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Timing and Karaoke Timing Tutorial; Learning to time with AegiSub
Topic Started: Jul 6 2009, 01:57 AM (1,619 Views)
Langes01x

I'll start with timing as that is the more basic of the two.

First off I'd like to say that I only use Aegisub as it has worked the best for me and SubStation Alpha doesn't work on 64bit windows (at least not very well). If you choose to use a different application I probably can't help you much.

After opening Aegisub you get something like this:
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From here go to File -> Open Subtitles
Open the subtitle file you want to re-time. If you are doing it from scratch you will instead start off with no subtitles and it involves a different methodology. I will assume you are retiming for now. Maybe a tutorial on timing from scratch later.

Next we need to be able to see and hear what we are timing so open the Video menu and click Open Video.
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Theoretically you could start timing now but to make it a lot easier open the Audio menu and click Open Audio from Video.
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It may take a while as it loads the audio into memory. At this time your screen may look something like this:
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Retiming is made extremely easy when you only need to shift the subtitles. First determine how much the subtitles need to be shifted and in what direction. It is possible that different parts of the script will need different amounts of shifting so select some that need the same amount of shifting. Then open the Timing menu and click Shift Times.
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Make sure it is going to be applied to the selected rows only and type in the amount and direction. Repeat until all subtitles line up with the speaker.

For single lines that need retiming it is better to do it by hand as it is 1000x as accurate and you can see what you are doing. See the waveform in one of the previous pictures and the highlighted section? That highlighted section is the part of the audio that the selected subtitle will show up for. In this case you can't tell that the highlighted section is correct however the next picture shows a more normal case.

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You want the highlighted section to touch both sides of the large part of the waveform. You fix this by dragging the red braces. Leaving a small amount of room is acceptable and in many cases a good thing.

Also note the sliders on the right hand side of the waveform. They control the how much the waveform is stretched horizontally and vertically. Try playing around with them so it is easier to see breaks between the waveforms. Too tall or too stretched will not allow the whole thing you wish to time to be displayed at once so try to find a good balance.

Karaoke and timing from scratch will be posted shortly.
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Langes01x

Timing from scratch. No pictures in this one as it is similar to the last and pictures are a lot more work.

After opening Aegisub do not load a subtitle file. Skip to opening the video and audio like I explained in the previous tutorial.

This may involve some basic understanding of japanese to get the subtitles aligned to the correct piece of audio.

Assuming you already have the translation typed out copy and paste the translation for the first line into the text box to the right of the video and under the waveform. Hit ctrl-enter to commit the "change" and make the subtitle appear on the video. Press the play button and keep your mouse hovered there. When you hear the start of someone speaking (which should hopefully be the line you pasted) hit the play button again to pause. On the top menu bar press the first button with the blue square-like thing (or hit ctrl-3). This will make the subtitle appear starting at this point in the video. Press the play button again and wait until the person has finished speaking or until they have said everything in the translated line (whichever comes first). Pause the video again and click the button beside the previous one that looks almost exactly like the other one (or hit ctrl-4). You have now set the ending time for the line.

You will likely have to manually adjust the start/end times backward slightly like I explained in the previous part of the tutorial. This is normal as a person's reflexes are no where near perfect.

After adjusting click inside the text box anywhere and hit enter. This will create a new line in the script that starts immediately after the previous one and goes for 2 seconds. Don't ask why it automatically assumes 2 seconds because it just does. Repeat the above until you run out of translated material. You may also employ the single line retiming method instead as you get better at judging where the next line starts and ends if you think it would be faster (I use a combination of both).

That is the basics of timing from scratch. Tutorial on karaoke to come.
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Langes01x

Karaoke.

Add the karaoke lines (only the romaji ones!) to the script in the same way you would any other line. This should be easier as you should be able to follow along with the words and know when to stop.

You may have something like this:
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Click the button labeled karaoke below the waveform. The words now appear on the waveform separated by little yellow lines. Pressing space will play back the audio that corresponds to the selected word. However the times are likely wrong and we also want each syllable to highlight itself on its own and not a word at a time.

It is your choice whether you wish to get the words properly aligned first or if you want to split the words into syllables and then time the syllables. I usually time the words then the syllables as it makes timing the syllables easier.

Press the space bar. Did the whole word play without parts of any other words tacked on the end? If so then you are in luck as it happened to line up correctly for you. Did you hear more than that word? If so then move the yellow bar at the end of the word left. Repeat until aligned. Did you hear part of the word but not all of it? If so then move the yellow bar right. Repeat until aligned.

Once the first word is aligned press the right arrow key. This brings you to the next word and plays the sound associated with it. Repeat the process for this and all other words in this line. Note that pressing the arrow key beyond the last word brings you to the next line.

You should have something like this:
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Note that the start and end of words usually falls into the low points on the waveform. This is also true for syllables and knowing this helps speed up the process. This of course assumes that the singer isn't drowned out by the music. In that case you may not be able to tell on the waveform where one word ends and another starts let alone where one syllable ends and another starts.

Now to split the words into syllables. Click split. In the box beside the Split button which now says Accept Split put a line in the place between syllables. Some japanese knowledge is necessary here as their syllables and our own are not the same. For my line I split it like so: "ki|ra|me|ku se|ka|i he to|bi|da|se". Note: "nanda" should be split into "na|n|da" and "shimatta" split into "shi|ma|t|ta".

If there is silence at the start of the line or inside the line you can split nothing from a word or syllable to reflect it in the karaoke. The results of doing so are shown here:
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In this case "he" is already a single syllable so we're already done one of the four words. Aligning the syllables is much like aligning the words so I'll just skip to the end result which is something like this:
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During this process you may want to adjust the start or end times of the line to make it look better. Once you are done all of the karaoke you can copy the karaoke'd romaji lines and replace all of the text with the english translation and/or kanji symbols. This ensures that the english and japanese show up and leave at exactly the same time.

This completes basic karaoke creation. From here you can change what type of karaoke is used (specified by the \k \kf \K etc.) and change to positioning and colors of the karaoke. If you want more advanced things like making the words bounce or shoot laser beams, etc. when they are said I'm going to have to refer you to the AegiSub manual here. Specifically check out the Karaoke Templater. It's a pain in the rear to use but karaoke is only done once for each new OP/ED and then reused so it may be worth the time put into it.

The AegiSub manual may also have better tutorials on timing and karaoke timing than I have provided here. Check it out if you want.
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