Could anyone please offer me some guidance with what a week ago I thought would be the simplest of projects only to find it anything but!?

I have 116 still pictures which I want to display in the form of a slideshow along with a 16 minute audio track.

I've tried a host of different programmes, Adobe, Powerpoint, ShotCut, Google Slides, Windows Movie Maker and lots more, but I just cannot find an effective way to time the slide changes exactly with the key points of the audio. I went about it in WMM using the only process which I could see as an option which was going through one frame at a time manually inputting the display times for each individual slide (based on a sheet of stopwatch lap times I had taken from the audio track) which after a fair bit of precise tweaking, adding and deducting 0.1 seconds where needed, I finally got spot on whilst playing back in editing mode, but after saving the video, on playback, the sync started to drift after only 4-5 frames, getting accumulatively worse.
I know that 'film editing' can be a pretty laborious task, so if manually inputting the display time for each frame is the only option then I'm happy to do it, as long as I know it's going to work!
I know that there are 'Sync Video to Audio' type functions, though they only adjust the timing equally for every frame to fit the length of the whole audio track, say 8.675 seconds for every single frame, which is pretty useless.
Ultimately, I have about 8 of these projects to carry out and I'm hoping that something that is surely in creative terms this simple should be able to be done using one of the free programmes out there?
I've watched countless YouTube tutorials but all to no avail hence me paging the Oracle that is the Bee Hole End.
Is there anyone on here who could point this ageing technophobe in the right direction please?

Above my pay grade but reading that can I take it you have the audio and want to sync the photos to that?
I use “audacity” for precise music editing but it wouldn’t help if you are happy on that side of the project.

Hi huw.Y, yes, I've digitised the audio track from vinyl records using 'Audacity' software.
Just as an aside, I heard about Audacity on here during lockdown 1 when there was talk of a virtual UTC band - did nothing ever come of that?

Have you tried doing it in Powerpoint and recording the show and clicking through the slides as the audio is playing?

Hi wilks_bfc, yes, I've seen a YouTube demo of that being done in PP, but only with the use of an add on from iSpring (I think) which I couldn't find.
Got to nip out for an hour now. Will check back when I get home. Thank you.

Shouldn't need an add-on

The audio can be put in on the "Insert" menu
The record function is under the "Slide Show" menu

WMM, you should be able to insert the audio track, then throw the photos in after that. It should then automatically add them all within the 16 minute track you've added. Then it's just a case of manually adjusting each one as you wish.
Make sure the audio settings are set to the audio track your inserting (more than likely will need to change it from 48khz to 44.1khz) this might be the reason you're having sync issues.

iMovie/fcp is very very easy for this kind of thing if you happen to have access to a mac?
Saying that, so is Adobe premiere if you have that installed?

cricketfield73 wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 09, 2020 3:34 pm

Hi huw.Y, yes, I've digitised the audio track from vinyl records using 'Audacity' software.
Just as an aside, I heard about Audacity on here during lockdown 1 when there was talk of a virtual UTC band - did nothing ever come of that?

Not to my recollection, CF73.

If you post your problem on the BUrnley Film Makers Facebook page, there are over 100 Local pros and Amateurs who could potentially help you.
Sounds like you need to use Final Cut or Premiere to arrange your audio and stills along the timeline. You can adjust the length of time the visuals are onscreen and sync that with your music / Audio track. You’d then encode the final version as an mp4 or other file you want.

You can listen to the audio and place a marker at the point you want a slide change - then import the slides and stretch them to fit between the markers.

I'll look into the suggestions and see if I can make any progress.
Thank you for your help.

Step 1 - Download Freetrial of Camtasia https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html

Step 2 - Once you have this, add the audio track and images to the medial bin

Step 3 - Place your audio track onto track 1

Step 4 - Place your images onto track 2 and arrange at the points you want them to show. You can 'stretch' the image to last the length of time you want on the sound track.

Step 5 - Once you have arranged all of this, you can then export as a video to play.

use https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia.html to see how you can use this

clarethomer wrote: ↑

Wed Dec 09, 2020 7:36 pm

Step 1 - Download Freetrial of Camtasia https://www.techsmith.com/video-editor.html

Step 2 - Once you have this, add the audio track and images to the medial bin

Step 3 - Place your audio track onto track 1

Step 4 - Place your images onto track 2 and arrange at the points you want them to show. You can 'stretch' the image to last the length of time you want on the sound track.

Step 5 - Once you have arranged all of this, you can then export as a video to play.

use https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia.html to see how you can use this

You can also do this with iMovie. Bundled with OS X on a MAC.

Cracked it! These video editors can initially be a bit daunting and tough to grasp, but once you're 'in' and the mist starts to clear, they're brilliant.
I ended up back with ShotCut after learning the slider trick via clarethomer's 'camtasia' link and have completed my first project in quick time and achieved exactly what I wanted to.
Thank you to all who pointed me in the right direction technically and just as importantly with a timely reminder as to just how precious a resource this board is for Clarets everywhere.
UTC!

That one solved can you help with this one got high 8 video Sony tapes images ( holiday videos ) taken with Sony Handycam that I want to play via the Handycam on a Laptop and then hopefully save onto a memory stick any ideas ?

Would something like this help?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Capture-Conver ... 7983&psc=1