Syncing audio

[stop_thief]

Typically, when I make a movie, I connect a boom mic to the camera. Pretty simple.

For my next piece, I'm hoping to move up in terms of overall quality.
I was planning on possibly recording the audio seperately (minidisk, DAT, whatever) and sync it up on the computer.
I'm wondering if there are any adjustments that need to be made in terms of recording speed for the final sync. I don't want to shoot an entire movie (on video) and suddenly realize that my audio device records at a slightly faster speed or vice versa. Am I off-kilter here? I personally think I'll be okay...but I have been warned. I know it's a different situation with film, but I'm using video.

[Ruthie]

Stop-thief

Yes there is a difference when recording audio and video. Video has a 29.97 fps rate and using DAT will record at 30fps. When editting, they usually don't go out of sync until about 2-2 1/2 minutes. If you have lots of cuts, don't worry about it.

If you have one long scene, you can always set your computer to capture the audio at the video rate. Also, you can cut your audio at any pause and move the frames forward or back.

There are so many ways to work around this, don't let it stop you from going DAT.

[stop_thief]

Gracias, gracias.

That should help.
Oh wait...it just occurred to me...
Now assuming all went well and I'm recording my audio seperately...
Would a simple clapboard suffice?
Or should I invest in something more accurate that will make a single, instant, precise noise for exact syncing? I'm thinking the "beeping" kind.

[ThomYorke]

I've found that a simple clapperboard works fine - when you capture your audio, do it in a program like Cool Edit Pro or something, so that you can delete any sound immediately the <snap!> of the clapperboard, and then, in editing, just line the start of the audio clip up with the frame on which the clapper hits and you're away!

I get beautiful results this way - makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside as well.

good luck

[LAmind]

Can someone tell me what DAT is and how much that costs? And how does it record (on what i mean)? Thank you.

-Ivan

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"A place for everything and everything in it's place".

[Ruthie]

DAT is digital audio tape. Audio used to be recorded in reels, but with the new digital technology, audio format changed to digital as well. It makes editting audio much easier. The DAT tape looks alot like a mini DV tape. You can buy a small DAT recorder pretty inexpensively, however a good deck can be several thousands. I wouldn't worry about using DAT unless you plan on sweetening your audio afterwards.