Seperate sound source

[Ken Anderson]

I am using Pinical software to produce my video from digital camera. If I was to use a Sony mini disc to record the sound separately how would I sync the two of them, is this time consuming, talking into account that I will be editing the video.

Please keep it simple as I am new to this.

Thanks
Ken

[Rob Lohman]

If you are lucky not that much more, but probably it will be pretty
time consuming.

You have probably seen the hollywood clapper in some making of
that has all sort of information and they "snap" before each shot
begins.

They do this for two reason. First to have information for each
short visibly as well before the short and to sychronize the film
and audio (which are recorded seperately). So they have a visual
cue when they snap and a spike on the audio track to sync the
two.

So if you do this that's probably the easiest way to sync the two
tracks up. Depending on your NLE you can hopefully then lock
them together so they stay together.

One thing you need to know about is that there is a chance that
the video and audio might drift apart over a while. I'm not sure
what the technical reason is this happens, but that might
introduce a whole lot of extra work for you.

Is there a good reason for you to go down this route? If not, then
I suggest you stay away from it. Otherwise try it first before doing
something lengthy.

[Ken Anderson]

I was looking to start doing weddings and most of the people I've talked to, suggested the seperate sound source. As I said, I am new to this so what would you suggest. By the way, thank you for your reply.
Ken

[Rob Lohman]

Please also see our Wedding forum and Audio forum
which will probably have answers to your questions.

I'm not into wedding videos at all but from what I've read they
seem to be using wireless microphones but I don't think I've
heard of anyone yet using a different audio recording system.

I could be wrong, ofcourse.

[Dennis Vogel]

<<<-- Originally posted by Rob Lohman : You have probably seen the hollywood clapper in some making of that has all sort of information and they "snap" before each shot begins.
...
So if you do this that's probably the easiest way to sync the two tracks up. Depending on your NLE you can hopefully then lock them together so they stay together. -->>>

If you don't want to spring for a clapper, you can accomplish the same result for syncing by having someone clap their hands together sharply on camera. You then have the matching audio and video cue that can be used as the sync point.

Good luck.

Dennis Vogel

[Glenn Chan]

Minidisc should stay in sync for about 15 minutes before it drifts off by a frame. How much depends on your camcorder and MD recorder (make sure to get one with the right inputs). It shouldn't be hard to test things out beforehand. For shorts, you will likely never have a take longer than several minutes.

Working with 'double system' sound:
There's lots of information about this out there if you search for it.
Jay Rose's articles on dv.com is good stuff (registration required).

One way to work is to edit first using the camera scratch track and then sync things up after you have finished editing. (so there's less syncing to do) You'd have to watch out for bad tracks though.

[Ken Anderson]

Help this is getting deeper:
Ok Here goes, So If I use two Digital video cameras for a Wedding, then I am still going to have a separate sound source for one of the cameras, so when I am editing I will have a problem syncing my sound. Is their a way to send the sound from one set of mics to two cameras. Then I would have the same sound when digitally cutting.

Thanks
Ken

[K. Forman]

This is the method I use, working with Premiere- Listen to both audio tracks for an audio landmark, such as a noise or word at the beginning. Once you have a rough idea of where this noise occurs in both tracks, you can do a rough adjustment to line them up. I then open the audio to show the peaks and waveforms. Finding the point where the cue noise is, I match the waveforms.

The easiest way, is between two clips. Camera flashes are a great way to sync video. If you have two long clips (A roll/B roll), I lay one on top of the other, match waveforms, and all I have to do then, is cut out (razor tool) what isn't used. What's left is still synced.

For me, having an accurate representation of the audio waves is important. It's a bear if all you see for audio is a line. In which case, you need to lay the clips down, and place a marker at the point of your cue sound, moving the second track's cue to that marker.