OT: Searching for FREE Audio/Video editor

[musicpete]

Hello to all of you!

When I am composing for film, I mostly cut it down to single scenes using Virtualdub, measure the timecode and calculate tempi etc. from there. But when all the work is done I would like to put the music together with the picture and check if every hitpoint works. Right now I am just pressing play on my video software (BSPlayer - free and very good) and then on Sibelius or an other Audio application. But this is cure and unprecise.

So: Does anyone know of a video editing application where I can move around multiple audio files, put them under a large video file and look at the result? And it must be free (no time-limited trial, no shareware), that\'s important to me, since I am on a zero $ budget. http://www.northernsounds.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Thanks in advance for your help!

Peter

[fmfgs]

Check out the Zwei-Stein Video Editor:
http://www.thugsatbay.com/software/index.html (\"http://www.thugsatbay.com/software/index.html\")
I never tried - but its free...
fmfgs

[Mike Kelley]

It\'s not very sophisticated (nothing free will be in this arena) but you could always try Microsoft\'s Movie Maker.

[Shazbot]

Audacity (\"http://audacity.sourceforge.net/\") is a decent multitrack audio program that\'s free. I don\'t believe it can import video clips, though, but I thought it was worth mentioning anyway...

Better yet, if you can scrape up just $45, you can get n-Track Studio (\"http://ntrack.com\"), which is a much more involved audio/MIDI program (it supports VSTi/DXi as well, so you could presumably record GPO with it), and it has a \"video sync window\". Nothing fancy at all, but apparently you can import an AVI or MPEG file and see that to align your audio along with. I\'ve tried the demo and it\'s really quite an impressive program for the price, though I didn\'t try GPO or video import with it.

Actually, I just checked out the Zwei-Stein program, and that looks like your best bet, and it\'s free!

[musicpete]

Hello to you all and thanks for the answers!

I already tried Zweistein and have to say that the program is total crap (I rarely saw such a cluttered and unintuitive interface) since you can\'t move around audio and video clips....

Audacity looks interesting but isn\'t what I was looking for. The nforce studio is not bad either, but I already own Cubase SX2. I don\'t want to do the audio/video matching in it because with a 30 minute movie it gets very cumbersome (plus the thing naturally calculates time in measures/beats - which I expect from a sequencer...).

The Windows movie Maker 2 was the first thing I tried but it doesnt allow for multiple audio tracks (crossfades) and there is no easy way to place an audiofile frame-accurate.

Any other ideas? I fear that I have to go with an old version of Mainconcept Video and try that....

[Shazbot]

[ QUOTE ]
Any other ideas?

[/ QUOTE ]

For $0?? I doubt it. I guess you\'re S.O.L. (uh, surely outta luck). http://www.northernsounds.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[DPDAN]

Although not free, Digital Performer will display a movie \"in sync\" and allow you to move midi and audio relative to it. The display will show measures, real time, time code/frames, and even samples, just one of the bazillion features of MOTU\'s Digital Performer.

[thesoundsmith]

I don\'t know if they still make it-couldn\'t find it in download.com, but Avid used to have a free version of their video editing package that was quite useful.

There are a few really cheap ($29-69) editors, but free seems to have gone away for now.

Dasher

[Alan Lastufka]

Does ProTools FREE allow a video track? I remember most all of their audio editing features were there, just limited to 8 tracks, but I never looked at the video stuff?

[Styxx]

Try Sony Soundforge website. I believe (but don\'t quote me on it) that they have Sony Vagas 4.0 free trial. My oldest brother uses it and it is quite intuitive and will handle what you are looking for. The just introduced Vagas 5.0 but I have no idea if there is a trial.
Wish you lots of luck. If anything, you can read up on it and see what it has to offer.
Hope I helped.
Hi,
http://www.northernsounds.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

[musicpete]

Thank you guys!

Yes, Avid is still offering a basic editor for free. I have to try if it supports 24fps video.

Let me thank you one more time for all your help!

[thesoundsmith]

When I wrote that post about the free Avid editor, Iwent to their site to post a link, but could not find it. If you locate it, please post a link, I\'d love to have a current copy. The old one i had was for Mac OS 7 or so, and I don\'t use my mac for video anymore.

Dasher

[musicpete]

Try this link, it\'s well hidden (obviously, since they want to sell the full version, which I can\'t blame them for): http://www.avid.com/freedv/features.asp (\"http://www.avid.com/freedv/features.asp\")

The download link is in the menu on the left.

[thesoundsmith]

Thanks, musicpete. I remember this page well. I spent hours trying toget the State field popup to work. My copy of IE won\'t recognise the particular Javascript they are looking for, so I cannot download the files. But I\'ve got it bookmarked, and will keep trying.

Update - I did, and got it.

Dasher