Hi,

I think I understand the problem you have.

I suggest you expand and enlarge the tracks and try again. You can go to frame level in PD9 and this should allow you to synchronise the audio more easily.

You haven't included a diagnostic file or a screenshot which makes it hard for editors to assist you further.

http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/7958.page
PART A,B, E&F.

Hi Dafydd

Sorry, indeed had to add my installation info : did so now.
I put the 3 info parts in 1 text file.

Second file is about size and position of soundtrack.
Third file is 'bug' (no refresh of wave form after moving the sound track).

Thans for you input :

Hugo

(ps. I use PicPick as a screencapture tool. For its features availabe, one cannot imagine it is freeware :

Hi Hugo,
Sorry for the delay.
To me "WaveForms02.jpg" just shows you have shortened the length of the audio track and not moved it at all.

WaveForms01.jpg - not exactly sure what you're trying to get at here.
1. Audio tracks can be positioned in more than one track and merged by over lapping them.
2. the visual display and cut point in a track should not be heard when rendered BUT may if there is a marked difference between the stop and start audio wave position.

I use an overlap with audio in two tracks if I want a continuation of sound without a complete drop off. this also allows for wave form matching and a gradual easing in of one audio over the other.

Suggestion: In crease your ram level to a minimum of 6gb, 8 would be better.

For HD editing you need a minimum of 100gb of spare capacity in C drive to be trouble free at all times. None of your current drives have sufficient working capacity. this is one area you must do something about.

Hi Dafydd,

WaveForms2 : no , that's exactly my problem. The soundtrack is NOT shortened, it's really "moved" and when playing it's OK.. but the wave form graph is not 'moved' along... it is even after the move, still displayed in the 'old' location.
when I would fuzz with the timeline (zoom in or out) to force a redrawing of the timeline THEN it is displayed in its new (correct) location... Feels lik as if PD9 doesn't 'refresh' the wave form after the soundtrack moved...


Thanks for the hints on improving my hardware.

Bye now,

Hugo

Following on from Hugo1306, I am thinking of buying a separate audio recorder to go with my GoPro as it's rubbish on audio when riding my motorbike. I can foresee a problem when it comes to syncing separate audio to my videos as I often import a number of small video clips and then cut/trim each one to make my video.

Whilst PD9 is not in the same league as Final Cut Pro, I did see a youtube clip where someone was showing how it can "mark" an audio file in order to sync with the video, and in other youtube video another program can automatically self sync separate audio to the video.

Being only a novice I am seeking to know how best can I sync seperate audio in PD9, any special plug-ins or tools for this job? Havn't found any info on this for PD9 as yet?

Hi DevonBiker,

this 'wave-form-pattern-matching' trick works very well for me. Especially if you have some "land marks" in the audio like a strong beat or other high volume peaks... I start with a 'rough' estimate of positioning the separate audio track , purely 'on-sight'. Then I stretch the timeline to a very high granularity (frame by frame scale) to fine-tune the position.
Ofcourse, also 'listening' to the result learns me a lot about lagging or leading audio track position... Echo = Too far out of sync, Flanging = very close in sync , no effect = done ! :
Happy Editing !
Hugo

Quote: Hi DevonBiker,

this 'wave-form-pattern-matching' trick works very well for me. Especially if you have some "land marks" in the audio like a strong beat or other high volume peaks... I start with a 'rough' estimate of positioning the separate audio track , purely 'on-sight'. Then I stretch the timeline to a very high granularity (frame by frame scale) to fine-tune the position.
Ofcourse, also 'listening' to the result learns me a lot about lagging or leading audio track position... Echo = Too far out of sync, Flanging = very close in sync , no effect = done ! :
Happy Editing !
Hugo

This is what I thought it would be like, so I take it there's no "tool" or "plugin-in" for this? The problem I can see is multiple recordings both video and audio on two devices, cutting the video and then trying to locate the audio!! It could be a nightmare as none of my video projects are just one video but from a collection of many clips. Here's one I've just finished, each new shot is a new video clip. I used a song because the audio from the GoPro was rubbish due to wind noise - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iamiG9HrV-E

Is there a way to lock seperate audio to video?

Can you place a strip of "fur" over the mic - just to cut the wind noise. I bought a load of material years ago but anything off a furry toy should do.

I no longer use an external mic on my camera - it gave a background hiss to the sequence, worse than what was there before. camera issue I believe. I do use a small spy camera as an extra mic, works for me when i do a talk to the camera from far off. I sync the sequences using the wav form. Editors using different camera makes have had video frame rate sync problems.

Quote: Can you place a strip of "fur" over the mic -

Havn't tried fur but I have put a couple difference pieces of small foam and it didn't make much difference because the mic also picks up sounds from inside it's case, on top of the mic exit.

My opinion is not relevant, but...

You guys have to realize that PD is most a video editor and not an audio editor. Your are trying to use PD to create a Video Clip basis, what is not design for. With PD you can make simple audio sync, but not precise sync like a Cakewalk or Pro tool’s can do starting from and audio and sync the video. In PD you have to expand your time line in frames to do so, and that’s not a very friendly way to sync a video clip. Also, PD waveform graphics it’s not designed for that. In others audio software programs, you have a perfect audio waveform graphics to sync. So do not expect so much from the audio features of PD.

