Audio / Video Technology

[The Doctor]

Hi, all. Since not all of us have had experience with video-creation in the past, I thought it might be nice to have a thread devoted to the technology we've found most (and least) helpful in the sharing-videos portions of our quests. This a great place for answers to questions including (but not limited to): Do you find it best to play the music out loud or to dub it? What are your favorite tricks for syncing the music and movie if you're dubbing? What software do you like best? What features have been most helpful to you in documenting the secret for others? What are some of the downfalls / limitations to documenting the secret you have found for the software you are using / have used?

Potentially, this thread might also help serve as a Q&A/tech support forum for anyone who finds themselves struggling in the editing / production department.

Please remember to include your Operating System in your posts if you are referencing any software that might be OS-specific.

[Like a Starflower]

Hey, this is a really good thread.

My favourite approach is to play the music out loud, and then dub it anyway. It helps to sync the music, too. Dubbing makes for far better sound quality, which in my opinion improves the video a lot.

Tip: If you have problems getting a perfect sync or things seem tacky, just put the dub some beats off and check if it looks good. If it does, nobody's going to notice a thing.

I run Vista. So when I started to make videos, I just checked if there maybe was some editing program within. And lo, there was: Windows Movie Maker. ...It is pretty limited, but it has been good enough for a couple of tricks and to just get the videos clipped and up.

[The Doctor]

Like a Starflower said:

Hey, this is a really good thread.
My favourite approach is to play the music out loud, and then dub it anyway. It helps to sync the music, too. Dubbing makes for far better sound quality, which in my opinion improves the video a lot.
Tip: If you have problems getting a perfect sync or things seem tacky, just put the dub some beats off and check if it looks good. If it does, nobody's going to notice a thing.

I like this idea (and have spent far too much time trying to sync without the music as a guide). Any ideas for a cheap / reasonable method for playing music while outside? My apartment is small and crowded, so I'm guessing I'll be doing almost all of my filming in the great outdoors.

[The Doctor]

I'm running Mac OS X.5.5, but I'm a Mac newbie in general.

I have iMovie 2008 and am thinking about upgrading to iMovie '09. Does anyone have any experience with '09 or both? I'm looking forward to being able to change the speed of the tracks and play them in reverse (though I doubt I'll use those features very often), and I'm hoping '09 makes it easier to sync the audio to the video and allows me to edit the audio track as well as the video track.

Alternatively, if anyone knows of any high-quality freeware out there, I'd also love to be able to overlay two video tracks (with lowered opacity on the top one so you can see both videos at once). Any technophiles out there with advice to share?

[Like a Starflower]

I'm fortunate enough to have an advanced enough phone that it plays music on command, so I like to use it on most cases.

[Laurel]

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[Darkstar]

I have no idea how to sync the audio with the video. More fundamentally, I have no idea how to dub audio onto my video. Anyone have any idea?

[Like a Starflower]

I have been using windows movie maker, which has been... satisfactory enough, this far. You just import the music to the program and drop it onto the audio track of the time line.

"I pick my song on playlist.com, press play, go back and hit record on the webcam, and dance until I'm done. So I'm actually listening to the music and recording in one session. Is that the problem? As I play the song, it actually comes through clear and proper, but upon playback, it does all that digi-skipping. Any ideas?"

I'm no wizard by any means (except the beard), but I have a hunch that might have something to do with your problem. Maybe it's just because the song is streaming from the net, or the machine has some general problem trying to play and record at the same time - but I don't really know. Go ahead and try playing your music from another source if possible.
...Not that I mind the trippy random digi-skipping!

[Darkstar]

I have also enjoyed the digital wonkiness that has come of my trying to make my machine do strange things. Enough, at least, to repeat the act!

Like a Starflower said:

I have been using windows movie maker, which has been... satisfactory enough, this far. You just import the music to the program and drop it onto the audio track of the time line.

"I pick my song on playlist.com, press play, go back and hit record on the webcam, and dance until I'm done. So I'm actually listening to the music and recording in one session. Is that the problem? As I play the song, it actually comes through clear and proper, but upon playback, it does all that digi-skipping. Any ideas?"

I'm no wizard by any means (except the beard), but I have a hunch that might have something to do with your problem. Maybe it's just because the song is streaming from the net, or the machine has some general problem trying to play and record at the same time - but I don't really know. Go ahead and try playing your music from another source if possible.
...Not that I mind the trippy random digi-skipping!