Audio Editing Video

SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
edited July 13, 2011 in Video
Just dipping my toe in video. I have a mac and the only video editing software I have so far is iMovie.

The one thing I was trying do was to adjust the audio volume tone etc recorded by the camera. I can only find a relatively crud tool, and the main issue I have is that I can't adjust the sound while it's playing.

This means I have to play with the sliders and then listen. Stop the video and audio and adjust the sliders again!!!

This is nuts! Is there a way to adjust the audio while it's playing??

Thanks

Sam
www.samlinvillephotography.com

Comments

  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited July 11, 2011
    In iMovie? I don't know. What I do know is that in FCP you can do it, but I still do it the way you describe, adding keyframes, adjusting, previewing, adjusting. It's more precise, I think. You'll get the hang on it.
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  • ziggy53ziggy53 Super Moderators Posts: 23,789 moderator
    edited July 11, 2011
    I don't have a Mac and I've never seen iMovie operate, so I hope the following is accurate.

    It looks like iMovie has audio waveform peaks turned off by default. I suggest turning them on so that you can see the audio levels in your project.
    To turn on waveforms:

    Choose iMovie > Preferences and click the “Show audio track waveforms” checkbox.
    If you don’t see waveforms in your tracks, deselect the Edit Volume checkbox. To see more detail in the waveforms, move the Zoom slider to the right.

    Between the visible waveforms and "scrubbing" (I think iMovie calls it "skimming") quickly through your project with audio on, and using suitable monitor speakers, you should be able to accurately gauge what audio sections need attention and correction.
    ziggy53
    Moderator of the Cameras and Accessories forums
  • Dan7312Dan7312 Registered Users Posts: 1,330 Major grins
    edited July 12, 2011
    In Premiere I have to stop the playback to adjust the audio level too, just like if I change a video parameter like color balance.

    Premiere, and I'm sure iMovie too, playback really means re-encoding what every you have as source material into whatever format, data rate, etc you want to output. There are a bunch of math calcs the software is doing to convert the input to the output on the fly and changing that calc on the fly wouldn't be all that easy.

    It's sort of like the input is a raw image and the output is the jpeg. You can't see what the jpeg will look like while you are making changes to the raw image.
    Sam wrote: »
    Just dipping my toe in video. I have a mac and the only video editing software I have so far is iMovie.

    The one thing I was trying do was to adjust the audio volume tone etc recorded by the camera. I can only find a relatively crud tool, and the main issue I have is that I can't adjust the sound while it's playing.

    This means I have to play with the sliders and then listen. Stop the video and audio and adjust the sliders again!!!

    This is nuts! Is there a way to adjust the audio while it's playing??

    Thanks

    Sam
    Dan

    http://www.danalphotos.com

    http://www.pluralsight.com

    http://twitter.com/d114
  • Dan7312Dan7312 Registered Users Posts: 1,330 Major grins
    edited July 13, 2011
    In doing a little poking around I found this http://www.grassvalley.com/products/edius_6 video editor that at least claims to do realtime editing. So this editor probably would let you change audio levels while you are doing playback.

    I've never tried this editor and didn't even know it existed 'till I just tripped over it, but I do recognize the company name from the past. There is actually a faint chance that some code I wrote for a different company ended up in this editor...

    By the looks of their site my guess is that it costs a bit more then iMovie though :D

    Sam wrote: »
    Just dipping my toe in video. I have a mac and the only video editing software I have so far is iMovie.

    The one thing I was trying do was to adjust the audio volume tone etc recorded by the camera. I can only find a relatively crud tool, and the main issue I have is that I can't adjust the sound while it's playing.

    This means I have to play with the sliders and then listen. Stop the video and audio and adjust the sliders again!!!

    This is nuts! Is there a way to adjust the audio while it's playing??

    Thanks

    Sam
    Dan

    http://www.danalphotos.com

    http://www.pluralsight.com

    http://twitter.com/d114
  • DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited July 13, 2011
    Sam,

    I know it sounds appealing, but live faders aren't really all that, in my experience.

    I did happen across this, which might help you with your audio:


    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu87xx9xKuQ
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
  • SamSam Registered Users Posts: 7,419 Major grins
    edited July 13, 2011
    Dan,

    This looks like a more sophisticated program than I need. Also at $799.00 it's over my budget. :D

    Thanks for the info though.

    David,

    Looks like it might be worth going from iMovie 09 to iMovie 11.

    Thanks for the link iMovie has a lot more audio features than iMovie 09.

    Sam
    www.samlinvillephotography.com
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