If I may chime in. I'm with Hugo on this one.

I've been making YouTube music videos for years using a webcam and a sequencer recording simultaneously. Then I would import the web clip and audio file into PD7 and match up the 'mountains" of the audio tracks. When in sync, I'd mute the audio linked to the video track and use the mix from the sequencer. The whole process might take 5 minutes. I didn't need frame accuracy - just close was OK.

Some examples here: http://www.youtube.com/user/TwainsBlues

In PD9 the sync issue has become nearly impossible. Like Hugo, I have done this Vid/Audio sync hundreds of times & know many of the pitfalls and shortcuts, but the 2 do not want to sync up.

I have tried the clap-board trick where I let the video & sequencer run and provide an occasional clap as a reference. If I align the first set, the end will be out of sync & vice versa. PD7 handled vid / audio sync flawlessly.

Someone mentioned on another thread they believe the wave form graphics may not be rendering properly. I have no way of knowing. Thx BlueTwain

Hi Twain,

The wave graph not refreshing correctly is another 'topic' of mine... : Combined with this one.
If you want to do the wave form trick, first condition is that the wave graph refreshes with every move you make :. I got the impression that it doens't , if either begin or endpoint of the track is not visible on screen...


Bye the way , VERY NICE music you create there in that youtube movie...

I'm beginning to think that it's time to research a better, more sophisticated video/sound editor which is a shame because I've not been using PD9 much. I'm just getting into video editing and it's fun, but not when you can't do basic things!!! Sometimes waiting/hoping for the software manufacturer to fix things or even solve things can be a long wait or even that it never gets done. I'm also having freezes/pauses when I scrub the timeline backwards or forwards since installing latest PD update, 2930!

Flapperke - Thx for the kind comment.

With regards to refreshing the wave form, I find just clicking the scrubber shuttle will refresh my view. The problem I'm having is alignment. Since there are so many variables, I'm not blaming PD9 directly. What would be extremely helpful though, is if I could set a marker - keyframe, bookmark etc on both clips and then position them accordingly.

For instance, the WaveEditor allows you to set a 'bookmark." But once I save it to the timeline, I don't know how to find it or align other clips to it.

Perhaps someone would know this process. In an audio track, how do I set a keyframe & if I have several audio clips with keyframes, how do I align the keyframes on the timeline to a specific time code. That would do the trick.

I find a cymbal crash, mark it on all clips, then move it to frame z:zz:zzz etc.

Thanks in advance for any expertise.

Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 11 is what I'm trying out now and I must say I'm very impressed so far. Just finished a short bike video and no freezing and ability to align audio much better. It feels professional also. Only downside is another purchase of video editing software if I want to keep it

I'm a new user to PowerDirector (I have PowerDirector Ultra 11), but right off the bat, I find I cannot sync two clips together on separate tracks, at least not easily (I've been trying for about an hour and no luck yet). It would be easy if the video and audio parts of the track would move together, similar to the way you move sound clips in the Audacity audio editor, but they don't. Clicking on the timeline scrubber does refresh the audio waveform, but it changes the view of everything, and seems to leave unpredictable results. If I replay the track to get them synced again, then I'm at another location -- still no good. Also, I can't zoom to a single frame by frame level. The best I can do is 5 or 6 frames to one thumbnail, and then the zoom doesn't work anymore. It would still be usable if the audio wave form refreshed along with the video frames on the timeline. Also when I move the view along the timeline with the cursor key, the audio completely flatlines, until I stop, and start playing the video again or click the scrubber. I've been moving one clip that I'm trying to align to a certain spot in the primary track, for about 15 min over and over, but most of the time, even though it looks like it's moving, it never seems to wind up having moved versus the primary track.

As you can tell, I'm getting frustrated now, and may not be thinking clearly...!

If anyone knows of a solution or a workaround for all this, I would be happy to hear it. David

P.S. Worked some more and found that by 'View Entire Movie', I was able to see more what I was doing. I was not moving only the clip, but also a vertical timeline bar which must have brought the other primary clip along with it when I was moving the secondary clip. When I selected the secondary clip outside the timeline bar, the secondary clip moved independently, with a yellow rectangle showing the way, and bringing the audio waveform along with the video. I also then found I could move the clip one frame at a time using Alt + Rt or Left Arrow keys, and again the audio waveform moved along with it. Perhaps this was fixed in PD 11. I must have been selecting the secondary clip incorrectly before. Anyway, I got the clips synchronized, and it wasn't that hard, once I got it figured out. I also turned off some other programs which were running simultaneously, which might have used up needed resources, and that probably helped. I have an Intel i7 CPU running at 2.93 Ghz, with 6 GB of RAM. Things are still not working 100% for me, especially with regard to finding my way around to different places on the video, but I think most of it now is a learning curve on my part. Thanks for letting me vent!