help syncing audio .wav of music to video of musician

[tspnyc]

I need a decent video editing program that will allow me to import a .wav or similar found file, sync it up to the video and then allow me to mute the default sound on the video file.

Specifically, I need to replace the crappy audio of my camcorder with the audio recorded through pro mics and recording software.

I bought a new camcorder, Cannon Vixia HFM31. The one downside is tinny, hissy audio, bad for music recording.

I recorded some 20 minutes of a guitarist testing 5 different acoustic guitars. The music is recorded via four condenser mics in Cubase on a PC and mixed to a .wav file.

When the video is converted to a file that will work in Windows Movie Maker, the .wav will not sync well. When I get the start of the video to be nicely synced it starts to drift. Noticeable at 4 minutes as a slight reverb echo, by 15 minutes it is completely out of sych by a good half second or more.

I had been manually splicing and aligning each little clip, 30 sec to a min each. Once it is lined up nicely, I mute the Video track and "Publish" the movie, which then uses the .wav as its sound track. I re-cut that merged movie in Movie Maker and publish it as the final product.

I thought there must be a better way. As a 20 min movie will take me many days to painfully align the sound.

Someone said the latest Movie Maker solved this audio drift bug. Well all I can get is "Windows Live" Movie Maker - a piece of junk that has very simple options, no manual or help of any kind and seemingly no way to mute the video portion and leave only the wav. Not only that, in the old Movie Maker I could see the wav form, where the music peaked, ended, etc. This new one is just a cartoon green bar with a musical note icon. No way to SEE the music.

Worst of all, the new Movie Maker automatically chops the video into several rows of thumbnails which must be selected one at a time or in groups. No way to make one splice and at a click select one half of the video file or the other, etc.

I uninstalled that lame excuse for the old Movie Maker and installed the last available version of Windows Movie Maker, v2.6 but the video drift issue is still there.

Can someone recommend some good software that will let me import the .wav file, manually line it up and have it stay synched all the way through the movie?

Thanks

[davexnet]

Open the file in mpc-hc and press the + and - keys to offset the audio in realtime. When it's in sync note the value
and use it in your work flow.

[filmboss80]

This is a case where you're going to need the "right tool for the right job." WMM has it's limitations, and it may be time to spring a little cash for a decent nonlinear editor (though you won't need an expensive, "Pro" version). Using a timeline work area, you can zoom in on the audio tracks and align the waveforms.

It will also help you if your .wav file is a 48000Hz, 16-bit stereo mix (DAT, not CD). Your sync issues may be caused by a mismatch between your Cubase file and the camcorder audio stream.

[hech54]

I use Magix Movie Edit for stuff like that....not free but the cheapo version works fine for me.

[tspnyc]

Thanks y'all.

fb80, I will have to see what Cubase is exporting it as. It is recorded at 9600 and very likely going out with settings aimed at making audio CDs.

I will look into the other software suggestions. I have no issue with buying basic software since I expect to do this a lot from now own.

I assumed it was some compatibility issue. WMP has 12th of a second scale, the camcorder is 30 fps. Freaky to my way of thinking that the same 10 minutes of reality is longer or shorter in the captured digital version.

Do you think it would matter if I shot in 24 frames per? at least it would be base 6 like the Movie Maker timeline and maybe synch easier?

I

[Benjie Mercado]

hi
I suggest you use a sony vegas pro. It can import any kind of video and audio format in multilayer.
You can import many audios at the same timeline. You can do anything like lowering the sound of the audio
and fast forwarding the other one.

[budwzr]

Sony Vegas Movie Studio