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Posted by: OzRob May 9 2010, 01:34 PM

Figured Tony would know but if someone else has ideas, chime in.

What are decent quality semi-pro audio editors that also have synced video playback/previewing and can handle multichannel encoding (eg. 5.1) for the export files? Video editing capability is not needed, just the ability to precisely sync audio to the video.

I'm thinking along the lines of Sound Forge and Nuendo 5. Are there any other comparable products anyone can recommend?

Posted by: tonymiro May 9 2010, 02:07 PM

AFAIK Sequoia, Pyramix, SADiE and ProTools (HD rather than LE though) and possibly Apple Final Cut Pro would also be fine for this as well as Nuendo and Sound Forge Rob ( I don't do much in the way of video tbh). I think the main issue here is getting the accurate sync whether via SMPTE or other and that pitches it to the upper end of the DAWs.

Of these Nuendo might be the cheaper and more accessible entry point although I think Nuendo has a basic core version and then an extended one and some of the functions might only be in the extended. Pretty certain Sequoia can do this but is PC only (or for a Mac you'd need to run it emulated). Either of these would be about 1500-2500UK.

Possibly Sequoia's little brother Samplitude may be able to do the sync well enough but you'd probably have to look at Samp Pro11 rather than any of the 'lite' versions. Samp Pro11 is about 1200UK. There's a demo version of the Samplitde lite version http://www.samplitude.com/en/shop/samplitude_11_free_trial.353.html

Pyra and SADiE have/soon will have native versions (SADiE 6 is still in beta test though and there is no demo) that can do post prod video/film but the software is relatively expensive - Pyra post prod is about 3500UK. Merging who make Pyra have a demo version of Pyra http://www.merging.com/products/show?product=3&page=62 if it helps - note it is Windows 32 bit.

PT-HD software would be cheaper but the HD hardware is showing its age imho - a bit too expensive and not the best value for money/performance.

AFAIK for pro-sumer/professional PT-HD tends to be industry standard in USA/Europe (and I guess it's likely to be the same in Oz) but with some of the market taken by Pyra and Nuendo plus a bit for Seq and SADiE.

Posted by: OzRob May 9 2010, 02:11 PM

Tony,

Thanks very much for the comprehensive reply. That will give me plenty of direction in doing my homework on these products. Thank you.

Ps. I'm on PC, and later in the year will be building a dedicated audio PC.

Posted by: tonymiro May 9 2010, 02:13 PM

NP Rob - best of luck with this as well

Posted by: Staffy May 9 2010, 04:17 PM

I think it depends on what You what to accomplish here. Are You going to sync the video to the music or the other way round ?
I assume we are talking bout music, since in movie making You always sync the audio to the movie.
I also want to add Avid's products here, even that they are mainly movie-editors and not sound editors.

Presuming that You want to make a rock-video or similar, a budget solution will be to use a regular DAW and then sync the vid and music in a regular movie editor like Premiere, Sony Vegas or similar. But that implies that You have a master for the song finished.
Then You can record all clips with background music, eg. Your song, and when editing its fairly simple to just pan the sound from the camera with the sound from the master left & right and then just sync them by ear. Ofc. this is a more time-consuming process than have a dedicated program, but I still think that You can accheive nearly the same results this way.

//Staffay

Posted by: SirJamsalot May 9 2010, 04:34 PM

QUOTE (OzRob @ May 9 2010, 06:11 AM)

Posted by: Bogdan Radovic May 9 2010, 04:39 PM

I would also recommend using a video editing software if your are syncing audio track to a video track. You should prepare the track in your favorite audio environment (Cubase, Reaper, Nuendo etc) - I mean mix the track, add effects everything you wanted and export the finished file to .wav preferably.

Then you would use the video editing software like Adobe Premier or Sony Vegas (most popular, though Avid products are awesome), and sync the video with imported audio you prepared. Ideally you would have some kind of sound from your camera that is allready in sync with the video, you would then use that audio as a guideline for syncing it with produced/mastered audio track your prepared. When you get it in sync just delete/mute the cam's audio track and you are in sync. Just make sure that you match the sample rates, if your cam records audio in 48,000 sample rate and you prepare the 44,100 audio track - audio track from cam (and video one) will not be precisely in sync so pay attention to that.

Posted by: Staffy May 9 2010, 05:54 PM

QUOTE (Bogdan Radovic @ May 9 2010, 05:39 PM)

Posted by: tonymiro May 9 2010, 05:54 PM

IMHO it depends on the level that Rob wants to work at - I'm assuming at the prosumer-professional end rather than consumer or prosumer. At the pro end accurate sync is important and that really requires the ability to use an external accurate clock source, SMPTE so you know where you are, and to be able to accurately sync the transport start/stop etc functions of all the gear via something like the 9pin Sony protocol. At the consumer end of the scale then sure you can manually align via an audio clue and on a short piece you probably also won't need to worry about drift. So it's horses for courses .

Also as Bogdan says you should be in 48 as well and not 44.1.

Posted by: OzRob May 10 2010, 12:41 AM

No rock videos and no movie soundtracks - at least not yet.

I'm headed towards sync music for games, commercials, tv etc. The ability to create music that perfectly fits a scene, trailer or ad is part of the end game. That's why I don't care about video editing ability, just that it can track the video frame by frame and sync well for projects where that will be needed (such as audio for a movie trailer).

Posted by: Daniel Realpe May 10 2010, 02:43 AM

Most instructors use Sony Vegas and it does a pretty good job,

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic May 10 2010, 02:57 AM

If the story is based around semi-pro editors, I would say good ol' "align the events using peaks in video editor" method will work just fine. Any audio, and any video editor will work, assuming you work with them. If you are just starting with video editing, you can choose Vegas, it has a low learning curve.

While we are on the topic of manual alignment, does anybody know if Vegas can turn off snapping on the frame level (or this is software limitation)?