Topic: Beginner (free) audio/video sync program?

[achalsey]

I have no experience recording video, but there are a few youtube videos of shows I taped that I thought could be improved with my audio.  Thought it might be fun to try.

Any noob friendly, free programs that can do this with a relatively small learning curve?

[ScoobieKW]

I'm a big fan of Sony Vegas, unless you have windows Vista, then Windows Movie Maker is quite nice. They totally dumbed it down for windows 7.

I use the $99 dollar version of vegas, the cheaper ones are the same but don't have as many video layers.

Simple timeline you inspect the waveforms and slide to match. Easy peasey.

[achalsey]

Thanks for the suggestion, but I'm really hoping to find something free.  This probably won't go farther than a couple quick videos, so not trying to spend any money on it.

[ScoobieKW]

XP or 7, windows movie maker has timeline and will let you do what you need.

the Sony program has a free trial and a $40 version that would suit you.

For free Pinnacle Video Spin was ok, I found it's irritant factor was higher than buying Vegas.

[achalsey]

Ah, just tried to check out the free trial, I should have mentioned I'm using a mac.

[ScoobieKW]

iMovie then?

[achalsey]

I'm going back to check that out.  Wasn't sure if that would work.  I've never used it, but opened it a few days ago to play around and couldn't even get started.  I'm not good at this type of thing so was hoping for something with an interface closer to what I was used to with Audacity or something.


EDIT:  Okay, tried iMovie, don't get it.  Will watch some tutorials but still very much looking for something a better interface.

[willndmb]

I'm going back to check that out.  Wasn't sure if that would work.  I've never used it, but opened it a few days ago to play around and couldn't even get started.  I'm not good at this type of thing so was hoping for something with an interface closer to what I was used to with Audacity or something.


EDIT:  Okay, tried iMovie, don't get it.  Will watch some tutorials but still very much looking for something a better interface.

The older version of iMovie is way easier to use IMO (iMovie hd) after that the changed it and it is more confusing and tricky
There is no other free option though so here goes a rough start for you...
Import the mp4 files from YouTube into iMovie
Move them to the timeline
Import the audio file(s) to the timeline too, they should show up under the video file
From there you should be ale to move the audio file to match the video
Once finished be sure to save/export with only the new audio and not the original too

[achalsey]

Thanks for the brief guide.  Thats basically what I'd been trying but was not very successful.  iMovie sucks.  Giving up.  Grabbing something from the bay.  Too frustrated to care at this point.

[techgui]

Sony Vegas has a 30 free trial.  Just download it from their website and enjoy for a month.

[robeti]

Sony Vegas is great.

[fguidry]

I know this topic is old, but it seems like a useful place to leave breadcrumbs.

With Audacity and Avidemux it's pretty easy to sync and trim, and in many cases this can be accomplished without transcoding (decompressing and recompressing the video).

Install Audacity and add the FFmpeg libraries (along with the LAME extension).
Install Avidemux.
Open both the audio and video files in Audacity. The video will not be displayed.
In all the following operations, do not change the length of the video file, don't add or subtract from it.
Move the audio file until it is aligned with the camera audio.
Trim the file, or add silence, until the audio file is exactly as long as the camera audio.
Export the audio file to a new WAV file.

Open the video in Avidemux.
Go to the Audio menu, select track, use the drop down to Add Audio Track
Select the WAV created above.
Set Audio and Video Codecs to COPY
Select a MUXer - AVI is probably the most flexible.
Save the file, give it a location and name, append the correct extension.

Fran