[John Rofrano]

If you just split the audio and didn’t change the length of the two events, then you can simply delete the audio after the split point, and extend original event to fill in the gap. It will be the same audio because the split is non-destructive.

If you want to test this out, copy the right side of the split event to anther track and then extend it out longer and it should look just like the original event before you split it.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

It looks like you haven’t made effective use of the Primary Storyline (which is empty for almost 1/2 of the video) and everything is either a Connect Clip or a huge Secondary Storyline which leads me to believe you where trying to emulate a Track Based workflow which doesn’t work in Final Cut Pro X because storylines are NOT tracks.

I would suggest that you think about what is the Primary Storyline. Is it the visuals? In which case place the slides on the Primary Storyline and sync the audio below them as Connect Clips. Or… is the narrative the Primary Storyline in which case place the audio on the Primary Storyline and sync the slides above it as Connected Clips. Determining what should be the primary story is critical to syncing everything else. You have to stop thinking about Tracks and start thinking about the Story you are telling. It looks like the video contains audio so I’m going to guess that this should be on your primary storyline (as it is for the second half). Then the slides would be the cut-aways above it.

I believe that your biggest problem right now is that you’ve created this huge secondary storyline and every time you make a change to it, everything shifts making things go out of sync because it only has one anchor point. The solution is to get rid of that big secondary storyline and allow each clip within it to Connect to the primary storyline all by itself. Then when you change one of those clips, everything else will stay in place because Connected Clips are anchored (i.e., LOCKED) to the Primary Storyline which is the behavior that I believe you are looking for.

You can use a combination of Lift from Storyline ⌥⌘↑ and Overwrite to Primary Storyline ⌥⌘↓ to fix the edit. You cannot move clips from one storyline to the other directly, so you actually have to lift the clip from the Secondary Storyline and then overwrite it to the Primary Storyline if that’s the direction you want to go. Try and get all of the gaps in your primary storyline filled in. If you are filling the primary storyline gap with the video/audio that is currently below it, then just use Overwrite to Primary Storyline ⌥⌘↓ to get all of the audio clips into the Primary Storyline and use Lift from Storyline ⌥⌘↑ to get the clips from the Secondary Storyline anchored directly to the Primary Storyline.

Alternately, as Jeff mentioned, you may want to create some compound clips that contain both the slides, video, and VO in a single clip. Then you can move these clips around the audio will never get out of sync because the audio and video are combined. If you were to take this approach I would use one Compound Clip per slide. So if there are 60 slides, you would have 60 compound clips. Each one could then be edited separately so that only that one slide will be affected by any changes. I’m thinking that this might get tedious and fixing your Primary Storyline and Connecting all of the other clips to it (instead of having the huge Secondary Storyline) will be a better fix.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[John Lee] “I’m only aware of fading in/out so that it goes to absolute zero, so I’m stumped how to do this. In other words, the audio of the music track is constant most of the time, but I need to manipulate it at times to gradually lower the volume and later to gradually raise the volume back to the normal level.”

Right-click on the Audio Event and select Insert Envelope –> Volume Envelope (doing this from memory but it’s something like that). Then you can double-click on the Volume Envelope to create a point, move down the timeline and double-click to create another point, and drag it down in volume. The volume will gradually change from the first point to the second. Repeat for moving the volume gradually back up.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Jayden Watson] “Which is better, premiere pro or Sony Vegas?”

What is better is what you deem to be better for you. They are both NLEs that are capable of producing the exact same output. It’s all about what workflow you like best. I mean it’s like Canon or Nikon? Both are great cameras that will take excellent pictures… neither will make you a better photographer all by itself. It’s what you do with the tool that counts.

[Jayden Watson] “I have had experience with both editors, and I do like them both, but I do find Sony Vegas to be easier and quicker. “

You just answered your own question: Vegas Pro sounds best for YOU!

[Jayden Watson] “But I’ve heard that premiere pro is more professional.”

What does that even mean? What makes a tool “professional”? Probably professional features like vector scopes, waveform monitors, 3 wheel color correcting and grading, ability to use plug-ins to enhance the capabilities, support for closed captioning if you are in broadcast, ability to use external broadcast monitors, rendering to professional codecs, etc. Vegas Pro has all of those features. How is it not as professional as Premiere Pro which has the same tool set?

