Timing Video to Audio

In the days of yore, editing video and audio used to be considered two different disciplines. Today, most desktop and non-linear video editing programs also edit audio with the same tools and capabilities. As a result, video editors are all but expected to also edit their own audio.

For most, this means just mixing together narration, music, and the occasional sound effect. However, if go one step further and make your video edit decisions based on the audio - and vice versa - you will end up with a final program that is tighter, and more compelling to watch, than if you just let the respective cuts fall where they may. The same goes for 2D and 3D animation: Allowing audio to inform your timing decisions results in a stronger overall experience.

Don’t know anything about audio or music? Hang on and we’ll give you a crash course in the next two pages. Already have a good idea of how audio and music work? Jump ahead to the section titled Cut Time on Page 3 and we’ll go over a few tips and tricks to keep in mind, followed by a brief case study. As with any artistic discipline, rules are meant to be stretched and broken - but they give you an important head start.

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I Can’t Hear You: Correct Audio Connections

I felt compelled to write on this subject because of a real-life experience that happened years ago. Trish and I were scheduled to show tapes and speak about our work at an event. We had both BetaSP and VHS tapes, as well as some QuickTime movies to show from a Mac. As is our custom, we asked to inspect the gear before we were scheduled to go on, just to make sure everything would go smoothly.

I started at the BetaSP deck. There was nothing connected to its normal audio output connectors - a problem, since we really focus on the interplay between audio and visuals in our work. However, there was something plugged into the “monitor” output on the back of deck. This is an extra RCA-style output jack meant to be connected to the corresponding input on some video monitors (to hear your work through that great two-inch speaker so generously built in). They were using this, but not with a phono plug inserted - instead, they managed to jam into a Walkman-style headphone plug into it, which then went to a pair of RCA connectors. An inauspicious start.

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On The Level

Admit it: How many of you mix audio by dragging the music, narration, and sound effects or ambiance bed into your authoring program…and think you’re finished? Okay, you don’t, but I’ve heard numberous television programs and pieces of interactive media that sound that way. Each component might sound fine individually, but when more than one is playing at the same time, they obscure each other. Or maybe during quieter sections, an unacceptable amount of noise or distortion appears when played back on a system with lower bit-depth or compressed audio. The solution to both comes from proper management of audio levels.

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