas. Also, just use mono if you didn't record a stereo signal to save disk space.

4) Check that your computer is set to record from line-in.

5) Start your video capture (which will also capture audio 1).

6) Simultaneously start your audio capture (which captures audio 2).

On my 1Ghz system, I don't drop any frames. Some people have trouble syncing audio 2 back up to the video with this method. In my experience, it's pretty easy, you just have to look at the waveforms to get an aproximate match. Find a bit of sound that both audio 1 and 2 have in common, and then zoom WAY in to sync them up. Hold the shift key if you need to so it won't snap to frames. Good luck!

Luxo
Control_Z wrote on 8/21/2002, 3:53 PM
The 1394 spec sure does include 4 channel audio. I think the problem is that the MS routines discard 3&4 so all the software packages using them do the same. Proprietary cards such as our DVStorms have always simply saved 3&4 as a .wav file in a single pass.

And I've tried the analog method but find that if I use scene detection and clip overlap the .wav file takes forever to constantly sync up. Quicker to just capture twice (with SCLive) if I have the disk space.
jetdv wrote on 8/21/2002, 4:02 PM
Since Scenalyzer Live captures audio 3&4 via firewire using Microsoft's routines, all other programs should be able to as well. I don't think this is a Microsoft issue. I think Vegas just needs to be able to look for the information. I'm not sure, but I think all 4 channels may be coming across the firewire channel anyway - the program just has to look for the extra channel existance and use them instead. Since an AVI file cannot store 4 tracks, it has to decide whether to only capture audio 1&2 or only capture audio 3&4 or, ideally, capture audio 1&2 normally and audio 3&4 as a separate .wav file.
Luxo wrote on 8/21/2002, 4:25 PM
My understanding (and please prove me wrong) is that the 1394 spec isn't capable of transfering both audio 1 and 2 simultaneously. Proprietary cards like the Canopus DVStorm accomplish this, but that's because they're proprietary -- not standard 1394 cards. However, this does show that it's possible to bring all four channels off the camera and through a firewire cable simultaneously, which is good.

Can someone at SF lay down the law on this matter? Is it possible to capture all four 12bit audio channels at once with a typical OCHI-compliant IEEE-1394 DV card?

Luxo
Jeffpacocha wrote on 8/21/2002, 8:57 PM
Thank you guys...I am in good company with this problem. I will attempt some of these options!

Jeff
SonyDennis wrote on 8/22/2002, 1:42 PM
Luxo:

DV and Firewire both can do 4-channel, 12-bit, 32KHz audio. It's just that SF VidCap doesn't render the channel 3/4 audio to an audio stream, not that it matters yet, since VV3 only pulls from the first audio stream anyway.

Creating an audio stream for ch-3/4 and letting you pick which audio stream is used are definately things we're looking at for VV4, but I can make no promises at this time.

There is a work-around that I've just verified.

First, get your hands on an older version of VidCap that captured Type-1 DV AVI files. The one that came with VV2 should do the trick (try here, although you'll need a VV2 serial #, so we might need to put it on the ftp site for you). Use this to capture your DV, then bring the clip to Vegas 2.0 (found here, you can just use it in Demo mode). It will build "proxy" files for each audio stream (file extensions of .sfap0 and .sfap1). Exit VV2, rename the .sfap1 file to .w64 and open it in VV3, it will be your ch-3/4 audio.

///d@
Control_Z wrote on 8/22/2002, 5:42 PM
One thing that's really needed - and I'd suggest for VV4 - would be to not just save 3&4 as a big .wav file, but rather if the scene detection is enabled to break the .wavs apart. That way syncing on the timeline will be much easier.

i.e., When I capture analog 3&4 as a big .wav, and I use scene detection, If I overlap the video clips when I send them to the timeline then the whole .wav is seriously out of sync.

Barring this, then yes I can do as I do now - capture twice with SCLive and just delete the video track for 3&4.