MixingSoundEditingVideo

[chocky909]

I've been wanting to film some pinball tables in action but the mic on my video camera is poor and so I have an audio recorder I use to record gigs that I'd rather use to record the sound and then edit together with the video. I was wondering if anyone here does that kind of thing and whether they might share some tips. Obviously the simpler the better regarding software but if I can be pointed in the direction of a tutorial I can probably manage. I know about the clapper board technique (yeah, that's what all the film people call it) which gives you a sync point to work from but after that I'm lost and never really even mucked about with Windows Movie Maker. I did think about buying a video camera with a mic in but I'm always buying shit that I'll never use so I'd rather try to work with what I've got seeing as I'll probably film a couple of videos then never do it again.

[chocky909]

Anyone? I just need some software recommendations for easy combining of seperate audio and video with basic editing on the side.

[Consignia]

Have you tried Avidemux? It's exceedingly basic, but it might just be enough for your needs.

[Neomod]

You could try the following:

Sony Vegas
Powerdirector
Adobe Premier Elements

Powerdirector and Vegas are quite straightforward to use, Premier seemed a bit bloated  when I used it.

There are probably others but these are the three I've used.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I would also recommend Vegas, it only took me a few minutes to get the hang of it and make a short video with captions and music. Very easy to get started with (although possibly tricky with the more advanced stuff)

[Robot DeNiro]

Yup, I'd recommend Vegas.  I'm happy to attempt to give tech support via PM if need be.

[mcbpete]

Yep, Vegas from me also - Perfect learning curve depending on how far you want to go with it.

[lazyhour]

I've worked with Adobe Premiere Pro (PC) and Final Cut Pro (Mac), and the latest edition of Sony Vegas compares very favourably with them for pretty much all non-pro or semi-pro requirements. It's also much easier for a layperson to get to grips with.

I bought it very recently in the 'Production Suite' pack - £30 on Amazon - because that also comes with DVD/Blu-Ray authoring software AND Sony Sound Forge, which is a very decent sound file editor.

Don't forget to buy it through CaB if you want to give it a go...

[chocky909]

Cool. Sounds like I should check Vegas out first. Thanks to Robot for the offer of help too, I'll probably need it.

I'll maybe post my first successful edit here later. Cheers all!