Need Help with video process (extracting audio)

[Kenny B]

I'm shooting a few videos of myself using a Sony mirrorless camera and want to edit the audio in Digital Performer, then replace the original audio with the enhanced one. I only have iMovie to work with. I tried this yesterday and was not able to extract the audio in iMovie (But I could detach?).

Then I tried to extract audio in DP but was not able to do so there. I know this is probably possible in Final Cut Pro, but I don't want to buy that and go thru the learning curve if not necessary.

Not going to be doing a major video production, just some solo guitar videos for Youtube. If anyone can put me on the right track quickly, it could really help save time. thanks, Kenny

[stubbsonic]

There are many others more qualified to answer here. My first thought is that sometimes those cameras choose unusual audio formats that are not available for conversion in consumer video editing programs.

If you really get stuck, you can try an app like Audio Hijack which allows you to record the audio output of any application. So you could get the audio out to a separate file as long as you can playback and hear the audio from at least one application.

A free option you can also try is VLC which sometimes allows me to extract audio from an unusual video format.

[Phil O]

...I tried to extract audio in DP but was not able to do so there...

I assume Import Movie Audio is grayed out, yes? But can you hear the audio in DP? If so, simply play it through and record it to another track.



Phil

[wylie1]

I just use iMovie there's a Detach Audio function.
then replace it with your new audio.

[mesayre]

My standard rec: FFMpeg

Yes, it's a bit of bear to learn it in-and-out, but many routine commands like the one you need can be cut-and-pasted from websites like this one: https://amiaopensource.github.io/ffmprovisr/

With a little patience, it'll do all sorts of useful things, and it'll encode/decode to just about any combination you'll run across.

Price: free

[mikehalloran]

Despite the efforts of Google & Apple to clamp down on these, there are plenty of shareware and freeware utilities that can help.

Google's issue is that, if you can do it with your own videos, you can do it to YouTube.

I never use iMovie preferring Final Cut Pro X for this. You can certainly do this in FCP and even call for Apple Support if you get stuck (yes, really). Motion 5 and Compressor 4 also come in handy if doing video on a Mac.

If you have access to a college student or can buy through an EDU account, you can get Apple's Pro Apps Bundle (Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro X, Main Stage 3, Motion 5 and Compressor 4) for $199.99.
https://www.apple.com/us_edu_11197/shop ... -education

After completing the purchase, you will be emailed 5 codes. Log into your iTunes account and enter the codes one at a time. This registers the licenses to you and begins the downloads. In my case, I already owned two of the apps — Apple told me it was ok to email the 2 unused codes to anyone I chose.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

WAIT! While the suggestions are all good (or at least interesting) you can delete the audio from a film in DP. Use the IMPRT MOVIE AUDIO then mute or delete the audio from the project. BOUNCE the movie to a movie file and use that, but you should be able to just use the project you just deleted the movie from. The regional file will not change. You have to bounce to disk to get a silent version. Again, all you need to do is mute or import then mute or delete the movie track. I do it quite often.

So again, for all those with a hammer looking to drive this guys nail (so to speak...) he only needs a tweezer and it's already in DP.

As far as further formatting of movie issues, iSkysoft's convertor is well worth the $60. For serious editing, I agree with Mike that FCP is the way to go. The linked editor does basic cuts but not titles and effects, etc.

One friendly suggestion...

[Kenny B]

Okay, thanks for all the help and suggestions, but I did find a way to strip the audio from iMovie. There is a iMovie Tutorial on how to do this. It is so simple but I have to share with everyone here in case anyone else asks this.

Just go to the Share menu and select file (which is used to send video to your desktop) but also you can send just the audio to your desktop and in many different formats. I choose aiff and in just a minute it was there.

Then I dropped that into the soundbytes window and placed into a stereo track for editing. One thing, it came in at 48000 khz so I changed my sample rate and was able to edit. Then just bounced to disk, imported back into iMovie and it worked perfectly!! Wow!! didn't think it would be this easy but I'm glad it worked and I can go on to other things I need to do for this project. Link to tutorial:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlnXBcDUjeg