Sound+vision
 

Is there a good audio program that has what you need to edit audio, but also to synch it to vision (eg, cut the film, import it into this wonder!program and add the necessary sound componants on a reasonable number of tracks.) I've used a big sound suite (w/ projector etc), but want something a little smaller and more affordable.

Tried doing a search, but there is a lot of threads to wade through, so don't kill me for asking.

Final Cut Express or Final Cut Pro can both sync rushes. I also did the dialogue editing for "Crooked Features" in Final Cut.

On Windows I was a Vegas guy, it can do the same as can most any other half-decent NLE.

acid is pretty good for sight+sound and makes 5.1 very easy.

First questions - do you work with a PC/Windows system or do you use Mac or will you pick the computer based on the software choice? How extensive are your needs? Are you editing video or are you adding sound to already existing completed video such as a club VJ might do? What is the ultimate format and destination of your production and how will it be viewed - trade show kiosk, broadcast television, home video DVD, motion picture theatre, etc?

PC.
I want to add sound to previously edited video, with a program primarily dedicated to sound. Everything bounced back to mini dv and eventually dvd (hopefully for broadcast and festival playing)

I don't want just one or two tracks for dialogue, but enough for a total soundscape (I think we used 16 tracks last time, not including all the tweaking we did to the music) and the ability to manipulate recorded sounds beyond what I can get on most vision editors.

Acid does a ision link? I've used some Acid (man, that just sounds bad) but I've also spent a lot of time on Goldwave and Audacity. I want something like those two with a vision link.

You should take a look at Audacity (http://audacity.sourceforge.net/). It does multi-track editing at a really good price point--free!

You can't display the video while editing sound, but it does have a lot of features.

If you need to display the video, some of the video editors consumer editions (around $100) such as Premiere elements or Vegas Platinum might give you enough capability.

If you are adding sound, checkout Smartsound (http://www.smartsound.com/). Their SonicFire Pro program lets you match sound (mainly their music) to your video.

Try Premiere and Audition - you can add as many audio tracks as you want, and you can open the audio clips in Audition directly from Premiere. When you're done in Audition, it saves the clip as a WAV file and the changes are updated in Premiere. You might have to buy the Production Studio license to get this integration, though - I'm not sure about that.

Sony Vegas would be a good choice to investigate. If you have moderately deep pockets, Steinberg's Nuendo is a multi-track sound design, editing, and creation tool what does exactly what you've said you need to do - a complete set of multi-track sound recording, editing, mixing, and mastering tools with the option of working against an edited picture track - all at the highest of professional levels. Worth taking a look at. A bit pricey but not outrageously so and it's making inroads into a number of network and feature film production post suites as an alternative to Protools. www.steinberg.de

If you know PC user interface conventions, ACID and Vegas are excellent choices. They simply fall to hand.

The differences, regarding audio to video are...

VEGAS
* Lets you edit the video, if needed.
* Is an awesome multi-tracker
* Is somewhat simpler than ACID, because it never uses "beatmaps"

ACID
* Doesn't let you edit video at all. You can display the video though
* Supports MIDI, but not nearly as well as Sonar and Cubase
* Includes measures, time signatures and multiple tempos, though it doesn't support tempos changing in the middle of a measure. Tempo step changes only.
* Supports loops, which are great for hip hop, techno, industrial, etc.

If you're working with live recordings and sound effect wave files, go with Vegas. If you work with loops, choose ACID. If you compose with MIDI, go with Sonar (v7 just released) or Cubase. Sonar and Cubase both support a video window.