Need course in Video Editing and Time Code 101

[Barry777]

Hi Guys,

I've been spending the last year building a state-of-the-art (as of about 25 years ago) video production studio. I have several of JVC's best professional VHS duplicators (BR-S822U), their RM-G860U Editing Controller, and 4 Time Code Generator/Readers in addition to the TC options on 2 of the VCR's. I also have 2 Alesis ADAT machines to synchronize the VCR's to 16 track digital audio, and may get one more to expand to 24 tracks if the need should arise.

Now that I finally have all this stuff working like new (many, many hours of work), I'm ready to do some serious A/V recording of local bands. My problem is lack of BASIC knowledge of professional video editing; the manuals for all my gear already assume a strong basic foundation in video editing, and merely describe the steps to perform swap editing, for instance.

If there are any former video editors out there, I sure could use a book that covers the basics in this area, or at least a fairly detailed description of terms such as "assemble editing", "swap editing", "insert editing", etc. I think I can muddle through the Time Code stuff on my own, and I know I also need to play with the gear and become more familiar with its advanced features.

I love to sit on the couch and read while the wife watches her favorite movies, so a few technical books on the subject would be my ideal scenario - but I'll take any help I can get. I've searched for books, but can't seem to find anything written specifically for the video editor from a technical standpoint.

Thanks in advance!

[Dave A]

What you have assembled is a vintage, full-form, video-tape editing system which is entirely "linear" as in front-to-end editing as you go along. You start at the beginning of the show and edit in-place as you go along to the end. You can do some internal editing as you go but not much. If you make a mistake in the middle of the show, you would have to re-edit everything from that point to the end.

All of this is from my many years doing it and with no book at hand. Others may have a book, but this is the simple version as I did not have a book to learn. Just do it.

Current computer editing is "non-linear" as you can jump around and push scenes as you wish. With non-linear, all you are doing is creating a command list of scenes and effects you wish the hard-drives to accomplish as they read the command/edit list.

For your trip down memory lane, I will call it POTE...Plain Old Tape Editing.

POTE starts with any form of tape. Old 2", some simple EIAJ 1/2", some VHS or 3/4" cassettes are the usual suspects. Edit controllers came in many flavors. Ampex Editec, RCA Frame Splicer, all the Sony/JVC, etc. variants and some third-party boxes.

All of the POTE formats have some sort of analog control track pulse on the edge of the tape. This was the basic pulse that held the picture together and the edit controller uses to find the edit point. You roll the tape and mark an "in" point and an "out" point on both machines for a simple cut. The controller then backs up the tape by counting pulses to a pre-determined pre-roll point. Usually 5 seconds or so. The tapes then rolled and the new recording started during the vertical interval at the edit point. Very sloppy due to machine mechanical quirks. If either tape slipped, the controller could not count it and the edit was not where you wanted. The editor had done its work by then. If you got lucky, it worked.

This is where edge-damage to VHS tapes can kill editing. Edge damage is curls on the edge of the tape where it lifts from the heads and the edit controller cannot read the pulses on that edge of the tape. Maybe a copy of the tape can restore edit control.

The addition of a Time Code pulse on an unused audio track helped immensely. Now you had an exact numerical pulse to look for and most edit controlers could adjust tape speed to get it back in sync during pre-roll. If it did not sync, most controllers would abort and re-try. For this to work, all tapes need time code. Mixing time code and control track only tapes would bring back the mechanical errors as one exact source was missing.

POTE editing came in two flavors..."add-on" (also "assemble") and "insert" regardless of the machine or edit controller.

Before you do this, you have to decide how you are editing your show. A simple crash edit from front to back or more sophisticated edit inside a show. This tells you how you prepare your master tape (final show tape).

If you need to be clever on your edit, you take your master tape and record black, and time code if you have it, on the tape from end to end. Now you have a master tape with full pulses from end to end and can go to the insert mode for the full edit.

In insert, you can choose to edit your selection as video and audio, video only, or audio only as needed. You mark your in and out points on both machines and go. The pulses are not disturbed and are the guide for the edit controller.

In the insert mode, you use three-point editing. One machine or the other gets a full in/out treatment. If the record master, it will be the determined points of the scene as your edit decisions require. The source scene will need an in-point only and ignore an out point as the master already has it. If reversed, the source machine gets the in/out point (to play a full scene as you want) and the master gets the "in" only. The scene goes as long as you wish in either version.

"Add-on" is the most simple, just tacking on scenes at the end of a previous scene and relying on the pulse at the end of the scene. This works with non-blacked, raw tape and relies on the pulses at the end of the first scene only. No audio only here but just laying chunks end-to-end. This is best for mass scenes in total. Once you have finished this version, you now have a tape full of pulses and you can go back and insert as needed as you have full pulses from end to end.

Linear editing is fast becoming a lost art. Good luck and let me know if you need any other tricks.

Dave A

[Barry777]

I'm happy to say I finally got everything chasing each other, and can even use the smaller and lighter BR-S800 machines for mobile recording, then stick the tapes into the monstrous BR-S822U's for the serious editing and post production at home. Since the 800's are more of a prosumer machine, they will only generate and read 30 NDF time code. Once I prerecorded blackburst and NDF on all video tapes and formatted the ADAT tapes beforehand, everything suddenly started working properly.

The 800's only have a 6 digit readout which is kind of a pain, but the addition of either an external time code reader or the RM-G800U editing controller restores the frames readout. Looking forward to recording a friend's band in a few weeks :-)

I showed pictures of the setup to some friends at work, and their response was "You know you can get a digital this and a HD that, then you could route it through a whizbang streamer and codec the output into a pringleboozer ziptration processor, and you wouldn't need all that old heavy stuff". These are the guys who are constantly cussing and scratching their heads to work out the bugs in the new digital designs.