VMS to SoundForge - editing MPEG-2 ?

acocq wrote on 10/27/2009, 5:33 AM
I have a project in VMS Platinum (source material is AVCHD from my Sony HDR-SR12E) and have edited my takes. Now I want to "fiddle" with the audio in one take (need to boost a speech, which is too quiet).
I select "Edit in SoundForge" and then SoundForge starts up and the very first thing it does is that it requires that I purchase the MPEG-2 codec from the Sony website.

I'm confused as to why I need to purchase yet another codec in order to work on the soundtrack ...

Any help would be appreciated ...

Cheers,
Andreas

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 10/27/2009, 5:42 AM
I'm not sure either. Have you done any MP3 editing in Sound Forge? Maybe it's MPEG plugin hasn't been activated yet.

However, are you sure you need to leave Vegas? Vegas has quite a large selection of audio editing tools. You can insert a volume envelope which will let you "ride volume" on the track, increasing and decreasing it as you go along. You can split a section and use normalize for more increase. You can add EQ filters and compression as well.

Chances are you really don't need Sound Forge at all.
acocq wrote on 10/27/2009, 5:57 AM
Hi,
I've opened some MP3-files in SoundForge without any problems ... I'll search some more for activating MPEG ...

Since I'm new to VMS, I'm NOT sure that I need to leave VMS to do my editing ...

What I need is a way of removing "noise" from the sound track so I can then boost the volume and be able to understand the spoken words ... not sure if I can do this all within VMS (I read something about Vocal Eraser in SoundForge ... and that seemed to be the "right thing") ...

Cheers,
Andreas
GBR wrote on 10/27/2009, 4:23 PM
Try to "open copy in Sound Forge". Then do your editing and "save". The edited audio file will automatucally replace the original in VMS.
Regards,
GBR
acocq wrote on 10/29/2009, 7:44 AM
@GBR,
Thanks ... tried that and it does work ...

Just one question ... I see that it creates a separate WAV file (as the copy to work with). How is the original audio track handled ? Is it replaced in the original AVCHD-material ? Or does VMS maintain a "link-list" that tells it to use video from the AVCHD file and audio from the (altered) WAV file ?

Cheers,
Andreas
GBR wrote on 10/29/2009, 4:11 PM
Not really sure, but I suspect the "link list" as you suggested is what happens. The edited audio file retains the basic name of the original file but with "take 2" added to it. After editing the audio file, I have never had the need to return to the original. If that became necessary, I suspect it would be a case of locating the particular clip from the AVCHD file and replacing the edited bit.
Regards,
GBR
Chienworks wrote on 10/29/2009, 8:10 PM
Assuming the Studio version handles takes the same way as the full version, the original audio has a new take added with the edited audio. Both versions are stored within the event on the timeline. Right-mouse-button click on the audio event and choose "Takes". You'll be able to flip between the original version and the new version. This makes reverting to the original and quick A/B comparisons possible too.