In message , James Perrett
writes
On Fri, 15 Apr 2005 18:49:20 +0100, StephenH
wrote:

If I have a mini DV camcorder and shoot some film and record the
audio separately, say onto a portable MiniDisc unit or a portable
MP3 recorder in conjunction with a separate microphone - am I likely
to encounter any problems with synchronisation?

I know with tape you can get fluctuations in the speed the tape
actually runs, etc, but what is digital tape like for this? Is it
exact or are there likely to be time differences between the
camcorder and the separate digital audio recording?


I've done this with DAT and MD running together - I needed to resync
every 10 minutes or so.

If you are planning to release this commercially then I would strongly
suggest that you use an uncompressed recording format. If you record on
MD and then subsequently decide to record the result to DVD with an
mpeg2 soundtrack you'll start to hear all kinds of unwanted audio
artefacts. Using 2 different audio compression algorithms in series
isn't recommended. You would be better off using an uncompressed
recording format which is supported by some portable hard disc mp3
recorders and some high capacity MD recorders. There is also a neat
Edirol unit that records to flash memory.

I've had the exact opposite result using miniDisk (using LP2 ATRAC3).
Over one hour recording, there has been no loss of sync from start to
end (providing you get the start synched).

I've used SoundForge, Goldwave (saving as MP3), as well as importing the
miniDisk audio (LR) directly into Vegas. All via the SB soundcard mic
in.
--
Tony Morgan
http://www.rhylonline.com