Combining Audio with Video and Pictures – Our Daughters 1st Year Birthday Video

[Stephen Crye]

Hi;

Although it has been while since I used Movie Studio Platinum, I think it has the same capability as Vegas Pro for what you want to do. Below is one way to approach, but there are others. I’m ignoring any of the steps to get the info from your tape into audio/video formats that Vegas can open (I’ve never done anything with tape and Vegas – my cams are all ACVHD). But, I expect that the steps to go from tape to Vegas are simple. I think it has some kind of an import function that will allow the cam to inject directly into Vegas.

The first step is to open each video in a “throwaway” instance of Vegas. You will be able to see the music track separate from the video. There are many ways to grab just the music, but I find the simplest is to have another instance of Vegas open (that instance will be the final project). With both open (two monitors really helps for this), you are ready to copy stuff from one to the other. From the source track, right-click on the music clip anywhere in the track view, and select Group/Remove from. That will “disconnect” the music from the vid portion of the clip. Then highlight the music clip, copy it, switch focus over to the destination instance of Vegas, and paste. You will then see just the audio track in that instance of Vegas.

Repeat, adding new audio tracks to the destination project.

You can use the same method to get the video-only tracks.

Another option is to open everything in one instance of Vegas, and then ungroup and move things around. Lots of variations are possible.

Within any audio track, you can set equalization effects, both for the entire track or just sections of a clip. The EQ function is pretty powerful, with band selection, etc.

You can mute tracks while you slide things around to line up with the video. You can split sections of the audio clips, use those to create new tracks, etc.

One nice thing I just discovered, is to use my camera as a “mic” while I sit in front of the computer. You can narrate as the video plays, and then import the result into the computer, throw away the video of the cam pointing at the wall, and voila! You now have reasonably clean audio (compared to crappy computer mic) to overlay.

Hope this helps.

Steve

Win7 Pro X64 on Dell T3400, MultiTB SATA, 8GB RAM Vegas 10e x64 DVDA 5.2(build 133) Sony HDR-CX550V

[Doyal Gudgel]

This is one thing I can assure you of. With the mass of material you have to begin with you MUST make a plan and stick with it. The last time I looked I managed to create over 55,000 pictures. Not to mention the hundred or so DVD’s of material. Many duplicates of course. I am totally lost. My problem was that I started with one plan then found it necessary to change it every time I found new material. Every time I changed it I managed to create more problems. When I started I had 30,000 feet of film, some hours of video tape, and a few thousand still slides and pictures. If I had done a complete inventory to begin maybe I would have kept it manageable. But no, somehow I managed to make a mess of it. I am about ready to chuck it all and start watching TV even though I hate TV! Right now I am rendering an hour of the kids when little. My wife who has Dementia loves watching these old home movies. But because of my lack of planning I will never finish. There is that saying. Plan Ahead. With things digital you can do it. Have fun.

Hope to see you
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