EditionDV 4.5 Tutorial 1

AUDIO: What the heck's going on?

NOTE: The grammar in this is a pretty rough, please excuse this until I get a chance to go through and check it properly.

OK, so you've started EditionDV (EDN) for the first time, just to see what all the fuss is about.  You manage to import a clip (and find you have to wait for it to process audio which can take 20+% of the actual length of the clip)  or you manage to capture one.  Either way if you have done this step properly you will have a new item in your project window.  Its probably located in the object (a reel) called Sequences. See below for an example.  The new clip called "tape 1" is the one below highlighted in red (the highlight is not in EDN, I've added it).  To start with I assume you have not changed any Source Mappings settings from the defaults.  If you have, start a new project and leave them alone for now, and import the clip again.


EditionDV 4.5 with a new media clip called "tape 1"

Before we go any further, lets check the actually is audio is properly associated with this video track.  There will be a little  icon next to the clip, on its left.  The correct icon for a video clip  with audio (i.e. a captured avi file) is the one below.  This one has a mini film strip with a little speaker on the bottom right.  If the speaker is missing, then the audio is missing. you're never going to be able to hear it!  If you captured the clip check you captured the audio as well.  From here I'll assume the clip is actually properly imported with audio.


Correct Video with Audio Icon

The first thing you'll probably do next is what you've done hundreds of time in Premiere, you'll drag the video clip onto the timeline.  This will appear to work, perhaps!  It all depends on the way you did it.  Either way, at the moment you can't see any specific audio component, as it is embedded in the same track as the video component.  You see, tracks in EDN are a little different than Premiere.  In Premiere, you are used to video tracks having separate audio tracks which are linked together for synchronisation. A Premiere track is either Video OR Audio, not both, and a track can't change from holding video to audio or vice versa.  Each video video track is normally linked to an audio track, so Video 1A links to Audio 1, 2A to Audio 2, Video 2 to Audio 3 etc

Like Premiere, EDN also lets you enable or disable audio and video per track, and by default audio is disabled on some tracks, and video on others.  This is similar to way Premiere lets you enable or disable a track by the use of the "eye" and "speaker" icon.  This means if you dropped the clip into a track that has audio disabled, your not going to hear the audio when you play the timeline.


A Premiere 6 timeline segment


EditionDV Track List

The table below shows you the equivalent icons in Premiere and EditionDV.  In Premiere, the icons are located in a fixed square to the very left of each track, in EDN the icon is located in a square area just prior to the actual editing area, in a column with the same icon in the heading.  If the icon is not present in the track, it is disabled.  So you can see from the image above, in EditionDV, the tracks called Name1, Name2 and Name3 have only audio enabled, Name5 has Video and Audio while Name6 and Name7 have only Video enabled.  You can change this at any stage by clicking in the small boxed areas.

Enable/Disable Premiere EditionDV
Video
Audio

Back to your sequence (timeline).  If you dropped the video on a track without the audio enabled, you won't hear anything.  So if you are going to drag and drop a clip to the timeline and want to hear its audio component, make sure you drop the clip into a track with audio enabled, or enable it after.

You'll soon realise the way EDN really expects you to insert clips into a sequence is using the Source Viewer. Read the manual if you don't know what this is, but its basically the same as the Clip window in Premiere (or the Premiere Source window), and is where a clip is loaded if you double click it in the project window.

Just like Premiere, in the Source Viewer, you select in and out points, and click on the "Insert Source into Master" button located between the Source Viewer and Master Viewer to insert what's between the in/out points (read the manual on this one).  When you do this you'll notice something different though.  After you 'insert' the clip segment, you also get a separate audio component added, separate to the video component but they are "linked".  This is very similar to what you are used to in Premiere, but different to the drag and drop method.  So what's happening?

In EDN audio linked to a video clip in a track can be represented in one of two ways.  Either embedded in same track as the video (grouped) , or separately in a different track (disbanded).

In the image to the right, you can see the result of a drag and drop into track Name7, and a Source Viewer 'Insert" button action.  The yellow track is the audio linked to the video in Name5 from the Insert button..  To hear audio from Name7, I have to enable the audio icon yet.

So what's the difference in practice.  Well, to adjust audio key frames like panning and volume, you need audio in a separate/disbanded track.  Having access to the separate audio track also allows you to start the audio at a different point to the video.  In Name7, you are really operating in a simplified audio mode (grouped), where as Name4/5 are an advanced mode (disbanded).

As you'll see later, we can change modes, but sometimes at a cost.

What Next?

EDN ends up with 3 possible video/audio configurations.  To access information on the current configuration right click on the video component and select Properties.  You'll see that in the case of the "Drag and Drop" (Name7 above, right image below), the video properties lists V, A1 and A2 enabled, where as the video properties for the clip in Name5 above (left image below) only list V.  This is because the audio component (A1/A2: left/right) are in track Name4.  The third audio mode is a video track with grouped AND disbanded audio (still linked).


Video Properties after using Insert
Video properties after using drag and drop

How to change audio modes:

To change from a grouped audio mode (right example above) to a disbanded audio mode, simply right click on the video clip in the sequence and select the "Disband Clip(s)" option.  A separate audio track should appear, and the video track properties will change the that of the left above.  If there is no room in the S1 marked track a new track will be created below the video clip.  If no S1 track is defined when audio is disbanded from the video track EDN either marks the track below as S1 and inserts the audio there or if there is already something occupying the track below under the clip being processed, EDN creates a new track as S1 below the video and put the audio there.

