Recording

I got a LIVECAM VX-5000 today and started fooling around trying to get decent Video and sound. The Video is pretty good but I hated the audio. The built-in mic may be good for video chatting but no so much for recording an instrument. I searched the forum for recording info and came up with a gem from Seeso "Why not just record video into Windows Movie Maker and audio into Audacity at the same time?"

Sounded like a plan. Since Windows Movie maker doesn't let you record directly from the Webcam I used the LIVECAM software and Audacity, Audacity picked up my USB condenser mic since that was set as the default audio input (I am using Vista SP1). I got both apps going and slowly counted to 4 to get a sync point. Once I finished with a short recording I exported the audacity file to mp3 after trimming the audio to start at the count of 2.

In Movie maker I loaded the two files, muted the audio from the webcam, and synced the count, which in turn put the entire project into sync, no latency in the video. leaving the webcam audio muted I published the result, reloaded the published result into Movie maker and did the final trimming.

Seems like alot of work but the result was worth it. A little practice on the syncing will make it easier.

All of this to say that there is a wealth of info on the board if you are willing to look for it and thanks to seeso for an solution I might never have worked out.


Jack

With applications like Sound Forge (Sonic Foundry), you can sync video and get great audio. Your econo-package is a great idea and doesn't break the bank. Ah, necessity is, indeed, the mother of invention. Well done.

I have a complete recording studio setup and get excellent results. SO, naturally, I plan to combine video and audio from two different sources into my apps and work on syncing them to get the ultimate combination of the two. You post serves as a reminder that somone resourceful does not have to spend a ton of money in the process.