How can i synchronize photos with music being played

steve.haite wrote on 2/28/2015, 4:24 PM

For the past 20 years I used Adobe Director for my photo shows. Bit of an overkill but it allows me to take a piece of music where i have inserted markers e.g. first beat of each bar or key moment in music and have those markers in the music call the next photo. Beautiful, perfect synchronization between music and photos.

I am testing a trial version of MAGIX Photostory Deluxe and read about the "BPM Wizard" and have managed to insert the MAGIX equivalent of markers into my piece of music. BUT the photos in my show are not lining up automatically with the music e.g. i am not getting a photo appearing at the start of each bar.

I have read the manual, scoured the web, and searched this forum but not found easy, step-by-step guidance on this for me essential feature of any photo storytelling software.

Thanks for any help, advice or links to more information.

Cheers. Steve.

Comments

browj2 wrote on 2/28/2015, 6:41 PM

Hi Steve and welcome to the Magix Community,

I see from your profile that you do multimedia and music. You've come to a good place for that.

To answer your question, take a look through this thread and you will see that I have discussed this somewhat.

If you have a song with the tempo information embedded, then the program will detect it and match the image changes to the beat, allowing for about 5 second intervals, adjusted to match the beat.

If there is no beat information, you have to find it.

The Remix Agent (BPM wizard, I guess) will analyze the audio material and try to determine the tempo. It takes a guess at it and the outcome depends on how regular the beat or tempo of the music is. There needs to be at least 15 seconds of music. Then you decide whether or not it got it right. If not, you can make adjustments.

The end result is that the program will place a cut at each beat mark. Because the program by default, has grid snap on, images will snap to the cut marks in the music. Then you can decide if you like the outcome; if not, you modify it.

I haven't tried it (I should), but I am assuming that the beat markers that you place in a song can be irregular. For example, if the tempo slows down or speeds up, the beat interval will not be regular all the way through, so the beat markers can be adjusted by tapping or simply by moving them on the screen. Then apply it and the music object is cut into pieces to allow the images to snap to the cut marks. This in no way affects the music.

I doubt that there is a program on the market that will do this type of thing right each and every time; right meaning the way you want it. You will always have to make adjustments.

Magix PhotoStory and Movie Edit Pro allow you a lot of flexibility and they both have a lot of assets. If you are just doing slideshows with music, PhotoStory is probably ok. There are few contributors to this forum who use PhotoStory, meaning that there are no afficianados like a few of us who use the program and respond to queries about it.

For about the same price, you can get the basic Movie Edit Pro. But I prefer the Plus version over the basic version, unless you want or need the additional third party effects with Premium. They do the same thing as PhotoStory, but there is more that you can do in Movie Edit Pro (more tracks available) than in PhotoStory. I look at PhotoStory as a sub-basic version of Movie Edit Pro. It may look more simple to use, but it is the same, with probably less assets. Those who want more than just the basics often quickly run into limitations. That said, it does do a reasonably good job and you can mix video into it and add all kinds of effects to image, videos and audio. I prefer full control over my project.

If you are into the music part, sound effects, dubbing, etc., then I suggest Movie Edit Pro Plus and Music Maker Premium. See my tutorial under the Tutorials tab on dubbing videos from Movie Edit Pro using Music Maker. There is so much flexibility using these 2 products that I am constantly overwhelmed by what I can do. Between the soundpool loops and the various loops and songs in both products, I have a lot of flexibility in the music and dubbing part. Add in the instruments and especially the synthesizers with those special sounds that only require 1 note to add 10 seconds of special sound, make these programs stand out from the crowd.

Hmmm. Maybe this is overkill.

Let me know if you have more questions.

steve.haite wrote on 3/1/2015, 2:14 AM

Hi John. Great and very helpful answer and so quick. Thanks a ton. One question:

You write "if you have a song with the tempo information embedded". I use Sound Forge Audio Studio from Sony to create mainly .WAVE formattted songs to which i can add "markers" that mark the beats, or beginnings of bars, or key events. I just listen to the song and hit the "M" key to add markers. They stay in the .WAVE version.

Are you saying that if i use such a formatted song in Magix Photostory that it will recognize the markers? That would be fantastic and the ideal answer. However, i still cannot get the photos to automatically 'snap to the beat'.

Will keep trying. give me a day or two. THANKS.