To change from a disbanded audio track from a grouped video/audio track, right click on the clip and select "Item Link->Unlink Items" (as below).  Then select the video track and edit its properties (right click/Properties), tick the A1 and A2 channels).  Then select ONLY the audio track and delete it. You may have to click on a blank part of the timeline, then back on the audio component before pressing delete or the video may be deleted as well (they are both selected after the Unlink call).  Use Undo if you delete the video and try again.  Be warned, you will loose any volume or panning keyframes you have created in the audio clip being deleted.  In essence a grouped audio track can not contain any audio keyframes.  If you want to use audio keyframes, you have to use disbanded audio tracks.

 

What else is there? 

You can actually re-enable the A1 and A2 of a clip, and have duplicate audio tracks present and linked to the one video track. I'd advise against this to start with, use grouped OR disbanded.  I have used this ability to create an echo, by unsyncing the external audio and shifting it, but that's not going to be a common requirement.  Also, if you have grouped audio enabled, and change the volume of the disbanded audio, the change will have no effect (given both tracks have audio enabled!).

"Source Mapping" - What is it really?

Also you will notice on the left of the track name, there are two columns.  The very left column, headed by three dots in a triangle is very important (its the Source Mapping).  The settings in this column effect how audio and video are Inserted (NOT Drop & Drag) to the timeline (once imported it has no other effect that I can determine).  Unfortunately this feature is a poorly explain in the manual and doesn't always appear to do what the manual says it should.

I have found while a project might start listing columns headed with V, A1 and A2, but after importing a clip this changes to V and S1.  This is because normally you import a clip which is marked as a stereo clip.  S1 just represents a stereo track, and V a video track, where as A1/A2 etc represent MONO audio channels (a clip can have mulitple channels but still be mono, in that both channels go to both speakers equaly).  If you have a MONO clip active in teh Source Viewer you will normally see tracks marked as V, A1 and A2 (or just one marked VA), but if you have a STEREO clip active in the Source Viewer, you will see tracks marked as V and S1 (and S2 if the clip has 4 audio channels and is marked as sterero, ie two seperate stereo channels) or just VA. When you put a clip into the timeline, EDN uses the setting in  this column to decide where to place the audio components in the sequence!

The triangle at the top of the column has two options if you right click on it: "Insert Grouped" (disabled by default), and "Mappings Enabled" (enabled by default).  I'm not going into Mappings Enabled here, but what does "Insert Grouped" do?  It is what determines how audio is represented on the timeline if you use the Insert button.  It has no effect on a "drag and drop", which always acts as if Insert Grouped is turned ON.

In the default mode (disabled), as above has shown, when you insert a clip, audio is configured in a linked separate (disbanded) track to the video.  If you ENABLE this option, using the "Insert" button produces the same configuration as a "drag and drop" does (grouped)..

Now what about the V,S1,S2<A1,A2,VA etc?  What are they used for?

When you perform an Insert, EDN looks at which track has the V (or VA) enabled in it (only one track can have a V at one time), and it places the video component of the insert in that track.  You can use this feature to change the default track video is dumped into.  S1 does the same but for a stereo audio clip (first stereo track associated with a clip that is, which is all you normally have), and A# for the channels of a MONO clip.  If there is a S# or A3 defined, when you perform an Insert, this is the track where the audio component will be placed.  But remember, this ONLY happens if "Insert Grouped" is still disabled!  If Insert Grouped is enabled, the audio will not be seperated and will end up in the same track as the video.  You'll see that with Insert Grouped enabled, the V changed to a VA, meaning Video and Audio will land in that track together.

You can change which track is the V,S1,A# or VA track. Right click in this column on any track and select the component you want to land there.  If you select a track that already has a component selected, and reselect the same component, you are actually turning OFF this component (eg select V in the V track and Video will not import!).  This means that component can  be excluded during an import (something to check if imports are leaving audio or video out).  i.e.; This is important if you have S1 disabled.  Even if you have Insert Grouped disabled, unless you have a S1, A1/2 or VA  (for Insert Grouped enabled) track enabled, the audio will not be placed on the timeline at all.

Finally there is the ability to ENABLE and DISABLE tracks themselves.  You'll see in the image to the right, some track columns are a dark grey, some are light grey.  A track is only enabled if its Name column is LIGHT GREY  Also if the track has a V,S or A allocation, the box this letter is in must also be enabled to import the video or audio component correctly.  Any component that is disabled will be ignored.

If for example the S1 track name (Name4 in example to right) is disabled OR the S1 square itself is disabled, and I performed an Insert, audio will not be imported at all.  You will have to add audio back in as per the instructions in "How to change audio modes" above.

So you can see, there are a number of ways that audio can be disabled and you won't import it properly.  Here is a summary of things to check with audio problems.

Audio not playing back for a video component with no visible linked/disbanded audio component (eg after a drag and drop):

Audio not playing back for a video component with a disbanded audio component (eg after Insert):

Audio does not play back  from a Insert operation and no disbanded audio appearing)

Audio plays back after an Insert operation but it is not visible as a disbanded track.