Matching different video clips/Zooming in on audio in Adobe Premiere

[PharmBoy]

A friend of mine asked me to tape/edit her wedding. My wife did the guestbook and after about 30 minutes her job was done. 30 hours later my job may be done!! I have three camera feeds that I am trying to put together in adobe premiere. I have learned how to do the multi-camera edits in adobe but am having troubles getting all the clips in sync. I thought the best way would be to go by a certain sound music starting, preacher praying etc. I have zoomed all the way in on the timeline and see just little specs of the sound wave. Is there anyway to make these specs larger to help me make my points of references.

Any better ways to sync up my video/audio??

[edDV]

I've been there, suffered that*.

Which Premiere version are you using? In general, you need to expand the audio track (down arrow) then change the timeline to frames resolution. The audio waveform will appear.

My technique to manual sync multiple camcorder tracks is this:

Look for still camera flashes for a rough frame match. Weddings are full of flash bulb frames. Then zoom into audio waveform tracks to sync at critical points. Favor the best audio track in the mix or you will get echo. Consumer (and prosumer) camcorders free run at slightly different speeds. This forces you to sync at the points where lip sync is needed.

The lucky pros use an RF clock to sync all cams to the same timecode and horizontal sync. Lucky them. Premiere's multicam mode works great for them.


* Divorce rate during first three years is running >60% for my "pro bono" shoots. I think I'll pass next time.

[PharmBoy]

Thanks for the reply

I am using Premiere Pro 2 with the multi0camera editing.
My first time for that it was pretty neat.

I looked for flashes and tried to get it as close as possible. I only had one camera that was close enough for the viewer to read lips so I don't think it has to be exact.

I was hoping that I could somehow match audio wave forms i.e. the words "lets pray" would show up on both as a certain wave form.

Thanks again

[edDV]

Thanks for the reply

I am using Premiere Pro 2 with the multi0camera editing.
My first time for that it was pretty neat.

I looked for flashes and tried to get it as close as possible. I only had one camera that was close enough for the viewer to read lips so I don't think it has to be exact.

I was hoping that I could somehow match audio wave forms i.e. the words "lets pray" would show up on both as a certain wave form.

Thanks again

You should be able to see the audio waveform if you zoom in on the timeline (frames increments). You need to edit audio subframe for lip sync. Some anal types think you need to slip audio vs. video in 1/16 frame increments to get lip sync or effects explosions to sound natural.