Re-synchronising Audio Track after enhancement outside VS10+

[wywso0]

I have a video of my sons playing in a band shot a few years ago. It was shot in a school hall and the sound quality isn't wonderful. What I'd like to do is:

1. Import it to VS10+
2.Split the audio track from the video and save it as a mp3 file
3. Try to enhance the mp3 audio file as best I can using some 'restoration' software that I have ("Total Recorder" made by a company called High Criteria)
4. Put the Audio track back with the video so that sound/picture synchronisation is restored
5. Edit the new file as per usual in VS10+

I think I know how to do all of this except number 4 (although I could be wrong and not know how to do any of it!). In particular, how do I get the synchronisation back? The video lasts for the best part of an hour, so any progressive slippage in sync is likely to become noticeable by the end of the video.

Grateful for your help.

Bill S

[Trevor Andrew]

Hi Bill

I would approach it this way.

Share-Create Sound File. VS will save the video clip audio as Wav file in your working folder.
No need to split audio.

Clean the Wav file. I would use Sound Forge.
Providing you save the new file using the same settings as the original they should be the same length.
Insert the clean Wav to one of the audio tracks, the start should line up with the beginning of the project.
Play the project, both audio should play. If they are in sync’ Mute the video clip audio.

Render Share Create Video File—Same as first clip. If I intended to further edit I would save as DV.
This will create a new file with clean audio.

Good luck

Trevor

[DVDDoug]

I've done that quite a few times. As long as you don't do anything to change the length of the audio file, or it's timing,* you should not have any sync problems. It's sort-of like editing film. If you keep the same number of frames, you don't change the timing.

Notice that Trevor said WAV file. MP3 is a lossy compression format. You will loose some audio quality just converting it to MP3 and back to whatever it was. If Total Recorder only works with MP3s, look for a different tool. Trevor uses SoundForge, I use GoldWave. Another option is Audacity, which is very popular, and FREE!!!

* You could mess-up the timing by trimming-off the beginning, or by censoring-out bad language by chopping it out instead of replacing it with a 'bleep" or silence. Don't worry. It's unlikely that you would accidently do anything like that.

[Ken Berry]

You also need to know that certain varieties of MP3 appear not to be compatible with Video Studio -- I am thinking particularly of programs which use the LameMP3 codec. So apart from the other comments already made on the inadvisability of using MP3, you need to take this into account as well.

And to add my two cents worth, if you have the Nero suite, it also includes an audio editor which I use all the time. It is called Wave Editor.

[wywso0]

Thanks for this.

Total Recorder does handle WAV files as well as MP3's, so hopefully Trevor's method should work OK for me. I have also used an MP3 file generated by Total Recorder with VS10+, so this seems OK too (I didn't realise that some MP3 files wouldn't work).

However, I will look at the other Audio editing programs that you all mentioned as well. I did have a quick look at Sound Forge which seems a very impressive piece of software, albeit at a cost.

Cheers
Bill S

[wywso0]

All,

One further question if I may - The video of the band playing in the hall was shot from pretty much one location, you couldn't go wandering around, so the single view can get a bit tedious after a while even wit some zooms and pans. I'd like to try to make it a bit more interesting by inserting some still shots etc into the picture track but whilst keeping the audio running, and so that when the picture reverts back to the main track the sound and picture are in sync again.

The way that I can think to do this would be to use an overlay track for the pictures. If I wanted a still to completely obscure the base video should I just resize the overlay to fill the screen? Are overlays the easiest way to achieve what I want?

Thanks again
Bill S

[rhondelon]

I have been working on this problem recently trying to match a CD master to video shot at church services. Major headache in getting the resize to match up to the frame but there is hope.

I use Goldwave as my sound splicer, fixer, godsend for things missed by the compressors. Exporting as a wave file and then reinserting into a new project is the way to go for the video/audio originals.

I took this one step further though, I wanted to continue with the video concept rather than staring at the pulpit, fade to scripture, fade to audiance reactions so what I did was cut the video back to the HD with the new audio as an AVI. Now I have a whole video with audio in it and I can edit out silent periods and insert pictures and offers a bit more flexibility than ensuring that video length = 48:32:07 and audio length = 48:32:07.

The overlay is a great idea and you can actually use that effect to spotlight members of the band, scenery related to the song and send it flying across the screen, fade in or whatnot. It's your production and so far, the Ulead Videostudio has been exceptional in it's flexibility and reliability.

Another idea to spice things up is using the video filter "Video Pan and Zoom" to create the illusion of movement. It can look a little hackneyed if you use it too much because the layers of scenery do not match the movement and sometimes compressing the video can make it look grainey which isn't always bad if you work that effect into the video.

Hope this helps,
Brian

[Black Lab]

All,

One further question if I may - The video of the band playing in the hall was shot from pretty much one location, you couldn't go wandering around, so the single view can get a bit tedious after a while even wit some zooms and pans. I'd like to try to make it a bit more interesting by inserting some still shots etc into the picture track but whilst keeping the audio running, and so that when the picture reverts back to the main track the sound and picture are in sync again.

The way that I can think to do this would be to use an overlay track for the pictures. If I wanted a still to completely obscure the base video should I just resize the overlay to fill the screen? Are overlays the easiest way to achieve what I want?

Thanks again
Bill S

You answered your own question. That's the way I would do it (and have done it).