Syncing Video and Music in Premiere.

aod2002 · #1 (**permalink**) 07-24-2006, 08:43 AM

I just got done learning the basics of premiere. I took this course that took a few weeks to go through and made one full video project with it.

Anyways, I created a new project of montages with photos and titles only. I tried to add music to it but it doesn't stay in sync. For instance, when a title starts to move away the next section of the beat should start right on time so it looks like the video and audio are in perfect harmony.

I tried to change around the video timing and trim the video to the right sections of the audio, but it seems like that would take a few days just to do.
Basically I was just using the razor tool then using alt+selection tool to bring the video to where the next section of the the beat started then moving the rest of the video to the left so there wouldn't be any blank space.

I am sure there is a better way to do this. Can anyone share any ideas? A tutorial, site, links, or anything would help a lot. Thanks in advance.

komatoast · #2 (**permalink**) 07-24-2006, 08:55 AM

nope the way you are doing it is pretty much correct. its just that what you are trying to do is a time consuming act.... just stick with it, you will get the motion of croping and sliding down to a fine art

Alan Mills · #3 (**permalink**) 07-24-2006, 11:22 AM

Komatoast is right. It's just a long labourious job I'm afraid.

The only thing I would add is that if you have the tool and/or enough money, you can buy a plugin (from www.trapcode.com) for After Effects that will automatically generate keyframes in time to music. I have a feeling that the new v7 might have some equivalent stuff built in too but can't be sure.

Not sure if it would help with your cuts but it seems at least half way relevant so I thought I'd mention it.

aod2002 · #4 (**permalink**) 07-25-2006, 03:19 AM

The way I have been doing it in more detail is like so.

1. I cut out the blank sound at the beginning of the wav file for the music file so right when I hit start it would be on sync with video.

2. Playing it from the beginning with music loaded into audio track I watch the video until I see a part where the video doesn't sync with the music.

3. I move around timeline indicator or whatever until I find the part of the song that should match a certain part of the video then make a cut in that part of the audio(but I don't move around the audio at all).

4. I scrub through the video until I find the part of it that should go in sync with the cut I just made on the audio.

5. I cut the video where it starts the transistion.

6. Alt + selection tool to pull back the video to snap it to the audio cut.

7. Select the next portion of the video and just drag it over to snap to the rest of the video.

8. I repeat these steps(besides going all the way to beginning)all the way through the project.

I'm sure I am missing or doing something slightly wrong, or am atleast taking the longest route possible. I am known for doing everything the hardest way possible

. Is there a bit faster way of doing it? Am I doing anything wrong? So far I've noticed that it still doesn't look exactly right. I've had to alt + selection tool on both sides of videos a couple of times which changes the motion and messes up that part of the video. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps maybe someone can list how they do it step by step and what tools they use?

komatoast · #5 (**permalink**) 07-25-2006, 08:13 AM

sounds about right.... the way i would do it is to use several video tracks and place different clips over 2-3 tracks and just move the clips start and end points about till they fit instead of clipping them down.

if you understand what i mean....