Temp Track
Editing Audio to Picture
desc
You are asked to create a "temp track" using some provided music.
s1
•Find the link at the top of the page to the project files.
•Control-click the link and select Download Linked File As...
•In the resulting window, navigate to your work folder (or the Desktop) and click Save.
A .zip file will be downloaded to the location you chose.
•In the Finder, locate the icon for the file you downloaded (dp_temp_track_project.zip).
•Double-click the zip file icon to un-compress it into a folder called DP Temp Track Project.
Here are some more detailed instructions:
Use these instructions to download a lnked file to your project folder.
•Open the DP Temp Track Project folder and locate the Digital Performer file DP Temp Track. Drag its icon to the Digital Performer icon in the Dock to open it.
DP will open into Tracks view.
•In the Track view window, click the blue triangle in the Play column for each of the two music tracks to turn them off.
s2
The project files include a movie called Blue Pullman, which has a "countdown" at the front and a time code window burn for location reference. The timecode for the start of the video is 1:00:00:00.
The DP file include two music tracks, John Henry and Pacific 231. They are placed onto audio tracks for easy access. Your job is to create a temp track that combines these two pieces of music is a creative way.
This tutorial describes a way one might accomplish this, though you are encouraged to try to do it differently. You could even import your own music if you like.
The main rule is that the finished video features music that starts and ends exactly where the movie does. So let's start by setting markers that outline those points.
•Grab the dimple on the right hand panel and drag upwards to create a new panel.
If you don't show a right-hand panel, create one by dragging right-hand dimple to the left.
•From the new panel's left-hand menu, select Markers to open a Markers panel.
•Locate the sequence to measure 1/1/000, the start of the film.
•Type Control-M to drop a marker at the start of the sequence.
•In the Markers window, option-click the name of the new marker to "pop-edit" it, and rename it START.
•Now locate to the last frame of picture (1:01:03;28) and create a new marker. Name it END.
•For each marker, click in its LOCK column to lock it.
Locked markers (and items in locked tracks) retain their position relative to timecode even if the sequence's tempo changes.
Now let's do some "spotting"--locating specific points in the film where music might sync to picture.
•Locate to the cut to the shot in which the engine-driver increases the speed control (1:00:23;21).
•Create a locked marker at that point named Faster.
•Now create additional markers for points in the film that may be musically significant.
s3
•In the Tracks view, play-enable the Music 1 track.
In Digital Performer, audio is edited using the Sequence Editor view.
•In the panel on the right, drag the bottom dimple upwards to create another panel, and select Track Selector from its menu.
•At the bottom of the main window, grab the center dimple and drag upwards to create a second main view.
•In the new view, click Sequence tab to select Sequence Editor view.
Notice that when the Sequence Editor is in focus, its available tracks appear in the Track Selector panel.
•In the Track Selector panel, option-click Music 1.
Option-click excludes all but the clicked selection.
•In the upper right hand corner of the Sequence Edit view, turn off (click to un-hlighlight) Snap to Grid.
•This next part is tricky. Position the cursor at the left edge of the John Henry soundbite. The cursor will change to a drag-edit shape.
•Now drag the edge of the soundbite to right quite a ways, until the left edge of the soundbite is at around measure 103.
You could also do this by selecting the front portion of the soundbite and hitting Delete.
•Now just drag the remaining soundbite so that its the place where the music ends is near the Faster marker.
•Play the film and move the soundbite in small increments until you like the way the music plays with the movement of the hand.
•When you have the music where you like it, go to the Markers panel and click the START marker to move the locator to the start of the video.
•Hit F6 to set the end selection to the START marker location.
•On the number pad, hit 1 to locate to the beginning of the sequence, then hit F5 to set the start selection.
•In the Tracks view, click on the Music 1 track name to select that track and highlight the selected part of the soundbite.
Your Tracks view should look like this. Notice the Selection strip at the top right.
•Hit Delete to remove the front part of the soundbite.
Now the music starts at precisely the same place as the start of the movie. But the beginning of the music track may be abrupt. Let's put a little fade on the front of the soundbite.
•In the Sequence Edit view, place the cursor to the left of the Music 1 soundbite (it will be a crosshair), then drag over the front of the soundbite.
The size of the selection doesn't matter at this point.
•With the front of the soundbite selected, go Audio > Fade.
•In the resulting window, in the menu at the bottom left, select Create fixed-length fades, and enter 100 in each of the boxes at the bottom right.
•Click OK to create a 100 msec fade into the soundbite.
The Create Fades window provides a great deal of flexibility regarding fades. One can also create crossfades between two soundbites.
•Play back your soundtrack to make sure it works for you. If not, go back and make changes. If so, move on to the second soundbite.
s4
•In a similar manner, edit the second soundbite so that its ending audio completes before the last frame of video.
Remember to play enable the Music 2 track in the Tracks view.
The second soundbite is not so easy to deal with. It is very long, and, since the piece represents a train ride, the ending slows down.
In the version we will show in class, I found a good place to start in the middle, faster section of the piece, and put that start point directly below the ending chord of soundbite 1 so that they overlap.
I then took the ending note from soundbite 2 and pasted it over my soundbite 2 edit so that it ends at the end of the film, allowing for "ring-out." I ended up shortening the ending note a bit so that it worked better with the previous music.
I made liberal use of the extra track to move things back and forth, and put fades where they seemed appropriate. I made sure that the ending soundbite did not overlap the last frame of picture.
This process is very subjective. Your edit of soundbite 2 will be different--and you might make more than one edit or even use a different piece.
At any rate, when you have a soundtrack you are happy with, continue to the end game.
s5
•If you want to practice with sound effects, feel free to do that next.
There is a creaking door with a slam on it you could use to represent the door open and close at the start of the video. The SFX track has been created for this purpose.
•After your sound track is complete, play it back and check the volume levels of the various tracks. If you want to make a change, go Project > Mixing Board and adjust the levels of your tracks.
•In the Markers window, click the END marker to locate to the end of your film.
•Hit F6 to locate the end-selection point to that spot.
•Now locate to the START marker, and hit F5 to set the start-selection point.
•In the Tracks view, drag over the names of all tracks containing audio. Scroll thru your project and make sure your selection points are set correctly.
Make sure all audio tracks are play-enabled.
•With your selection in place, go Audio > Bounce to Disk.
•In the resulting window, use these settings:
--File Format: Quicktime Export: Movie
--Source: Mac Out 1-2
--File Name: <your name> Blue Pullman Temp Track
•Click Choose Folder, and in the resulting window navigate to your project folder and click Choose.
•Click OK to create your movie.
Go your your work folder and find your bounced movie, then open it in Quicktime to check it.