Tracking video and audio in sync

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 7:00 pm

I have a friend who is getting a Sony HDR-FX1 camcorder and we had the idea to track the audio and video seperately from each other so we could use our preamps and mics instead of using the camcorders mini input. We are not going to be using the mic in the camcorder itself. We need to sync the audio and video recording to each other so post-processing is minimal, but how do you do that? The camcorder has a firewire input. Can this be used to arm a recording track inside of some software studio? The program he has now is Pinnacle Studio 10 Titanium. Will this do the job?

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum. Thanks for any help.

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:11 pm

Easy. Remember the clapboards you see used on movie sets before the beginning of each scene? Well that's the real purpose it serves. You record the audio using you mics and preamps and whatever you want and also record the audio using the camcorder as well. Then all you do when you hook up the camcorder into your video editing software is look at the camcorder's audio and find the transient or spike in the waveform caused by the clapboard "clap"...once you have located that slide locate the "clap" transient in the waveform on your miked audio tracks and line them up in the software so they match. Easy as pie.

Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:12 pm

Easy. Remember the clapboards you see used on movie sets before the beginning of each scene? Well that's the real purpose it serves. You record the audio using you mics and preamps and whatever you want and also record the audio using the camcorder as well. Then all you do when you hook up the camcorder into your video editing software is look at the camcorder's audio and find the transient or spike in the waveform caused by the clapboard "clap"...once you have located that slide locate the "clap" transient in the waveform on your miked audio tracks and line them up in the software so they match. Easy as pie.

PS if you dont have a clapboard you can obviously use any short, sharp sound like a normal hand clap.

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 2:12 pm

Okay thanks for pointing that out to me lol. Music is my forte not film. I guess we could just do that. Thanks.

Posted: Sun Dec 31, 2006 5:24 pm

Rain is right (Right as rain?) The clapboard is an oldie but goodie for getting sync points, esp if you're doing a lot of start and stop shots - one at a time stuff.

Another way to go (esp if you're doing an entire set or concert), is to simply sync it up as one big track. Somewhere along the line, you'll want to find a transient or bit of dialog in the rough audio track (from the camcorder mic) to use for sync. With any/all of the good current NLE editors out there (Vegas, Final Cut, Adobe, etc.) you can drag both tracks on the timeline and visually/audibly line them up, right down to the frame level. Use the raw audio (from the camcorder) to line up your track, then import the WAV file from your audio DAW and drag it onto the timeline in a new track below it. Once you get close enough, it's easy to zoom down into the frame level for tight tolerance syncing. These days, it's a breeze to lock up files that run as long as 45, 50, 60 minutes and more. (We do it all the time with long-form music concerts like opera, jazz sets and more.)

You may also want to stop over to the Video forums here as well for more info, there's some good stuff there as well. Good luck with your shoot! Thumbs Up

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