Adding Slides to beat of music

[JEB]

Hi Folks,

Can anybody remind me of the best (or any way) of adding slides to the beat of music?

I have a particularly jaunty piece of music I would like slides to appear (no transition) on the up beat. The wave form is not particularly helpful on this occasion. I remember there was a way which I think Barry Beckham advocated. I did use is some years back but as the years pass my memory fades even faster. I think it involved clicking the mouse and a slide appeared on the timeline but I can't get it to work.

Hopefully

John

[orizaba]

Hi Folks,

Can anybody remind me of the best (or any way) of adding slides to the beat of music?

I have a particularly jaunty piece of music I would like slides to appear (no transition) on the up beat. The wave form is not particularly helpful on this occasion. I remember there was a way which I think Barry Beckham advocated. I did use is some years back but as the years pass my memory fades even faster. I think it involved clicking the mouse and a slide appeared on the timeline but I can't get it to work.

Hopefully

John

Hi John,

Try "BPM_CHECKER_3" (beats per minute).

http://download.cnet.com/BpmChecker/3000-2169_4-10071678.html

I used it before, it's a kind of help, but I prefer to follow waveform picks on timeline (not on PTE but in AVID LIQUID 7.2 PRO instead, much more evident and precise).

Regards,

Jose

[xahu34]

A possible way (not the way that I myself like):

1. In the Main Window choose the Timeline view.

2. Click Timed Points > Cut All Transition Points one or two times. The slides are now shifted to the right.

3. Place the cursor to the start position.

4. Start the show in the Mini Player and move the mouse pointer to the button New Transition.

5. Listen to the music and place the transition points by clicking the button.

The disadvantage of this method: Once you have placed all slides the music may not have come to its end. So you have to fade out the music which is not a good solution.

Regards,

Xaver

[cgbraggjr]

I did an extremely complex bit of slide-to-music matching where the beat was not the decision point. (I did a series of lectures on Wagner's Ring and had popups on the slides for the leitmotifs in the musical examples.) The only way was to watch a good waveform in my editor (not PTE), mark down the timings, and use that information to place the slides in PTE. It got complicated when the starting point for the music was not the same as the starting point for the show, but still, it was the only way. Once the slides are placed, you can preview in PTE and nudge the slides into the exact position you want. If you can do a short dissolve, that helps a lot in the perceived synchronization - you don't have to be perfect. If you're doing straight cuts on the beat, you need to be very precise.

I also found that for a long, complex show with many musical excerpts, it was easier to make a single PTE executable for each excerpt, and then link each executable to the next one in the sequence for the bigger show.

[Antbrewer]

Hi John,

Being a great fan of Barry Beckham's tutorials I too have picked up so much from these over the years.

Regarding your request.. The way I insert slides to the music beat is very simple.

1..Insert the slides to be used into the slide line. (In the right order to be used)

2..Then select Timeline and the select 'Timed points' and click on 'Cut all transition points'. This in effect moves all the slides to the very end of the timeline into a 'holding area'

3..With the music selected and playing via the mini player just insert each slide as you wish on the beat of the music using either the 'New transition' button on the left above the timeline or on the keyboard using the 'Ins' key.

This works for me however there may be other and possibly easier ways of doing the same.

All the best

Anthony

[JEB]

Jose,

Thanks, I may well have a look at that.

Xaver,

Thanks. That sounds like the way I did it before. I don't have time to play for the moment but will do hopefully tonight and if not it wont be for a day or so due to other things on the horizon. But I will respond again.

Thanks to you both for such a swift response.

Regards

John

[fh1805]

John,

You are aware that you can expand the timeline, aren't you? (See under View...Timeline Options) It may help you to gauge where the beat points are.

regards,

Peter

[wideangle]

I use basically the same method as Xaver, but when listening to the music I simply tap the spacebar when I want to place a slide. This pauses the play, so I can now drag a slide to that position. Pressing the spacebar again continues the play, so I repeat the process.

Regards,

wideangle

[JEB]

Anthony, Argonaut, Peter, Wideangle,

Thank you all. I hope to have a go later tonight.

John

[xahu34]

I use basically the same method as Xaver ...

I gave a description of this method, but I do not use it. I prefer to start with a rough distribution of the transition points, and optimize first the end of the show (music and images end simultaneously). Synchronization of transitions and music comes next, following Peter's suggestion.

But what do our French colleagues say: "Chacun à son goût."

Regards,

Xaver

[davegee]

Being a musician I did it the easy way.

Count the number of bars and multiply by the number of beats per bar.

Divide the time by the total number of beats to obtain an accurate timing per beat or 2 beats or 3 beats etc.

Enter that time into the Project Options Main and set for existing slides.

Micro adjust if necessary.

DG

[JEB]

Thank you all very much. I've cracked it, or rather you lot have.

Regards

John

[Barry Beckham]

Respect to Jose, but you don't need any other software to do this

Xaver and Anthony have the answer, Add the slides on the fly while listening to the music, you might have to adjust one or two, but most of the time, its pretty easy.

[David Porter]

Yet another thing I have learnt how to do by logging into this site. Thanks everyone.