Audio Syncing all over the place!

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Solved by

Apr 26, 2020 05:35

Hi,

Please help, I'm starting to lose my mind!

I'm recording a lot of clips at the minute using a mirrorless camera and a microphone plugged into my computer through Audacity as it gives me better audio (the camera is a bit older and doesn't allow me to plug the mic in as an external to record directly)

When I'm syncing the two up in PD, it starts off fine, but as the video goes on, the audio slowly starts to lose sync and is way off by the end. I don't understand why? They've both recorded at the same time?

Also, I'm having a separate issue where, if I play the movie I'm editing within PD from the beginning, things are in sync. But if I try to play the movie from a random point, say, 30 seconds in, then the audio moves a few seconds ahead and is out of sync. I really don't want to have to keep watching the whole thing from the beginning EVERY time as I'm trying to align text and images to the voiceover.

Anybody else come across this or know what I can do to resolve it?

Thanks,
Glenn

TDK1044

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

Apr 26, 2020 08:01

Quote Hi,

Please help, I'm starting to lose my mind!

I'm recording a lot of clips at the minute using a mirrorless camera and a microphone plugged into my computer through Audacity as it gives me better audio (the camera is a bit older and doesn't allow me to plug the mic in as an external to record directly)

When I'm syncing the two up in PD, it starts off fine, but as the video goes on, the audio slowly starts to lose sync and is way off by the end. I don't understand why? They've both recorded at the same time?

Also, I'm having a separate issue where, if I play the movie I'm editing within PD from the beginning, things are in sync. But if I try to play the movie from a random point, say, 30 seconds in, then the audio moves a few seconds ahead and is out of sync. I really don't want to have to keep watching the whole thing from the beginning EVERY time as I'm trying to align text and images to the voiceover.

Anybody else come across this or know what I can do to resolve it?

Thanks,
Glenn

What audio and video codecs are you using? Are they both recording at the same fps? You may need to use an audio converter to convert your audio to match your video codec.

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 08:04

Quote

What audio and video codecs are you using? Are they both recording at the same fps? You may need to use an audio converter to convert your audio to match your video codec.

Ahhh, I never thought of that. I've been recording at 50fps but the timeline is set at 25fps. If I changed the timeline to 50fps, should that solve it?

Thanks for your reply.

Glenn

TDK1044

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

Apr 26, 2020 08:19

Quote

Ahhh, I never thought of that. I've been recording at 50fps but the timeline is set at 25fps. If I changed the timeline to 50fps, should that solve it?

Thanks for your reply.

Glenn

Your audio and video must be set at precisely the same fps, and the TL framerate must also be set at that rate.

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 08:21

Quote

Your audio and video must be set at precisely the same fps, and the TL framerate must also be set at that rate.

Do you know how do I set the timeline frame rate on Audacity?

Thanks,
Glenn

TDK1044

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

Apr 26, 2020 08:27

Quote

Do you know how do I set the timeline frame rate on Audacity?

Thanks,
Glenn

I'm sorry but I've never used Audacity. You should be able to change the audio properties of an Audacity file though. Just make sure that the audio framerate is identical to your video, and then select that rate in the TL.

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 08:35

Quote

I'm sorry but I've never used Audacity. You should be able to change the audio properties of an Audacity file though. Just make sure that the audio framerate is identical to your video, and then select that rate in the TL.

Thanks, I'll try it out.

Any ideas on the second issue? WIth that one, there is no video recording, just an audio recording and then putting images and text onto the TL. As an example, when I play the video within the editor from the start, a sound effect will come in at say 23 seconds at the time that I want it. If I start to play the video from say 15 seconds in (because I've finished the first 15seconds and don;t need to keep watching it), the sound effect will appear at 25 seconds instead of 23. I haven't moved or changed anything, other than starting to play the video at a different place. At the moment, I'm having to watch the ENTIRE video every time I make a tiny adjustment which is taking forever!

Thanks for your help!
Glenn

TDK1044

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

Apr 26, 2020 08:46

Quote

Thanks, I'll try it out.

Any ideas on the second issue? WIth that one, there is no video recording, just an audio recording and then putting images and text onto the TL. As an example, when I play the video within the editor from the start, a sound effect will come in at say 23 seconds at the time that I want it. If I start to play the video from say 15 seconds in (because I've finished the first 15seconds and don;t need to keep watching it), the sound effect will appear at 25 seconds instead of 23. I haven't moved or changed anything, other than starting to play the video at a different place. At the moment, I'm having to watch the ENTIRE video every time I make a tiny adjustment which is taking forever!

Thanks for your help!
Glenn

I think that performing the change for the first issue will probably resolve the second issue....ie making sure that the TL framerate and the audio framerate are the same, and making sure that the auido codec being used is one (like MPEG) that PD is compatible with.

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 08:53

Quote

I think that performing the change for the first issue will probably resolve the second issue....ie making sure that the TL framerate and the audio framerate are the same, and making sure that the auido codec being used is one (like MPEG) that PD is compatible with.

Thanks, I'll take a look. Any idea how I can check which codecs are being used and supported?

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 08:55

Quote Do you know how do I set the timeline frame rate on Audacity?

Audio is not recorded with a framerate, so you won't find that in Audacity. The kind of audio equivalent would be the sample rate which is the number of times per second a discrete sample is taken, there are no frames, video has frames. Adjusting sample rate will not improve a sync issue, it will improve audio clarity when content is changing, just like the equivalent of fps in video will improve picture quality when things are moving.

Jeff

TDK1044

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

Apr 26, 2020 08:57

Quote

Thanks, I'll take a look. Any idea how I can check which codecs are being used and supported?

AAC, FLAC, ALAC, WMA, WAV, M4A, MP3, OGG

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 09:00

Quote

AAC, FLAC, ALAC, WMA, WAV, M4A, MP3, OGG

When I was exporting the audio through Audacity, it was setting it to 'Variable' Bit Rate which was 320kbps. I've now changed it to 'Constant' at 192kbps - should this help? Or is this of no relation?

I'm exporting the files as MP3 so things should be OK in PD?

Thanks for your support, I appreciate it.

Glenn

JL_JL

Senior Contributor Location: Arizona, USA Joined: Oct 01, 2006 20:01 Messages: 6091 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 09:01

Quote When I was exporting the audio through Audacity, it was setting it to 'Variable' Bit Rate which was 320kbps. I've now changed it to 'Constant' at 192kbps - should this help? Or is this of no relation?

I'm exporting the files as MP3 so things should be OK in PD?

Thanks for your support, I appreciate it.

Glenn

Use WAV, PD has lots of issues with mp3 and variable bitrate.

Jeff

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 09:09

Quote

Use WAV, PD has lots of issues with mp3 and variable bitrate.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I'll try that!

cleggems

Newbie Joined: Aug 15, 2018 19:41 Messages: 11 Offline

Apr 26, 2020 09:17

Quote

Use WAV, PD has lots of issues with mp3 and variable bitrate.

Jeff

Just tried that Jeff and it seems a bit more stable, well for the second issue of the audio seemingly jumping around depending on where I start the movie from! Thank you so much!