Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

I know nothing about this area, but Mums just asked me to help her and her business partner put together a DVD demonstrating their healthcare treatment techniques. They are "leading edge" in their field and need visual before and after documentation to convince others, particularly the mainstream medical community, that their results are real. To be clear, this isn't "crystal magnets and stuff"; it's advanced physical therapy and neuro-physiological techniques invoking neuro-plasticity and the like.

Nothing too fancy required of the video, except that faces need to be blurred. Does anyone know of an open source / low or zero cost editor that can do that reliably?

Once, some years in the past, she spent some thousands on a professionally produced videotape, but was underwhelmed with the results and a bit overwhelmed at the price tag given the relative simplicity of her editing needs (although I can see face blurring as a multi-hour "target shoot" kind of exercise, for the editor). Thus, this time her "computer literate" son has been drafted.

EDIT: She works a lot with disadvantaged children. Good work, but there's not tons of money in it. So, she's not just being cheap. And as I'm between jobs, I'm avoiding expenses, myself.

Re: Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

#5

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 2:56 PM UTC

pasbesoin wrote: post #4

I know nothing about this area, but Mums just asked me to help her and her business partner put together a DVD demonstrating their healthcare treatment techniques. They are "leading edge" in their field and need visual before and after documentation to convince others, particularly the mainstream medical community, that their results are real. To be clear, this isn't "crystal magnets and stuff"; it's advanced physica…

[deleted]

Re: Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

#6

Post by mgk » Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 3:03 PM UTC

Shameless plug time.

www.celtx.com - Open source pre-production application for making films, stageplays, audio, AV and comics (so far).

Re: Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

#7

Post by shin_lao » Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 3:40 PM UTC

I don't think the author tried to get any real work done with Audacity. It's really not up to par with either Sound Forge or Wavelab.

I really had a terrible time last time I checked out Audacity.

I understand it's free of charge and you can definitely get some work done with it (if you aren't in a hurry).

The thing is I just don't think open source is competitive in that kind of market.

First of all: very limited export and import. I like my audio editor to be a hub where I can switch from one format to the other.

UI : I really don't like the UI I'm sorry to say I find it very ugly. I also have the feeling it takes a significant higher number of operations to trim, zoom, detrim, cancel, copy, etc. Maybe with time I could cope with it if I didn't have the choice. Ah, wait, I have a choice. :) In Wavelab you have a virtual rack in which you can plug in the VST FX, and tweak it in real time. It's really well done and the visual feedback is very helpful.

Effects : it's just not delivered with decent effects (where is the multi-band compression?) and good VST effects (such as the Waves Diamond Bundle) are expensive (> 3000 €). If you spend for 3000 € of FX, I guess you can spend another 400 € for an audio editor.

But the real show stopper was that Audacity doesn't support the audio output I need, that is ASIO. I need ASIO output to get the sub 40 ms output latency. I don't think it supports WASAPI either which would be a work around.

For home usage, Sound Forge Audio Studio is only 35 € and in my opinion much better than Audacity. You can burn you recording directly from the software, in Audacity you have to export to wav and then burn the track (unless it changed).

Hope this sheds some light.

Re: Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

#8

Post by Herring » Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 4:05 PM UTC

cesare wrote: post #2

I also suggest: * Ardour ( http://ardour.org/ ) - a digital audio workstation * Cinelerra ( http://cinelerra.org/ ) - for video editing * Snd ( http://ccrma.stanford.edu/software/snd/snd/snd.html ) - a sound editor scriptable in scheme, ruby or forth.

kdenlive isn't bad for video either. It's much easier to figure out in my opinion.

Re: Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

#9

Post by enqk » Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 4:11 PM UTC

shin_lao wrote: post #7

I don't think the author tried to get any real work done with Audacity. It's really not up to par with either Sound Forge or Wavelab. I really had a terrible time last time I checked out Audacity. I understand it's free of charge and you can definitely get some work done with it (if you aren't in a hurry). The thing is I just don't think open source is competitive in that kind of market. First of all: very limited ex…

Audacity is clunky but gets the work done when it comes to simple editing. Not really indeed very good for a musician since it misses useful realtime feedback on effects, but for a Dad looking to record / edit / convert his vinyls into mp3s it works perfectly.

As for why you'd want to have low latency on a sample editing software, I do not really understand why. Unless you want to record and process effect automations. For that purpose, why not use something more like an audio sequencer? (Reaper -- pretty cheap -- or Logic Audio, Cubase, Ableton Live)

As for exports, Audacity supports ogg, mp3 and flac, which is pretty good. But no direct burn operation.

Who burns CDs nowadays, though?

In summary I think the only crime that Audacity commits is to look and sell itself as more advanced than what it really is: a simple sample editing software. So bad marketing and an incorrect apparent focus on musicians.

Re: Open-Source Tools for Working With Video and Audio

#10

Post by shin_lao » Thu, Jul 23, 2009, 4:52 PM UTC

enqk wrote: post #9

shin_lao wrote: post #7

I don't think the author tried to get any real work done with Audacity. It's really not up to par with either Sound Forge or Wavelab. I really had a terrible time last time I checked out Audacity. I understand it's free of charge and you can definitely get some work done with it (if you aren't in a hurry). The thing is I just don't think open source is competitive in that kind of market. First of all: very limited ex…

Audacity is clunky but gets the work done when it comes to simple editing. Not really indeed very good for a musician since it misses useful realtime feedback on effects, but for a Dad looking to record / edit / convert his vinyls into mp3s it works perfectly. As for why you'd want to have low latency on a sample editing software, I do not really understand why. Unless you want to record and process effect automation…

Low latency is interesting when you're tweaking the VST in real time and want to see how it affects your recording. With enough CPU power and a good audio card, this is doable even with a complex stack of effects.

I guess it could also be important when using external processors.