@browj2 @Jeffrey-Shaw @AAProds

Hi Jeffrey and welcome to the user to user forum.

Funnily enough I know another Shaw based in Southend in the UK that also directs another Barber shop quartet. It must run in the family name 🙂.

I agree with the solution John CB has suggested, that you all follow the same recorded click track.

There could be additional problems after the clips are recorded if they use their phones to record performances or a program like Zoom or OBS studio or another screen recorder, as often such recording devices and apps produce files that have a variable frame rate and may still not sync when placed next to each other on individual tracks within a video editor, so may need to be converted to constant frame rate video clips before being placed in a video editor. The files first need to be looked at via MediaInfo to see if they are variable frame rate (use the text view to see if this is the case) and if they are they need to be converted to the same constant frame rate using Handbrake. Both are free to use programs.

In fact this may already be the cause of the files not syncing up.

Ray.

@AAProds

Hi Al.

I read @Jeffrey-Shaw's post as meaning he actually needs to align both audio and video of multiple tracks, in order to create his "virtual choir". In that situation I think the "Audio-Video Offset" option could actually make things worse!

Jeff

Thank you for your comments. The way we did this was I, as director, made a video of me directing and singing a song. I then emailed this to the members of my group. Each individual, then, watched my director's video on a device and then created their own video on a separate device singing with me to my direction. They, then, sent the individual videos back to me to be compiled and synced into a virtual chorus. Prior to singing/directing I clapped 3 or 4 times in time with the music and asked them to clap with me. I thought this would create a good time stamp to help with syncing. Turns out that wasn't very accurate. I've been trying to use the initial instant of singing the song as my starting point so I've been trying to sync that point on all of the individual tracks. I also requested that their videos be recorded in 4:3 format and at 30 fps so that they were all relatively the same for those parameters. I note that Magix likes to use 29.97 fps instead of 30, so I wonder if that may be a problem. Also, I myself submitted a separate video of me singing with my own director's track and I've been trying to use that as a reference track to sync the other tracks to. (Maybe I should be using the director's track instead?)

Using the cursor and mouse to grab an audio track to move it to the starting point can only get it close. It seems to "jump" rather than glide so I can usually get 3 or 4 out of 8 tracks lined up pretty well but the others are either just ahead or just behind. I tried using the "Align other objects with this track" feature but I think I misunderstand the mechanics of how to use it because it didn't seem to do anything. Can anyone help me with those mechanics?

Alternatively, I wonder if there is a different mechanism whereby I can grab a track and move it incrementally either forward or backward in time, perhaps utilizing the right and left keys on the keyboard.

Again, thank you all for your help with this. Jeff

@Jeffrey-Shaw I'm doing something very similar to what you're working on, except right now I have the luxury of recording myself playing along to a click track. I initially was also having problems precisely aligning the tracks, and I do think it lacking that there's not the ability to use arrow keys or something to move the tracks a frame at a time, but here's a method that's been working okay for me:

• Separate the audio and video tracks. Then generate an audio waveform for the audio track.
• Place the cursor on the peak of the waveform for the first beat in the track.
• Grab the other track and pull it below this, aligning its peak to the first track's peak.
• You may have to click and turn off the little magnet icon, and zoom way in with the bottom + button in order to have it give you fine-enough control over the placement of the track.

@Jeffrey-Shaw

Hi

. . . .I note that Magix likes to use 29.97 fps instead of 30, so I wonder if that may be a problem. . . .

MEP is detecting the true frame rate of the video - any device that records to the NTSC standard the frame rate is 29.97, additionally some devices only quote the recording framerate as 30 fps.

. . . . It seems to "jump" rather than glide so I can usually get 3 or 4 out of 8 tracks lined up pretty well but the others are either just ahead or just behind . . . .

In MEP they will jump - the audio can only be synced to the nearest frame, this means a worst case of 1/25 or 1/30th of a second out.

If you are mixing framerates then this is not going to help the syncing issue, all videos should be the same framerate.

If the audio in the recordings are different sample rates ie 44.1 and 48 kHz, this also is not going to help - the audio should also be the same sample rate - ideally 48kHz.

It may be worth running all the video clips through a converter such as Handbrake to get a consistent video framerate and audio sample rate video ( export them to a different folder) - if you use Handbrake these are the options to set:

HTH

John EB

@johnebaker

Hi John.

In your second image should the audio bit rate not be set a little higher?

Ray.