I don't think you can find the audio section by playing it slower, but you can turn on sound waveform display in the timeline, and you can also drag the lower edge of the track down to expand the display height:



You may also want to expand the timescale for audio clips, which lets you zoom in much tighter horizontally:



The Next/Previous frame tool works with audio clips, but it is referencing the frames per second based on your project settings. You'll need to rely on the waveform to determine exactly where the word starts.

Thanks this is useful but still I can't do what I want. I need to put a scene that starts at a certain word during the audio track.
Is there a way to playback a certain video and audio segment in slower speed ? I can tell it's around the 1m09s but i'd like to know exactly which frame I should put the beginning of the scene.

Quote Thanks this is useful but still I can't do what I want. I need to put a scene that starts at a certain word during the audio track.
Is there a way to playback a certain video and audio segment in slower speed ? I can tell it's around the 1m09s but i'd like to know exactly which frame I should put the beginning of the scene.

Maybe I haven't explained this clearly, but I sync items all the time using this approach because it's very clear on the audio track where the word begins. To the frame. No questions. No uncertainty. No out of sync issues.

One additional step is to place a timeline marker when the scrubber is at that point, and then you'll have an external reference point for your synced scene. If you can trim the audio clip at that point, that's an easy way to sync as well.

If you really want to have a slower preview, you can try selecting the clip on the timeline then click on Tools, Power Tools, Video Speed and set the speed multiplier to 0.5, which will slow the play back speed by exactly half. Click on the gear icon at the far right edge and check the Keep audio pitch box, like this:



You'd then want to start listening around 2:18 and maybe add a timeline marker or trim the clip at that point. Then you'd go back to the Power Tools menu and uncheck the Video Speed box to restore your clip.

If you trimmed the clip when it was slowed down, it will now end at the proper moment. Otherwise you'll need to cut the timeline counter at the marker's position in half.

One last thing - you can also simply drag the synced clip left or right relalive to the audio clip without going through any of this. Trial and error might actually be the quickest approach

The audio is a song. There's waveforms all over the place.

There has got to be a way. How else can someone add a scene or image at a specific audio "time".

If I slow down the video scene, the audio is not heard even when I go in the settings and click on keep audio (and keep audio pitch).

Quote The audio is a song. There's waveforms all over the place.

There has got to be a way. How else can someone add a scene or image at a specific audio "time".

If I slow down the video scene, the audio is not heard even when I go in the settings and click on keep audio (and keep audio pitch).

I'm sorry that I don't seem to be able to help. In my screenshot with the waveform, that's actually a song and there are usually clear visual indications of indidual notes, especially if there's a rhythmic beat. When you say the waveform is "all over the place" that implies that you're not looking at the right scale to see the patterns.

I also don't understand why you wouldn't hear the audio in the slowed down clip, unless you slowed the clip by more than half. The audio is always removed when the clip is sped up by more than 2x or slowed down more than half.

If you could take a screen shot of your timeline that might help. Use the Alt + PrntScrn keys to copy the whole window, or if you have Win10, you can hold down Winkey + Shift + S and then drag a rectangle around the specific area you want to capture. Next open Paint and paste the screenshot, then save it somewhere you can find it. When you reply here, use this button to attach the saved image.



As I mentioned earlier, there's no reason you can't try manually placing your scene approximately at 1:09, then set the preview quality to Normal so you reduce any previewing lag, and just so how it lines up. In all honesty, whatever time you may have wanted to save by slowing down the preview has long been eclipsed by the time we've spent on the forum.

I have been able to select the exact frame for the start of any spoken word in the past by expanding the timeline ruler, examining the waveform. Place say a split where I think it should start and move frames ahead or back if needed.

Quote

I'm sorry that I don't seem to be able to help. In my screenshot with the waveform, that's actually a song and there are usually clear visual indications of indidual notes, especially if there's a rhythmic beat. When you say the waveform is "all over the place" that implies that you're not looking at the right scale to see the patterns.

I also don't understand why you wouldn't hear the audio in the slowed down clip, unless you slowed the clip by more than half. The audio is always removed when the clip is sped up by more than 2x or slowed down more than half.

If you could take a screen shot of your timeline that might help. Use the Alt + PrntScrn keys to copy the whole window, or if you have Win10, you can hold down Winkey + Shift + S and then drag a rectangle around the specific area you want to capture. Next open Paint and paste the screenshot, then save it somewhere you can find it. When you reply here, use this button to attach the saved image.



As I mentioned earlier, there's no reason you can't try manually placing your scene approximately at 1:09, then set the preview quality to Normal so you reduce any previewing lag, and just so how it lines up. In all honesty, whatever time you may have wanted to save by slowing down the preview has long been eclipsed by the time we've spent on the forum.

I did slow down to the max. 50% slow is not enough to be very precise.

I didn't want to win time (in real life) by slowing it down, I'm trying to find the closest frame to the beginning of a word in a song. I thought that by slowing it down alot I would be able to hear when the word is said so that I could input the start of a scene there.

If I split the left side any more to the right it's very hard to tell if I'm missing the very beginning of the sound of the word.

The second screenshot is the closest zoom available. I am missing parts of the right side like this but I'm pretty sure the beginning sounds of the word are not there.

The word is "invincible". In that clip I can hear "INVI" (the "IN" and the start of "VI")

I can be precise to an approximation of 5 frames this way.. I would want to add images/scenes to existing songs including music without voices such as classical music. I would like to be able to be ultra precise. If that is not possible with PD maybe another video editor would suit me better I still have a week before the end of the 30 day refund.

Quote If I split the left side any more to the right it's very hard to tell if I'm missing the very beginning of the sound of the word.

The second screenshot is the closest zoom available. I am missing parts of the right side like this but I'm pretty sure the beginning sounds of the word are not there.

The word is "invincible". In that clip I can hear "INVI" (the "IN" and the start of "VI")

I can be precise to an approximation of 5 frames this way.. I would want to add images/scenes to existing songs including music without voices such as classical music. I would like to be able to be ultra precise. If that is not possible with PD maybe another video editor would suit me better I still have a week before the end of the 30 day refund.

Thanks very much for the screen shots! They gave me enough info to download that song and try and find the starting point like you described.

I can now see why you would want to have a slower preview, and it helps to know that this is an example of what you want to do in many other projects, whereas I though it might only be how to accomplish this once.

My audio track may have a slightly different length than your version, but it's clear that the "IN" starts exactly @ 1:09:41 on my timeline.

The way I tracked it down was to use the range tool, which I didn't think to use when responding earlier. To use it to find a specific point in an audio clip, place the scrubber somewhere to the left of where you think the word starts, and then extend it to the right past where you think the word will end. In your case, start with 1:09 and highlight out to 1:11.

When you preview now, PD will only play the highlighted section, and you can drag each end in towards the center to find the beginning and ending points. I've annotated the syllables here:



You may still need to tweak the timing because each syllable takes some amount of time to say, and even if you align on the exact start (or mid-point) of a word or syllable, the scene change may seem too early or late. Still, this method should will get you within 1 or 2 frames every time.

Thanks a lot sir !
I'll see how it goes for the remainder of this song and other ones.