Snap To Tempo

[Mike Velte]

Premiere Elements 4 can do this.

[Steven L. gotz]

You can tap the asterisk key on the numeric keyboard to create markers as the music plays, then sync to the markers. But, you can not have a fractional frame duration. You are pretty much stuck with 30 fps or 25fps (PAL).

[Pmcgoohan]

I can’t believe Premier Pro doesn’t have the ‘Edit to the Beat’ feature that the consumer level Elements 4 has.

I’m sure automatic markers would need some manual tweaking, but it would be a good starting point, and a real time saver.

I’ll give the manual asterix markers a go instead.

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

[Jon Barrie]

Audition has an auto find beats markers that you can export and import into premiere pro.
– Jon Barrie

[Pmcgoohan]

Thanks Jon, I’ll give that a go. My finger tapping is a bit off.

Having looked at other music videos, they only seem to be strict about edit points being on bars/beats in certain sections of a song.

I think I need to try and do it a bit more because the video is a narrative without dancing or lip syncing, and I want to bind it to the audio a bit more.

My first time- so any comments welcome!

[Jon Barrie]

Try to get the story cut out of it first. Don’t worry about the fine to music timing until you have shaped the story first. It’s far easier to shave back shots to fit to a certain beat or build up in a song than to get it timed perfect each shot before you move onto the next shot. It’s amazing how many times I’ve cut something and just watched it with the music later and see something fresh that makes it click. There are editing God’s I reckon and they have great ideas to show you when you watch things back over and over again.
– Jon 🙂

[Pmcgoohan]

Jon,

I’m glad you said that, because I’ve nearly got a rough cut finished without worrying too much about syncing it to the music (other than big section changes like verse to chorus).

The narrative is working well, which I worried might suffer if I started thinking about the music too early.

I know what you mean about waiting until later to find musical ‘hits’. I’ve noticed quite a few little opportunities to sync with the music, often as simple as footsteps or an actor pointing.

Thanks for the advice.