[Jayden Watson] “The thing I don’t like about Premiere is that when you split, you have to use the razor tool, and then switch back to the selection tool. I just hate hate that, it’s annoying. It also takes more work to create a text/title, which takes up more time, and to add on top of that, you have to drag it to the timeline. I don’t have problems like this in Vegas, I press S and it snips it right away, and I still have the selection tool on, it also takes less work and time to create a text/title.”

That is my experience as well. Everything in Premiere Pro takes several steps more than in Vegas Pro. Vegas is more organic in the way you can edit right on the timeline like molding clay. I never liked editing in Premiere because of this. Too many steps to get simple things done.

[Jayden Watson] “As someone who wants to be a filmmaker, I’ve heard from many people that Premiere is much better than Vegas, and that is more professional, but why is that?”

Because they want to think that they are professionals because they use professional tools (whatever that means). What “professional” feature that Premiere Pro has is missing in Vegas Pro? You should ask them that. Give them plenty of time to answer, because they will need time to make something up!

[Jayden Watson] “There are movies that have been made with Premiere and none with Vegas.”

False! Movies are primarily made with Avid and Final Cut Pro 7 and to a lesser extent Premiere after Apple switched to Final Cut Pro X. There have been films edited with Vegas Pro, Bred in the Bone and The Craving Heart come to mind. The reason most movies are made with Avid is because it has exceptional media management and collaboration features (which Premiere Pro and Vegas Pro do not have) so when you are working with a team of editors, you need those or else you can’t function as a team. Like I said, it’s all about the workflow. Solo editors can select whatever tool works best for them.

[Jayden Watson] “Overall, I do prefer Vegas because it’s easier, smoother, and I like the interface and the layout of it all. But I do want my films to have the best quality possible (it’s also in the filming, not the editing, I know.) and if Premiere will help me with that then I will consider switching.”

Premiere won’t help you there. There is absolutely no difference in the quality of the video between Premiere Pro and Vegas Pro. The look of your video starts with the shooting and lighting on the set. Get that wrong, and I don’t care what editor you use, it will not look good. There is only so much you can do in post.

[Jayden Watson] “But which one do you prefer?”

Vegas Pro without question. Through the years, I have purchased Adobe Creative Suite 2, CS4, CS5 , & CS6 because I used After Effects and Photoshop and Illustrator and with each one of them, Premiere Pro sat on my hard drive unused. I would try it with each new release and go back to Vegas Pro because it was a much better workflow for the way that I edit. So I had Premiere Pro and I chose to use Vegas Pro instead.

But that’s not the only consideration now that Adobe makes you pay ransomware for using Premiere Pro and when you stop paying, it stops working and all of your projects are useless. I don’t use any Adobe software anymore because of this so make sure you can afford to keep paying Adobe once you start because they have you locked in forever.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[andy patterson] “Is the Windows system updating or did the virtual machines update? My Windows 10 system does not update when shutting down ever. When I first build a new system I let it update for a couple of days and then disable the updates. As I stated my editing system is rarely connected to internet. When I had Windows 10 on my laptop it never failed to shut down because of updates. Are you using a genuine MS OEM version? “

I didn’t let it update for days because I don’t have days to keep it running. It’s just a test system that I run on occasion to check software compatibility. If you are not connected to the Internet it doesn’t try to install updates (obviously). This is how I got it to stop. I disabled the network card.

[andy patterson] “The start Menu was not missing with XP to Vista Upgrade. You a bit confused. I think you are thinking of Windows 8.”

You are correct. Vista was the poor performing one that aggressively cached everything into memory and Windows 8 was the metro debacle. A lot of the Vista problems were due to it introducing a new driver model that made a lot of peoples peripherals incompatible but that’s not Microsofts fault. At some point you need to move ahead and Apple does this all the time. As I said, I don’t remember clearly but I lived through it all and Vista and Windows 8 were versions that people avoided.

[andy patterson] “Can you install Windows 95? Would you consider Windows 95 hard to install?”

Not only can I install it… but I can run it in a window on my Mac Pro Desktop!

(That’s actually Windows 98 but you get the idea.) 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[andy patterson] “I am wondering if you used CS 6 on an old 64 bit Pentium 4 system and switched to FCPX using an i7 Mac.”

Actually, I was using CS6 on a Core i7 6-Core PC w/Quadro 4000 that I built before moving to a 12-Core Mac Pro w/ATI HD7950. I don’t edit RED footage so perhaps my experience would be different if that was the case. I get your point that different workflows may work better on different hardware/software combinations depending on your video editing format.

