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Syncing audio/video with multiple cameras
Can anyone recommend a good workflow for this? I want to switch angles during the video while keeping the narrative in sync with the speaker, I know there has to be an easy way to do this since it’s such a common practice but I’m fairly new to VMS platinum10. I did this by zooming way in and manually moving the video or audio until it was as close as I could get it. Very cumbersome obviously.
I hope this forum is ok for Vegas Movie Studio and/or the workflow for this is the same or similar in Sony Vegas. -
5 Replies
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Why don’t you clap loudly once at the start of each recording, then use the audio wave to sync? the spike the clap will make will be very easy to see. You can evelope out the clap sound after. Hope this helps, Danny Hays
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Ever seen the “clap-board” they use on a film set, for the start of a take? While the black-board part is used to index takes, the “clap” itself is for audio synchronization — it’s easy to match a sharp audio event.
And easier, still, when you’re in an NLE and can actually eye-ball the audio. Audio sampling is, of course, far finer grained than video, too, so it’s the place to look. You can usually find a good audio sync point, but if you can’t, next time, create one — a loud clap or something before you start. But for any kind of performance, there’s generally some quiet-leading-to-loud portion, mic feedback, a cough in the audience, a cymbal clash, something to use for syncing up cameras.
For any major event, like a wedding shoot, I’m likely to be starting and stopping cameras all the time. I keep one digital audio recorder (Tascam DR-1) going throughout the entire event, though — much easier to sync multiple video clips to a foundation, than to each other.
For pros doing this on a regular basis (and using Vegas Pro), there’s the Plural Eyes plug-in from Singular Software, which does pretty decent audio synchronization automatically. Not cheap ($150), but you could save hours per project if you have complicated shoots.
-Dave
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It is fairly easy to do. First, be sure that each camera is recording audio. Then, when editing, be sure to turn “Quantize to Frames” OFF (Don’t forget to turn it back on when you are done). Then zoom in on the timeline to see a large amount of detail. Align the audio from each camera so that all cameras are perfectly matched. Check the alignment for each camera by using headphones and enabling the audio for both the camera and the reference source. If you hear any echo at all, your audio is misaligned. Continue to adjust until you hear absolutely no echo. Then turn off the audio for all except the reference source.
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Just to add to the suggestions you’ve received already, I installed a $10 slate/clapboard app on my Android phone (also available for iPhone) that works great. If you do make the jump to Vegas Pro I would also second the recommendation for Plural Eyes — it will save hours doing this kind of stuff.
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All of your responses are very much appreciated!. Looking forward to some experimentation on my next project.
Thanks everyone.
Happy Holidays
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