Steve.

steve.haite wrote on 3/2/2015, 2:51 AM

HI John. Have made progress. Not sure what I was doing wrong but once i have set up the audio track = song with the BPM Wizard then the photos automatically snap to the beat e.g. one photo every X bars.

However, when I import .wave files with markers already placed in them I am not seeing those markers and the BPM Wizard is not recognizing them telling me that no audio beats are present and I will need to add them.

The BPM Wizard seems to add beat based on a number of beats per minute and does not seem able to cope with places where the music slows down or has a pause in it.

For me it is essential that i can get the photos or parts of photos or animation sequences to be perfectly aligned with the music to give it a real dynamic rhythm.

I have also downloaded the SONY Movie Studio Platinum 13 trial version which includes SONY Sound Forge Audio Studio and lets me important .wave files with the markers, then shows the markers and allows me to place the photos against each marker. The markers i place can be beats, first beat of each bar or major event e.g. 'sax solo starts', 'chorus', 'crescendo 2nd time' etc.

I will give the two programs all the time i can over the next 30 days and see which one best fits my needs. Thanks for your help and support. Highly appreciated.

Cheers. Steve.

steve.haite wrote on 3/5/2015, 5:48 AM

Hello John. Have tried and tried but am not there yet:

When I import a song in .WAVE format with markers placed in it (using Sound Forge Audio Studio) these markers are not recognized by MAGIX Photostory. In other words when i click on Edit, Wizards, Musical Editing Adjustment I get the message that "an audio object with beat information couild not be found in the selected area." MAGIX is not seeing the markers I placed.
Should I be importing my music in another format that MAGIX will recognize including markers? For example .ogg that MAGIX Music Maker uses? I tried but doese not seem to work.
If I as an alternative using the BPM Wizard (= Magix Remix Agent) to set the bars I can actually get a long way. I can set the markers automatically, I can adjust by 1, 2, 3 beat(s) to ensure that the right beat is highlighted (= RED) as being the first beat in the bar. I can even drag individual markers forward or backward to adjust when music slows down or there is a pause.

When I do this the existing photos in the timeline automatically adjust e.g. snap to the markers in the music track. However, I am not seeing the markers in the music track. I need to see the markers e.g. "M" at the top of the music track so that I can also manually drag photos to the right marker and also so that I know what is going on. How can I switch on "show markers set by BPM Wizard in the audio track"?!!!
The other points that is somewhat disturbing is that the markers in the audio track (set up by BPM Wizard) seem to also be recognized as 'Chapter Markers' and then appear in the DVD menu and also when use clicks forward or backward appear as navigation markers rather than music track markers. It seems to me that either i do not get the concept or the concept mixes two key elements - navigational markers and audio track markers which is a bug in my opinion.
I am a lot further with the Sony Movie Studio Platinum trial and have already burnt a first complete DVD of my son's wedding where the markers work perfectly (resolution seems to be a disaster - still working on that or is that just the limitation of PAL DVDs even on a HD-TV). Note: Sony does not limit the trial output to three minutes - nice of them and a key element in decision making!
MAGIX does quite a few things really nicely and I would love to stay with it but I need to get the music markers allowing individual photo synchronisation sorted out. THANKS for your help!

Cheers. Steve.

steve.haite wrote on 3/23/2015, 5:01 AM

Hello John. Did not see any more answers from you to my further questions.

However, after testing both programs I have come to the conclusion that for my purposes MAGIX will not give me the control over the sound track that i need. I did discover that by using Ctrl-0 I can add markers exactly where i want them (it actually moves an existing marker) but I cannot delete any makers and I cannot give markers in a music track a name.

The thing that i miss the most though is that the markers/marker names are NOT shown above the music track in the timeline window so i have no way of knowing where my next vital marker is and ensuring the photo or video track is fully aligned to it. SONY gives me this functionality. I have produced during the 30 day trial a full DVD and also a Bluray Disc and both work perfectly with 20 songs and hundreds of photos plus a few videos. No 3 minute limit there which is in my opinion rather short-sighted of MAGIX.

Of course i will miss the great functionality of MAGIX with regard to the numerous devices they support. i would have loved to be able to produce versions of my work for iPad, iMac etc. That is still a major downside of the SONY product which is why i am still hesitating to convert my trial to a full purchase. I may have to check out their other product versions to see what they have.

Anyway thanks for your support during the trial.

Cheers. Steve.