My compressed audio messed up my synch

[DriftRoot]

It took me awhile to realize this, but my AMV (see banner below) developed a synching problem after I compressed my audio. It's so slightly off-synch that a lot of people would probably not even notice (it took me over a month, and I made it) or else assume I was just being sloppy...except that I wasn't sloppy. I spent a long, long, LONG time getting things to synch perfectly, only to have my uncompressed audio ruin all that effort.

1. Why did this happen?

2. How can I make sure it doesn't happen again?

I'm annoyed enough to want to re-upload the AMV WITH uncompressed audio, that's had badly compressing the audio screwed up my synching!!! But I can't have this continue to happen with my other projects, which can't absorb a 25MB audio track.

[Sereenie]

I think something similar is mentioned in this thread.

S.

[DriftRoot]

Yeesh that's a long thread. @_@ And it seems that poor individual, who no doubt just gave me a preview of the hell I'm about the willingly enter, hasn't resolved this problem.

So what, there's only two people experiencing synch issues with compressed audio (who care about synch issues) out of how many editors around here? That seems a little unlikely.

[Sereenie]

Rereading the thread, it seems that the problem is not unheard of, it's just that no one really noticed or cared...

This post is the one where Kero777 reports on what did work for him. Actually, page 3 of the thread seems to be the most useful one, screenshots and all.

S.

[DriftRoot]

Rereading the thread, it seems that the problem is not unheard of, it's just that no one really noticed or cared...

I don't know how the vast majority of people can fail to notice or care, it's not a minor problem, IMO - then again, if one's synch is off to begin with, being off a little more is hardly going to matter (heck, it might improve things). And when I say perfectly synched, I mean a specific frame is synched to a specific place in the audio, where being off by one or two frames means your synch is off...yes, that's how particular I am about synching, that's how carefully I synch my stuff, that's why I'm mad about this, because the way my AMV looks, it seems like I didn't care (or didn't do it right).

Actually, page 3 of the thread seems to be the most useful one, screenshots and all.

And yeah, that post is nice, until you read the next one they made:

"Unfortunately, I was wrong about what I posted yesterday. Sad I was dumb and previewed a part that didn't really have as much "timing" to it as other. It's still... off..."

What I basically got out of that entire thread is that I should try something other than XviD next time and hope to god it comes out OK. I was going to do this anyways, but it still disappointing not know how correct this problem.

[DriftRoot]

Let me state, for the record, I was editing with uncompressed audio. I didn't edit with a compressed MP3, then export a WAV from Premiere, then compress that WAVed MP3 into another MP3.

[Kero777]

Unfortunately Sereenie, DriftRoot is right. I never was able to fix the problem no matter what I did. Even when I used MP4/MKV: timing was still off. I think it's partly because of the very, very tiny bit of silence that Lame mp3 adds at the beginning and end to ensure that none of the song is cut off during the compressing.

Let me state, for the record, I was editing with uncompressed audio. I didn't edit with a compressed MP3, then export a WAV from Premiere, then compress that WAVed MP3 into another MP3.

Same thing here. MP3's can crash editing programs, so I always use Uncompressed WAVs. I'm not sure if it would make a difference either way though.

If anyone finds out anything out about this problem, please help us two very frustrated people out. Thanks.

[lynit]

Did you add any leaders or something?
I had that problem. Just removed them, marked where to sync it up in Vegas (I moved the audio, and added some blank space), then added some silence in Audacity using the stuff I marked in Vegas...

sounds like a lot, but it's really simple.

[DriftRoot]

Did you add any leaders or something?
I had that problem. Just removed them, marked where to sync it up in Vegas (I moved the audio, and added some blank space), then added some silence in Audacity using the stuff I marked in Vegas...

sounds like a lot, but it's really simple.

Here's the thing, I do have bumpers, but should that really make any difference given the way they're attached to my AMV? In both the uncompressed video and uncompressed audio stages, the whole entire AMV (including bumpers) is one video segment and synchs perfectly with the music. When the audio is compressed, that's when things go screwy. Does silence get compressed a little more or something, moving the actual music up a half frame or so? Your resolution sounds like an extreme measure...I mean, I can't imagine doing that to synch up tracks in MEPs.

I had a theory I shared with Kero: perhaps its something system-specific causing this synch problem. I'd like to see someone who's NEVER run into this kind of synch issue take the same audio and video files we're using and compress them the same way we are. If it works perfectly, then it's probably something beyond out control and we're going to be stuck uploading AMVs with uncompressed audio for the rest of our editing lives.

If it was my bumpers causing the problem (if I still had my original AMV project file, I would test this out personally, but I don't so I can't [don't ask]), then how the heck do I get all my audio and video tracks and whatnot into one AMV without this synch problem? It took me forever to get my bumpers to play nice and I thought I finally figured it out.

[Krisqo]

This may not be the best solution but I do it all the time...

Export you audio uncompressed from your editing program so it will have any gaps you placed at either the beginning or end for bumpers and whatnot. Then compress THAT file. Seems to work for me