audio/video question

[Mykhailo]

My go to set up for doing quick solo videos has been to simply record myself with photobooth on my mac, and set the inputs in preferences to my audio interface,

 

I would like to record a video of my piano trio with each of us tracking audio to a separate track. I use Logic Pro. You can import movie files, but you can"t record video directly to logic. This means either having to manually sync the audio and video, (which I can do, but there always seems to be a bit of a lag between the two...), or, hitting record on the camera and hitting record in Logic at the same time.

 

Does anybody know of a better way to do this, or are these two methods best ways to go about it?

[Nathanael_I]

You will have to synchronize the video after shooting it. You cannot shoot video directly into any DAW. The normal way is to set up microphones for audio recording, and a camera for video recording. Then you either record audio into the camera using the built in mic and the DAW simultaneously, or you need a mixer to input the mixed signal directly into the video camera. Easiest is to let the in camera mic pick up whatever it pics up and then use DAW to record audio properly. Then you have two files - a clean audio recording, and a clean video recording with crappy audio. The goal is to replace the crappy audio with the good audio in your DAW. (running DSLR's for video, it is possible to shoot with timecode using products from Tentacle-Sync - then the audio and the video just match perfectly when you set up the timeline correctly, but that's a different game than you are playing).

 

So do all your work in the DAW - mix, FX, Reverb, whatever you like. Get it sounding great, then output your mix as an audio file. That is what you want to synchronize to your video.

 

All you need to synchronize the video perfectly is a sharp transient - a clap, drumstick clicks, etc. You can use any one that occurs naturally in the file, but it is easy to remember to clap on video before starting a take - then you have a nice visual and audio transient to synch to.

 

In your video editor, pull in the video, and then pull in the audio. Zoom in and keep dragging the audio until it is exactly matched to the audio built into the video. Good transients help make this easy and fast once you do it a few times. Then mute the audio track built into the video. Now you have video with perfect sync to the audio you recorded in DAW.

 

Trying to do it all with the laptop camera and Logic should be possible. I use a separate video camera (doesn't have to be expensive - GoPro, Zoom, etc), and video editing software in addition to the DAW. I think this is easier, but I have experience and it is certainly more complex than just using one computer cam.

 

To use just the computer, it should work the way you have it set up. You will have to zoom way in on the audio waveforms to get the synchronization EXACT. But it is possible. If you are importing the video into Logic, then you are going to have to either nudge the video to match your audio, or nudge the audio to match the video. Zoom and knowing the keyboard shortcuts for nudging frame by frame, or setting the nudge to that amount of time may be important. Drag until you are close, then nudge until it is exact. Part of this is workflow, and you'll develop your own way of getting this done after struggling with it a bit.

[Mykhailo]

Thank you ð

[Mykhailo]

 

All you need to synchronize the video perfectly is a sharp transient - a clap, drumstick clicks, etc. You can use any one that occurs naturally in the file, but it is easy to remember to clap on video before starting a take - then you have a nice visual and audio transient to synch to.

 

 

 

this was the magic piece of advice...Logic will allow me to import my movie file, and it automatically generates an audio file of the 'internal mic"s' audio. With that sharp transient, I should be able to visually sync it up.

[ElmerJFudd]

We"re pretty forgiving of sound being close enough for video. Meaning it has to be pretty far out for it to bother viewers. Remember the audio is being captured at 48khz but the picture is likely only 24-60FPS. Sometimes the exact spot of lineup seems like it would be between a frame. So yeah, a clap or the old director"s scene/clapper board is still a great method.

[danstein]

The clap/drumstick click to create a sync transient is excellent advice. One more thing to watch out for is sampling rate - audio for video should be at 48khz, not 44.1, so make sure your DAW session is set to record at 48khz or you will have a lot of trouble getting your video in sync!

[Mykhailo]

Thanks! ð