But speaking of inequity… (e.g, Pentium 4 vs Core i7) that’s exactly what the original video that started this thread is all about… comparing a modern PC to a 4 year old Mac Pro makes no sense. A modern PC is also faster than a 4 year old PC. So what’s the point? The only point I can see is that you can update a PC any time you want while Apple has made their computers non-upgradable and I can’t argue with you on that point. I voted with my wallet and did not buy the 2013 Mac Pro and still use my 2010 Mac Pro and have expanded it quite a bit.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[andy patterson] “I think that is the problem. You don’t use a Windows PC or Premiere Pro but you will post about Premiere Pro and Windows being sluggish and problematic but the people that happen to use Windows and Premiere Pro don’t make the same comments. Why do you think that is? Why do Mac users who do not use a Windows PC or Premiere Pro complain more about Windows PC and Premiere Pro than the people who actually use them? Why do you think that is?”

Because I have used a Windows PC for over 33 years and I own and have used Adobe Creative Suite CS2, CS4, CS5, & CS6 (I refused to pay ransomeware for CC) and those that just switched to Premiere Pro have used a Windows PC for a year or two and haven’t experienced how sluggish they get over time or how unstable they get as you update and add more software. I’ve only used a Mac for 4 years but my experience has been so far superior to my 33 years of PC experience that I would never use a Windows PC or a track based NLE again. So I’m speaking from personal experience having used both platforms with a variety of workloads not just video editing (I’m also a software developer).

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[Walter Miale] “1) what computer or computers to get, with what specs, for herself and her teen daughter”

Without knowing a lot about what they want to do or what their budget is and realizing that they themselves might not know where they want to take this, I would recommend they get a biggest iMac that they can afford. The 21.5-inch iMac with Retina 4K display, 3.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i5, 8GB memory, and 1TB hard drive starts at $1,299 USD and the 27-inch starts at $1,799.00 USD. Really any of the new iMacs should be fine.

If they can’t afford a new one, OWC has some excellent deals on used Macs. Just make sure you don’t get anything less than a Core i5. (i.e., no Core 2 Duo, those are very old, and no Core i3, those are too weak for media creation) Buying new is always preferable especially if you plan to keep it for a while.

[Walter Miale] “2) what software for video”

I would start with iMovie which comes free with all new Macs. Don’t let the free price fool you, it’s quite a capable little video editor and my daughter uses it for her YouTube fashion videos and loves it. If you need more capability, you can get Final Cut Pro X but that’s an investment at $299. What I did was purchase iTunes gift cards when they went on sale. I bought 3 x $100 at a 20% sale making them $80 each so I only paid $240 for FCP X. ????

You didn’t ask about photo software but Affinity Photo for $59 is the deal of the century. It’s an extremely capable photo editing program on par with Adobe Photoshop but for a lot less money. They also have an iPad app that you can exchange files with. They provide a very creative environment for editing photos.

[Walter Miale] “3) what websites or other free resources to learn from”

I’m an educator so excuse me for pointing out that sometimes “free” training is worth every penny that you pay for it ($0) but there are a few gems out there.

You can search YouTube and be educated for days from people with as little as an hour of knowledge to some very good tutorials from experienced users. David Cox has some very good free tutorials on using a Mac for the first time:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twf70Tl7piY&t=165s
If you want structured format education I would recommend lynda.com for general Mac training and Ripple Training for Final Cut Pro X training but these will both cost you.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

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[John Rofrano]

[andy patterson] “My system never fails to shut down because of updates. Did you disable the updates as shown in the video below? I am thinking you did not. “

Yes, I did and I can make a video of the problem if you don’t believe me because I use virtual machines every day in my testing and I don’t want any of them updating without me doing it and I disable update right after the OS is installed and shut down the machine and it’s fine. Then I turn the machine on again and check and update is still disabled. When I shut it down the second time, it tells me it has to apply updates. When I turn it back on, Windows Update is still showing as Disabled but the service is RUNNING! Maybe after a certain amount of updates it actually stops updating but this is on a clean system and I do not want updates but Microsoft insists on running it even though it’s disabled. What I do is disable the network adapter after the initial load because all of my tests are local and don’t require the internet.

[andy patterson] “How was the Metro Mode a debacle?”

