My video is something other than action

That's great. Who could live without a good comedy, drama, romance, or other type of video? Nobody, that's who. The way this guide is set up is not really on the genre of your video, though. It's more of the song category. So, if you're using a really action-y song for your video, go check out the action video section which deals with guitar riffs, drum beats, and cymbal crashes.
This part of the guide deals with slower or smoother songs that contain different types of guitar riffs, drum beats, and the imfamous piano notes. It also deals with some violin. So if your song doesn't contain these, again, please head on over to the action part of the guide by pressing your back button. ^_^

A few things to remember while making your video:
- Don't put in random action scenes if your video has a story
- Don't put in any sort of a real story if your video is comedy
- In other words, don't jump around in categories. Stick to the one you want: Your video is only as good as you make it.
- If you have a time in your song where it slows up or speeds down, your storytelling should do the same- not your framerate. A common misconception is that effects make the video. They don't- storytelling does.

Piano Notes

There are a few things you can do with piano notes.
(1) fade for every note, leave the rest black
(2) change scenes every note
(3)Play a scene while flashing a different scene during notes

Here's your boring piano clip now.

(1) By fading for every note, and leaving the rest black, you can begin your story in a mysterious place, Introduce each character and show a powerful emotion, or tell the story while saving footage. Just because you fade every note, doesn't mean you have to use the same scene. In fact, if you do use the same scene, it's usually quite boring. But if you use a scene where it's panning a landscape, that would work fine, as you're establishing a setting for your video.

How to do this.

This is the waveform of the song I used. It doesn't matter what editing software it's in, since all editing programs(that I know of) let you view the waveform while editing.
See where the waves jump up? That's where the piano note has been struck.

So the box is where the first piano beat is You should start here and then fade out to the end of the box.
The other red lines also say where you should start, and when you should stop fading out. As you can see,  you will have periods of total blackness. If you didn't, your video would look a little weird here. Trust me, I tried it. ;)

(2)Changing scenes at every piano note can use up footage as well as show different places at the same point in time. You could do a simple cut, which is what I did in the example, or you could fade to the next scene and make the transition smoother.

How to do this.
You should look at the waveform for the fading piano keys, and change scenes right where the fade starts. Or, just listen to your music, and change scenes when you first hear the piano key struck.

(3)Flashing a scene while playing another one can have the same effect as simply changing scenes, but appear more serious or dramatic. It uses slightly more footage, but sometimes it looks really good.

How to do this.
Unlike fading scenes and leaving the rest black, you have to actually fade in the scene that's flashing for it to look any good. To do that, you should start your clip before the actual piano key hits, and fade in, where the scene is fully visible exactly when the key hits, and then fade out like you did in fading scenes.

As you can see, this one looks a little more confusing. The lines sloping up are where you should fade in. The straight red line should be when your fading scene is clearly visible(i.e. Done fading in, but not yet fading out). The red line sloping downward is where you should fade out. In essense, all you're really doing here is following the soundwaves.
However, sometimes this doesn't look right for one reason or another. If it doesn't look right for your video, play with the lengths of fading in or out. Sometimes being technically right doesn't look the best. So just play with it for yourself. ^-^

Violin

With violins, there's really only two things you can do.
(1) Fade
(2)Make something happen

Here's the boring violin clip you have now.

(1) Fading to a different scene for violins is usually better than just plain cutting, since violins are much "smoother". You could also fade in and out of a scene following the violinist's movements of the bow.
Because of the difference in these two things, I have two examples instead of one.
Fading to a different scene, and following the bow.

How to do this.
I suppose you're waiting for a picture of the waveform, right?
Well, the stupid thing about violins and waveforms is that you can't really see them. So I'm not even going to bother putting the waveform up. ^^;
What you do is follow the sound. If the violin gets softer, begin to fade out. If it gets louder, fade in. It's a lot simpler than it sounds, really!

(2) Making something happen could be interpreted in different ways. The point is that you're supposed to make something happen when the violin starts, or when it gets to its loudest point(Whichever looks better).
For example, you could slow down or speed up the framerate of your certain clip(Although this is a magic bullet). If a character is looking at something, you could make her/his eyes close when the violin starts.
In my example, I chose a simple movement of the head to synch with the violin.

You do this the same as fading.

Wind Machine

If you're working with an orchestrial piece of music, or just a plain weird one, every once in a while you'll come across a wind sound. There is actually an instrument that produces this sound, and regardless of how weird it is, there are three major things you can do.

(1)Show wind blowing(I.e. "make something happen")
(2) Fade to another scene
(3) Pan something("pan" is a camera term for starting in one direction, and then slowly moving to another direction[left to right, i.e.] while recording).

Here's your boring wind clip.

(1) It's pretty obvious why you'd use wind blowing during an audio clip like this. The only problem is if  the wind blowing clip has nothing to add to your story, you shouldn't use it. Also, you're limited by your anime. Afterall, it's not a requirement for every anime to show wind blowing, right?

(2) Fading to another scene is just matching the noise of the wind... And using up more footage. :)

(3) Panning something is really matching the wind noise, as well. If you pan while the wind blows, It's almost like the wind is blowing the camera :o Problem with this is that you're also limited by your anime, unless you want to get really technical and pan the thing yourself... Which isn't too hard if you have the right program(s), but that's a story for a different guide.

You do these the same as you would do the violin clips.

So, that's it for this portion of the guide! Remember that you don't have to follow this guide exactly. This is like art. If you copied everyone else and never made your own style, everything would be done the same way! Make up your own ways to deal with these things, or mix and match the examples listed here.
Some things were purposely left out of this guide so you could figure it out for yourself. Good luck!

Go to:
Action synch for action videos
Guide's main page
animemusicvideos.org