Synching Sound in Premier Pro vs Premier Elements

kdog

This is a long shot, but maybe some premier expert can help me. If you haven't synched sound using either Premier or Premier Elements, then you probably can't help me.

I have Premier Elements V11. I recorded a two-hour ceremony with two DSLRs. I also had a digital recorder plugged into the PA system, so I have a clean audio track as well. I want to synch my DSLR clips against the good audio track from the PA. It's my understanding that all I need to do is slide my DSLR clips so that their wave forms align with the PA system track, and voila. However when you slide a clip in elements, the wave form disappears and the clip turns black. The instant you stop dragging and release the mouse button, the waveform reappears. So it's impossible to line up the audio tracks perfectly because you can't see what you're doing. Is there a way to view the waveform in Elements while you're sliding? Or perhaps this is something that can only be done in Premier Pro? Anybody know?

Thanks!
-joel

ziggy53

I don't use Premiere anymore, but I used to split the audio on a given waveform event (a clap or a cough, for instance) for both tracks. Then you just line up the splits in order to sync the tracks.

I'm sure there are better ways, but I bet that technique still works.

kdog

ziggy53 wrote: »

I don't use Premiere anymore, but I used to split the audio on a given waveform event (a clap or a cough, for instance) for both tracks. Then you just line up the splits in order to sync the tracks.

I'm sure there are better ways, but I bet that technique still works.

Ziggy, that works great! So simple and yet it wasn't obvious to me. Thank you.

kdog

Here's an update, just in case others are interested in this topic. I downloaded the trial of Premier Pro CC, just to make sure I wasn't missing anything. Turns out Premier Pro syncs audio to video at a touch of a button. In fact, you can have multiple camera views plus a separate audio track and it synchronizes the whole mess for you based on audio then optionally deletes the camera audio tracks. Amazing. When I think about how much time I wasted using Elements, it makes me want to kick myself.

perroneford

This is the easy stuff. Wait until you have sync stuff up where the audio drifts. I worked a two hour project last month where the audio drifted 15 frames every ten minutes. You have to cut the video at regular intervals ad adjust, or figure out the drift rate and run the audio track slightly faster or slower as the case ma be. Took me forever to get that right. Today I used Pluraleyes for the first time and it did it automatically.

kdog

Premier CC adjusts for audio drift automatically as well. My Tascam recorder came defaulted to 44.1KHz, while Canon cameras shoot 48Khz. This causes the audio to skew over time. I didn't even realize that was an issue until I manually added another Tascam track to my finished edit and discovered it drifted towards the end. I had manually added it using Ziggy's technique because I couldn't figure out how to sync the extra track automatically to my edited clip. The Merge Clip feature was grayed-out for some reason. Rather frustrating. I'm still trying to figure all this stuff out.