Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Digital Pianos - Electronic Pianos - Synths & Keyboards Need advice for software to sync video with audio recording

I want to replace the audio in a video file with one recorded directly from the piano at the same time. Can anyone recommend any software that will sync the two files easily?

I have a Yamaha P155 full keyboard. I use a Windows computer.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Very difficult to do this. Do you plan to play live?. Is the Music full of rubato and tempo changes?.
You'll have to watch the video and perform with it while you record your new Audio.

Any of the DAWs that support sync to video can do this.
On OSX I would suggest Logic, Cubase, Digital Performer or Pro Tools 11.
On Windows Cubase or Pro Tools 11.

Much easier if the piece is in a specific tempo and you know what, the tempo is. In this case you could just record it to a metronome and pair it with a video specific program like Adobe Premier or Final Cut, or the amateur equivalents, Premier Elements or iMovie.

If I understand correctly, you want a video recording of your performance, but you don't want to use the audio from the camera's built-in mic?

It's tricky to do this with a separate audio recording device. For running times longer than a minute or so, separately recorded audio will frequently drift noticeably out of sync with the video, unless you take care to ensure that the camera and the audio recorder share the same timing reference during recording. It is extremely laborious and time-consuming to use editing software like Premiere or iMovie to manually repair the timing drift that often occurs in so-called double-system recording.

If your video camera has a line input for audio, it may be possible to bypass the camera's built-in mic, connecting the P155's AUX output(s) to the audio input of the camera. You may need a small mixer and/or adapter cables to make the connection, but this will be much easier than recording audio on a separate device and futzing around with editing software to marry the audio and video after the fact.

If by chance your camera does not have a line input for audio, I would suggest finding one that does. Again, it'll be much less of a bother to find a way of recording both audio and video on one device, than to maintain or recreate sync using separate recording devices.

Kind regards,

B.

Thanks for your response. I will be recording the piece at home. The piece I'll be playing is Clair de Lune. I want to submit both an video and audio recording for the ABF recital.

I don't know anything about recording to a metronome. This is all new to me. Thanks for the suggestions. I will do some research to learn more. Any other ideas will be appreciated.

You understand correctly! Thanks for this information. I suspected this would be a difficult thing to do. I will probably look into finding a device that can handle both audio and video. Thanks again.

Best regards,

You certainly won't want to be dealing with a metronome if you're playing Debussy! (unless it was "The Gollywogs' Cakewalk", perhaps).

One tip is to clap your hands before starting to play. This will give an easy mark on both the video and the audio, to align the starting point.

Amateur film makers do this all the time. Old reel film cameras don't have mics, they have to record audio separate. The iconic chalk board with the clack and call of "action" is used to label and also for aligning the sound and video.

Griffin, you do not need a different device necessarily, just use other software.
Have a look here

Depending on the camera you are using, you might be able to use Windows Live Movie Maker (on a new OS) or Debut Video Catcher. At any rate you can record video with the sound from your 'line-in' (direct from Piano) instead of via microphone. That way there is no synch necessary.

Zoom Q4

Or

Zoom Q2HD

Thanks again everyone! I'm glad to know I have a lot more options. Jytte and Elmer, thanks for the links.

I use PluralEYES software to sync or/and replace sound recorded by my Zoom H4n to video recorded using my Nikon D300s.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XisS33GiTSI

Ian

Thanks Beemer! I'll definitely check it out.

People refrain from syncing audio and video, thinking it's just so hard. It's not very easy, but it's not very hard either, just takes a bit of thinking.

One way is simply to calculate the starting point. Say we have a video, and you want to start it at 00:00:03.500 (hh:mm:ss.milliseconds.) The piano audio file starts the playing at 00:00:01.500, the difference is obviously 00:00:02.000. Some programs make use of this difference, other ones do it differently.

I have PowerDirector (not free), which makes this easy, just by dragging the tracks to the desired positions. AviDemux (free) has been mentioned before, it's not too hard using it for this purpose.

Thanks TheodorN! I will be looking into this.

You're right, finding an initial sync point between an audio and a video clip is not that hard. The real problem is that the two clips may not remain in sync for the whole running time of the scene.

Depending on the overall duration of the clips, and on your tolerance for discrepancies in sync between picture and sound, you may be able to get away with ignoring differences in the timing references for separately recorded audio and video of the same scene.

But it's also entirely possible that separately recorded clips could drift out of sync to an unacceptable degree, especially during the five minutes or more it takes to perform Clair de Lune. If you want to ensure good results, you need a solution that takes account of the timing references used to record each clip.

The PluralEYES software that Beemer mentioned can, in addition to finding an initial sync point between the clips, automatically adjust the timing of the audio clip if it begins to drift out of sync with the reference audio recorded by the video camera's mic. You need the very latest version (3.5) of PluralEYES for this, however, and you would also have to make sure that the time squeezing algorithm doesn't create undesirable artifacts in the sound of the performance. Also, PluralEYES is fairly expensive--around $200 USD, I think.

The ZOOM recorders that ElmerJFudd linked to should work well, and have external line inputs for audio.

Also, as Jytte suggested, one could capture both audio and video streams live on the PC itself, which would eliminate possible sync errors from separate recording.

The OP has described a very straightforward project (making a recording of a single recital performance, using a Yamaha P155 digital piano). It's a pretty small nail, and it doesn't need a big hammer. IMHO, arranging an interface from the P155 AUX output(s) to the line input of a suitably equipped video camera is the easiest solution.

Cheers,

B.

We can sum this up into the following options, though there may be more.

1. Recording from AUX OUT of the piano to a Line In input on the same camera that will be recording the video. No syncing needed.
2. Recording to the P155, then transferring to the computer. Syncing needed.
3. Recording via AUX OUT, as in the first option, but to a computer. In my opinion the worst of both worlds, since syncing is still needed, and the risk for unwanted noise increases.

The fourth option could be to record the audio to a Zoom device, as has been suggested, obviously syncing is needed in this case as well.

My suggestions may be tainted by the fact that usually when I connect my piano via Line Out to my computer, I get hum and/or distortions. For those who don't have that problem my words don't apply.

Still, if anyone wants to walk the syncing walk, here is a good video explaining that. According to it, the reason audio and video drift out of sync, is that the video recording device and the audio source, record audio in different frequencies, most often 44 KHz versus 48 KHz, I believe.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8wan7tZu_I

I might add, that in my last few piano videos, on my YouTube channel, there is no drifting out of sync, whatsoever. At least I haven't noticed it. Though I know my web camera records in 48 KHz, while the piano records in 44. I will possibly change settings to have the same audio frequency in both sources.

I have a Logitech web cam. I don't record video ... but I could record its video. And its audio.

Wouldn't it be possible to substitute an alternate audio source (via aux in, or via my Presonus audio interface) and then record video and audio simultaneously? That would not require sync'ing, would it?

I can't thank everyone enough for all of these wonderful suggestions and information. This is an example of how invaluable being part of the PWF can be. Thanks again!

Also, feel free to add any other information or ideas. I'll continue to check in if more ideas percolate.

MacMacMac, I'm not sure I understand the setup you're thinking of. Are you talking about AUX/LINE OUT on the piano - into Presonus - then into your computer, for the audio, and simultaneously recording the video with your webcam? Is such a setup possible without it resulting in two files, one audio file and one video file?

Griffin2417, you're welcome, hope you can work it out to your liking.