It shocked everyone who updated their Windows XP machines to Vista and the desktop was gone and their PC looked like a Windows Phone with this big “Hello Kitty” boxes interface. The Start menu was also missing. Several vendors made money selling plug-ins that would add the start menu back again. The desktop could be enabled but then you would start a program that tried to open a link in a browser and instead of opening the desktop browser, it would switch back to the Metro interface with a full screen browser and you had to figure out how to get back to your desktop. It was horrible! Customers complained and eventually Microsoft made the desktop the default in Windows 7 and brought the start menu back. When a company like Microsoft has to admit they were wrong and change the interface back to how XP looked… I call that a debacle! Nobody wanted their PC to look like a Windows Phone.

[andy patterson] “I am thinking you never used DOS to partition and format a hard drive. You wouldn’t use FDISK to fix corrupt files. I think you are thinking of CHKDISK. Having said that my files don’t go corrupt. “

Yes, I was thinking of CHKDSK and Yes you would use FDISK to recover corrupt Master Boot Record (FDISK /MBR) which I’ve used to recover Windows systems that won’t boot. But you are correct, I was talking about using CHKDSK to fix corrupt files. Files get corrupt when you computer blue-screens (BSOD) or locks up and needs to be powered off. If you use a Windows computer long enough, this will eventually happen to you. Updates to drivers that are buggy or not compatible with your hardware is a common reason for BSODs. Running CHKDSK every once in a while to catch file corruption before it gets bad is a good idea. Maybe Windows 10 does this now behind the scenes as part of regular maintenance?

[andy patterson] “The PCI (Plug and Play) bus still made use of IRQs as seen in the video below.”

Yes, of course it still does but before plug-n-play you sometimes had to reassign the IRQ’s manually so that they did not conflict. It’s not that the hardware wouldn’t work, but hardware that shared interrupts didn’t work well at the same time so having your display card and sound card on the same interrupt made game play difficult. Plug-n-play allowed devices to negotiate their own interrupts better so they would grab the next free IRQ instead of all being assigned to the same few from the factory.

[andy patterson] “Anyone can talk about DOS, IRQs and even ISA slots but how any people have actually seen them in the wild? “

I have worked for IBM for the past 33 years and I started in the IT department back in 1984 as a PC Technician so I’ve assembled, disassembled, partitioned, formatted, inserted math coprocessors and memory chips one-by-one, and flipped dip switches in more PC’s that I can count. This is what I did for a living! I may not remember it all with clarity, but I was there and still have some rather old parts in my parts drawer to prove it (like a sleeve of memory chips). Before joining IBM I had an Apple ][+ 48K (which I still own) and had I not joined IBM, I probably would have stuck with Apple. ☹ I also still have my Macintosh 128K (the original) which was the last Apple computer I owned before going to the IBM PC. I’ve personally owned a PC XT, PC AT, PS2 Mod-30, & PS2 Mod-80 (yes, microchannel!) before buying clones and building my own. So yea… now that I think about it… my experience is probably not the norm because I’ve seen everyone else problems including mine. lol 😉

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com

[John Rofrano]

[andy patterson] “They are disabled on my Windows 10 system. “

Yes, but for how long? I disabled them on my Windows 10 VM and then one day I’m shutting it down and it says, “please don’t turn off your computer, Windows is updating” and when I rebooted and checked, Windows Update was running again. So it doesn’t stay disabled. Mind you… the setting was still on Disable but the process as Running! That is a scary thought!

[andy patterson] “Vista and Window 8 worked great.”

Windows Vista was the laughing stock of the computer industry. Even Microsoft admitted it was horrible. Windows 7 was rushed out to make Vista go away. Windows 8 started the Metro debacle which is why I stuck with my Windows 7 desktop.

[andy patterson] “Have you ever used FDISK? “

Yes, just the other day in fact. I have Bootcamp with Windows 7 on my Mac Pro because I still have software that I must support and it wouldn’t boot. I had to run FDISK C: /F to fix corrupt files. That’s a big problem with Windows that macOS doesn’t have to worry about. MacOS uses a journaled filesystem which means transaction logs are kept to rebuild files should they become corrupt. Windows has nothing like this and depending on how many times your Windows PC locks up and has to be cold started, files will become corrupt and it will stop booting. You should run FDISK (or the GUI version) regularly on a Windows PC to catch file corruption before it gets too bad.

[andy patterson] “Have you ever changed the AGP aperture settings or the PCI latency settings?”

Yes, but not since I owned a Readl3D Video Card.

I also spent a fair amount of time assigning Interrupts to my SoundBlaster card on the ISA BUS (before the plug-n-play PCI Bus was invented) Those were fun days debugging why your new game wouldn’t run only to find out that your new graphics card and audio card were sharing the same interrupt. lol

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasstsoftware.com