View Full Version : scriptable audio editor?


Peter Wu
June 11th, 2018, 12:45 PM
I have a zoom H2 with a slightly too fast sampling rate.

Every five minutes or so I have to cut out one video frame's worth of audio (i.e. 1/30s) to keep the audio in sync with my video.

I imagine the pitch would also be too low by a little, but that is not noticeable so I don't correct for that.

Is there a scriptable audio editor I can write a script to batch process all the audio clips from the zoom?

Rick Reineke
June 11th, 2018, 01:56 PM
MAGIX Sound Forge Pro has a scripting option (as does Vegas Pro). The latest version, Sound Forge Pro 12 (https://www.magix.com/us/music/sound-forge-pro/) was released earlier this year. I am on the beta test team and moderator on the MAGIX Sound Forge forum. Writing scripts is not my area of expertise though.

David Peterson
June 11th, 2018, 09:41 PM
Peter, what you want is Reaper, it is free, a full blown modern DAW, and the customizable of them all:

https://www.reaper.fm

Cary Knoop
June 11th, 2018, 11:18 PM
I have a zoom H2 with a slightly too fast sampling rate.

Every five minutes or so I have to cut out one video frame's worth of audio (i.e. 1/30s) to keep the audio in sync with my video.

I imagine the pitch would also be too low by a little, but that is not noticeable so I don't correct for that.

Is there a scriptable audio editor I can write a script to batch process all the audio clips from the zoom?
Why not simply resample the audio to the correct speed?

Rick Reineke
June 12th, 2018, 08:53 AM
Yes, if it's a sampling rate issue, that easily changed, however pitch will change with it if not resampled In Vegas Pro (and Reaper too I would assume) different sample rates can co-exist on the timeline without issue. For time drifting, you can stretch or collapse the audio without changing the pitch as well, just line up the head and change the tail audio to match the end point. (Ctrl+drag event) I've done this many times. Cameras and recorders drifting out of sync is common without some kind of genlock.

Pete Cofrancesco
June 12th, 2018, 12:45 PM
It would be easier to get a recorder that isn’t that off then you wouldn’t need to do any of this work in post. Of course this is the reason people use wireless to avoid any of this.

Now that I’ve moved from the H4N to the H5 I don’t have syncing issues and use it to film performance that can run over 2hrs. So I find it weird that something would get out of sync after 5 minutes. I always film in the the standard rate for video 16/48khz wav

Don Palomaki
June 12th, 2018, 05:17 PM
Audition lets you change the duration of audio (time and pitch-stretch) without changing pitch. Will it do what you need?

Rainer Listing
June 12th, 2018, 09:16 PM
Vegas also lets you change the duration of audio (time and pitch-stretch) without changing pitch. Could you not also just not quantize to frames?

Jim Michael
June 13th, 2018, 09:06 PM
Sox is a command line tool with lots of features.