HOW TO Power Director 18- Syncing background audio to video question

EdK

Newbie Joined: Feb 28, 2020 06:48 Messages: 14 Offline

Solved by

Feb 28, 2020 07:27

Hello,

I am brand new to Power Director. Actually evaluating the product (30 day free trial). After being a long time Roxio user, I have become very disappointed with Roxio with functions that no longer work, numerous bugs in the software and poor customer support and looking for a alternative video editing software.

I frequently video live theatre using my camcorder. At the same time, I capture audio from the theatres mixing board onto a flash drive.

As you all are probably aware, the quality of the audio captured by a consumer level camera is not the best. This is why I capture audio from the theatre mixing board.

My question is: If I add the audio captured from the mixing board to Power Directors background audio track, can Power Director analyze the audio from the video and sync the audio in the background track with the audio contained within the video track?

Eventually, what I want to do is mute the audio captured by the camera and use the audio from the background track for eventual burning to DVD and/or create a new video file for upload to Youtube, etc

Is it possible to do this in Power Director and if so, how?

I was able to do this in Roxio in earlier releases of Media Creator but their current release (NXT 6) has numerous bugs and the audio captured by the camera (and background track) becomes severly distorted during the editing process even before creating a new video file.

Thanks for your assistance.

Ed

TDK1044

Member Joined: Apr 11, 2019 12:27 Messages: 130 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 07:44

Quote Hello,

I am brand new to Power Director. Actually evaluating the product (30 day free trial). After being a long time Roxio user, I have become very disappointed with Roxio with functions that no longer work, numerous bugs in the software and poor customer support and looking for a alternative video editing software.

I frequently video live theatre using my camcorder. At the same time, I capture audio from the theatres mixing board onto a flash drive.

As you all are probably aware, the quality of the audio captured by a consumer level camera is not the best. This is why I capture audio from the theatre mixing board.

My question is: If I add the audio captured from the mixing board to Power Directors background audio track, can Power Director analyze the audio from the video and sync the audio in the background track with the audio contained within the video track?

Eventually, what I want to do is mute the audio captured by the camera and use the audio from the background track for eventual burning to DVD and/or create a new video file for upload to Youtube, etc

Is it possible to do this in Power Director and if so, how?

I was able to do this in Roxio in earlier releases of Media Creator but their current release (NXT 6) has numerous bugs and the audio captured by the camera (and background track) becomes severly distorted during the editing process even before creating a new video file.

Thanks for your assistance.

Ed

The issue becomes how much editing are you going to do? Because you'll need to sync each section of your 'mixing board' audio. The principle is simple....you look for a moment in the video where there is something specific to sync audio to. An example would be the first note of a song, or a specific drum beat, or some other unique audio moment. You would sync your clean 'mixing board track' to that moment in your video and then mute the audio on the main video track. That wil give you audio sync until your first edit point, and then you'll have to repeat the process.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Feb 28. 2020 07:45

EdK

Newbie Joined: Feb 28, 2020 06:48 Messages: 14 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 07:52

Thanks for your quick reply.

I understand what you're sugesting.

Actually, the video and audio and one long file(s) so from that perspective, it's easy.
I was actually hoping there would be a way Power DIrector to analyze the audio captured by the camera and matching up the background audio track automatically.

If that is not possible, is there a way to display both of the audio waveforms so I can visually sync them up?

Thanks...Ed

TDK1044

Member Joined: Apr 11, 2019 12:27 Messages: 130 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 08:17

Quote Thanks for your quick reply.

I understand what you're sugesting.

Actually, the video and audio and one long file(s) so from that perspective, it's easy.
I was actually hoping there would be a way Power DIrector to analyze the audio captured by the camera and matching up the background audio track automatically.

If that is not possible, is there a way to display both of the audio waveforms so I can visually sync them up?

Thanks...Ed

Once you have both waveforms displaying, you should see a 'sync by audio' button display above the Timeline. Click on that button.

EdK

Newbie Joined: Feb 28, 2020 06:48 Messages: 14 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 08:33

Quote

Once you have both waveforms displaying, you should see a 'sync by audio' button display above the Timeline. Click on that button.

Still getting familiar with the screen layout. It's quite different than Roxio.
Will look for it and give it a try,

Thanks! Ed

TDK1044

Member Joined: Apr 11, 2019 12:27 Messages: 130 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 08:37

Quote

Still getting familiar with the screen layout. It's quite different than Roxio.
Will look for it and give it a try,

Thanks! Ed

The 'sync by audio' button will only display once two waveforms are displaying.

optodata

Senior Contributor Location: California, USA Joined: Sep 16, 2011 16:04 Messages: 8630 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 11:28

To clarify and expand on this a bit, you have to select the two clips, either with a mouse cursor "lasso" or by clicking on one clip then holding down Ctrl and clicking on the second one, before the Sync by Audio button will appear above the timeline.

Once you've clicked on the button and the syncing is finshed, PD will move both clips to two new lower tracks on the timeline. This can seem unexpected, but it's to ensure that no other clips are disturbed when the clips are synced.

At that point you may want to trim the uneeded parts and then select both clips again and drag the back to the original tracks. As long as they're selected and moved as a group, they'll remain in sync.

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TDK1044

Member Joined: Apr 11, 2019 12:27 Messages: 130 Offline

Feb 28, 2020 11:49

Quote To clarify and expand on this a bit, you have to select the two clips, either with a mouse cursor "lasso" or by clicking on one clip then holding down Ctrl and clicking on the second one, before the Sync by Audio button will appear above the timeline.

Once you've clicked on the button and the syncing is finshed, PD will move both clips to two new lower tracks on the timeline. This can seem unexpected, but it's to ensure that no other clips are disturbed when the clips are synced.

At that point you may want to trim the uneeded parts and then select both clips again and drag the back to the original tracks. As long as they're selected and moved as a group, they'll remain in sync.

That's why I do it the old fashioned way, by finding a unique audio point, sync to that and then mute the unwanted track.