Need your help please.
 

I have been asked to record a recital; actually an art presentation with live music. I have two camcorders, an FX7 and an SR11. The plan right now is to use the FX7 as a stationary cam, while shooting with the SR11 from different vantage points within the auditorium. My question is this: Is there a way for me to edit the footage from both cams, while using the continuous music from the FX7?

I don't have the upper level editing programs; I use Pinnacle 12. I know I can edit both cams into a single time line, but having an uninterrupted sound track from just one cam is something I just don't know about. So I need to know if I can capture the sound track from the FX7 seperately, and put that on the music track.

Thanks.
Mike

There is probably an easier way, but I would say if nothing else, you can put the cam with the music track into the timeline, and then see if Pinnacle will let you save it as an audio track. I'm sure there are lots of work-arounds, but that came to me first. I used to use Pinnacle.

Not familiar with Pinnacle, but the process is usually similar on most NLE's - and I think even the "cheap" consumer stuff will do multi-track nowdays - only the most basic editing program will have just two tracks (1A, 1V) to work with.

When shooting, keep both cameras running - hit "record" a few before it starts, make sure the SR is running if you need to do a tape change on the FX (or try to hit a break for the change), only stop the cams when it's over. Will save you time in post.

This is how it works in Vegas Pro, I think Pinnacle shouldn't be TOO different... You should be able to pull the FX footage in and the audio track will be separate, when you pull in the second video track (SR), it should come with it's own audio (5.1 probably, unless you set it to stereo), which will go to separate tracks - so you'd end up with two video and 2-4 audio tracks... which you then sync up and mix as desired - match audio waveforms to sync is usually easiest - though you may have time delays if shooting in a large hall/location from different locations.

When shooting multicam, it sounds complicated, but it's really pretty easy if there aren't a lot of starts and stops in the footage. I dump and sync 4 cams (AVCHD), and usually do it right after the shoot so I can come back later ready to edit - it's pretty easy once you do it a couple times.

Thanks for the replies. I am going to experiment tomorrow with both cameras and see if I can do what Dave has indicated I should be able to do. Hopefully with Pinnacle, I can do it, and do it easily. Will let you know how it goes.

(I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but hopefully I can figure this out and make it work with as little hassle as possible)

Thanks again to Tim and Dave.

Mike

Alright. It works. First I dragged the captured video clip to the timeline from one camcorder. Then I dragged the audio from that clip down to the music line and then went back and dragged down shots of the video from both cams to the timeline, minimizing the audio tracks from those clips. Worked well on the little short sample I did. Will try it one more time on a longer trial later.

Thanks again to Dave and Tim for their help.

Mike