syncing Sony VX2000 digital video camera w/001?

[GrahamCA]

Hello,
I have just received access to a Sony VX 2000 digital video camera. I
want to shoot video footage with the Sony and record the audio
seperatly, say on a dat or directly into the DIGI 001 or something
along those lines. I am editing on Final Cut Pro 3. So my question is,
once I have the video footage I need, how would I go about syncing the
music, dialogue, ect. to the video w/timecode I have PT LE with the
DIGI 001. Would PT LE allow me to sync the audio up to the video I
shot using some sort of timecode? Smpte? MTC?
Thanks,
Graham

[Bunting Ho]

Graham,
If you're recording audio seperately, especially dialogue, it helps enormously to have some sort of visual reference, like the old fashioned clapper board, so that you can re-synch later.
If the audio is going to a digital format, like DAT or PTle, then it's not too hard to line it up later, and it should stay in synch.
Where you would need time code, like SMPTE, is if you are synching PT to a VHS tape, or perhaps laying back to a multi track like a DA-88.
If you're doing multiple video takes, and editing them in Final Cut, then it's going to be interesting assembling all the bits of audio and re synching each edit.....you're probably better off recording the dialogue to the video tape via the camera.
It's fairly straightforward to import the edited movie and the dialogue into PT, do your music cues and add FX etc, mix your music,take note of the starting times of the mixed files, export them as aif or whatever format Final Cut likes, then drop them into place. You don't actually need SMPTE in PT either, you just have to convert frames to milleseconds, eg; in Australia 1 frame = 40 ms. (I think we're lucky using 25 frames per second!)
Hope this helps........it's great fun when it all comes together! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[seandaly]

I agree, I think it would be simplest to record sound into the camera - at capture time your video is locked to your audio, simplifying edits.

As far as I know the audio portion of a DV stream is uncompressed stereo 16bit 48kHz PCM, same as a DAT (I never use the 4-channel 32kHz setting).

I don't remember if the VX2000 has XLR inputs (I know the PD150 does) - my TRV30 doesn't and as camera audio preamps tend to be crappy (especially at mic setting), you probably want some kind of preamp/adapter for the mics. I have a nifty little XLR->stereo minijack adapter (IM2 by www.cevl.com), usually a boom mic on one channel and a room mic on the other. My wife films with a PD100 with the stock Sony mono XLR adapter but has on occasion preferred the cevl 2-channel adapter. If you have a sound person while filming, by all means have s/he collect the mic signals through a small mixer feeding the camera. Somebody told me once that they had the soundperson feed the camera with 2 mic signals while recording 2 others to DAT, syncing the imported DAT tracks by lining up the clapper. Never did it myself...

- Sean

[unsub1]

I've done lots of VX2000/Digi001 work. Avoid incredibly long captures. The Beachtek XLR adaptor that mounts to the camera is a must-have. Other than that, it's pretty straight-forward. Visual cues!