Locking tracks & cross fading

[Don Bloom]

I’m sure there are more elegant ways to do this but what I do is SELECT ALL then SPLIT and RIPPLE. This way
I’m cutting ALL tracks (video and audio) and moving them to the LEFT so first I set MARKERS for IN and OUT points then I start at the END of the timeline and work my way forward-that way everything stays lined up with the markers.
Like I said not the most elegant but it works for me.
Don

[Steve Edwards]

I already have everything cut-up and sync’d up. Now what I need to do is start from the left, and move everything towards the beginning, but keeping the top and bottom tracks together, so as to butt them up or crossfade them. Some tracks on top I need to move indepently from the bottom. Several chunks need to be moved as top/bottom, and several on top or bottom need to be move seperately from the other.

[Don Bloom]

Well then the only other thing I can recommend is to highlight the clips, events or tracks you wish to move and move them independently. If it’s only the top track highlight the events to the end of that track only and move them. If it’s both tracks do the same.
It does sound though as if the workflow is a bit clunky-I mean unless you nees to have the 2 different tracks can you pull all the clips (at least most) to a single track therefore eliminating the other and making moveming a lot easier?
Don

[Steve Edwards]

Well, I was going to try to put a composite envelope on the top track, so I could fade in and out, to and from the bottom. I tried the multicam function, and for some reason it is really doing some funky things. I’ve redone this project about 3 times at least, and this is my last shot at seeing if this will work any beter.
By highliting, you are refering to clicking on the beginning of the said even and dragging mouse to the end, right?

[Edward Troxel]

What I’ve discovered is that many times people are asking the wrong question. Many times the question “how do I do this?” is asked AND correctly answered but it doesn’t really solve the problem the person is having. Perhaps if you give us some insite as to the “bigger picture” we could figure out where you’re really having the issues.

Edward Troxel

[Steve Edwards]

This is how I started out. I put two wedding files on the timeline and tried to line them up, so I could use the multicam option. I had a very hard time syncing the two, because somehow both cameras had been paused at the the beginning of the wedding. I finally thought that I had them lined up, but futher down the timeline about 30 minutes or so, the two became slightly out of sync, because I had an echoeing effect. I did some messing around and thought that I had it pretty close and used the multicam in Vegas. Didn’t really like just the cuts, so I decided that I like Excalibur better, because I had the option of disolves instead of just cuts. Set all my marker, and used multicam buton. I played it back and all of a sudden noticed that after the groomsmen came in and stood there, a minute or two went by, and then all of a sudden the groomsmen came in for a second time. Finally found out that somehow on the master track, that section of the clip had been inserted twice when multicam did its thing. So I took the extra insertion out of the master track, and it seemed to solve the problem. Everything seemed to look pretty good, so I burnt it to a dvd. When I played it back on the tv, the quality was not very good, I had never had this problem with quality when using version 6 of Vegas. When the camera panned the bridal party going down the isle, the background was very stuttery and jerky. So started over again. Got everything ok, so it seemed. I rendered the file in Vegas to Mpeg2 format. I took that file, and opened it in Adobe Soundbooth to clean-up the audio, and save it, and was re-rendered as a mpeg2 again in Soundbooth. Burnt to dvd, and played back on tv. Still bad quality, but this time there where sudden bursts of red (just for a flash-quick, enough to notice) on the screen. I seen this happen about 3 different times within a 5 minute run of the video. Now after all this frustration I am trying a different way, by putting both files on their track, cutting up what I don’t need, lining up what left by syncing track 1 & 2, and pulling together the pieces into crossfades, and using a composite envelope on track 1, so I can fade from track to track, and see if that works. I’ve been at this 2 weeks already and only this far. Very sad, isn’t it?

[Edward Troxel]

[steveandbelinda] “Didn’t really like just the cuts, so I decided that I like Excalibur better, because I had the option of disolves instead of just cuts.”

To be totally clear, you have the option of BOTH in both. You have to hold down the CTRL key when clicking on the camera using the Vegas version.

[steveandbelinda] “I played it back and all of a sudden noticed that after the groomsmen came in and stood there, a minute or two went by, and then all of a sudden the groomsmen came in for a second time.”

This should NOT happen unless something else is going on. For example, is it possible there was an event duplication on the camera tracks? It’s really easy to do. If you accidentally hold down the CTRL key when moving an event, it will actually COPY the event.

[steveandbelinda] “I rendered the file in Vegas to Mpeg2 format. I took that file, and opened it in Adobe Soundbooth to clean-up the audio, and save it, and was re-rendered as a mpeg2 again in Soundbooth.”

This does not sound like a good sequence. Why render to MPEG2 in Vegas and then have an AUDIO program RERENDER the MPEG2? If you want do do the audio in Soundbooth, render the video to MPEG2 in Vegas (using one of the DVD Architect presets which do NOT include audio) and render the audio separately as a WAV file. Edit the WAV file in Soundbooth and then give THAT file to DVD Architect as well as the original MPEG2.

Edward Troxel

[Steve Edwards]

Ed,
Anything is possible. I wasn’t refering that Excalibur was messing up, because it probably was me. I just don’t know where and how, but it is possible. I can render to mpeg2 in Vegas, but want to use Adobe Encore CS3 for the authoring. Can I still use a DVDA preset to do just the video? Then what do I do about the audio? Do I go back into Vegas and just render the audio to a WAV file from Vegas? Do you have any opinions why the video is stuttery and not very good? I never ever had this problem with Vegas 6D version, and not the camera, because it was a DVX100B & GL2. I am now using V8 Pro.
I just checked Vegas: Do I save the video to –
DVD NTSC Video Stream
Audio: None Video:29.97fps 720×480
Says; Use this setting to create an NTSC
or
DVD Architect NTSC Video Stream
Audio: None Video: 29.97fps 720×480
Say: Use this setting to create an NTSC
Because I am going to us Encore CS3 for the authoring!
And which wav file setting would you choose, Scott Studios, or Microsoft?
Thanks for all your help guys, I do appreciate it, and I am not out of the woods yet.

[Don Bloom]

OK had to shoot a wedding yesterday so I was out of the loop.
From what I’m reading there is a copy of the groomsmens clip on the timeline so first you need to look down the line to see where it is.
As for the workflow, I was a bit confused myself as to why you would render to MPEG to fix the audio then re-render to mpeg.

if Vegas doesn’t have enough audio control for you then render the audio only to WAV bring it to your audio program do your thing then replace the audio in VEgas. OR you can OPEN A COPY in AUDIO EDITOR from Vegas to SoundBooth. Set that in Preferences>audio>audio editor and you eliminate a step. Once you do your thing in SoundBooth render the finished product to either MPG in Vegas and bring it into CS3 to put your DVD together OR render to AVI as 1 big file in Vegas, bring into CS3 and render and author there.
I think this might be a better,smoother workflow for you with less chance of things going haywire.
Don

[Edward Troxel]

[steveandbelinda] “Can I still use a DVDA preset to do just the video? Then what do I do about the audio? Do I go back into Vegas and just render the audio to a WAV file from Vegas? Do you have any opinions why the video is stuttery and not very good?”

Yes, the DVD Architect presets can be used to create a video only file that can be used in Encore. It’s just a standard video MPEG2 file. Then render the audio to WAV, adjust as desired in the other program, and give Encore BOTH file. They should match up perfectly.

As for the stuttery video, you have too many variables involved to give any sort of definitive answer. Let’s eliminate some of those variables first by following this procedure first.

Edward Troxel