Help me put my mini-podcast on Youtube

October 16, 2023 5:50 AM

What is the most straightforward way to take a collection of audio files + transcripts, and turn them into attractive videos for putting on Youtube?

I have about 2 dozen short audio recordings (under 2 minutes each) and accompanying transcripts.

I'm envisioning a tool where I can import my audio and paste in my transcript, and it will align them for me into a video, maybe with a nice waveform/visualiser to go with it.

I know the technology is out there - I can record myself on Instagram and it will generate captions for me instantly that are lined up word-by-word.

I'm looking for a tool which 1) makes visually pleasing videos displaying my text alongside the audio, 2) is easy to use in bulk, creating a bunch of consistent videos (not having to re-build it each time), and ideally 3) is free?

posted by Glier's Goetta to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

Most of the video generators use a ton of stock footage that needs to be paid for, and therefore have a fee to them.
posted by kschang at 2:32 PM on October 16, 2023

I'm interested in this question as well and if anyone has the time and can recommend what kind of service to use, I'd appreciate it...
posted by tiny frying pan at 2:58 PM on October 16, 2023

Try synthesia.io, paste your script in, and it'll pick the right stock footage for each sentence or paragraph depending on how you edit it. You can edit your audio in later.

This list is not a bad starting point, even though it claimed synthesia has no free tier.
posted by kschang at 12:14 AM on October 18, 2023

Response by poster: Thanks for the suggestions so far. I'm not looking for stock footage, really a simple waveform and displaying the aligned text is all I'm after.
posted by Glier's Goetta at 4:27 AM on October 20, 2023

Response by poster: Here's an extremely random example that I found searching for 'podcast' on Youtube. You can see it's got the hard subs at the bottom of the screen (integrated into the video), and a waveform of the audio. I want to make something like that, in bulk for two dozen files, and save myself the work of having to time the subtitles myself.
posted by Glier's Goetta at 4:40 AM on October 20, 2023

I think Capcut can help you with the animated subtitles.

As for the waveform matching the voice, one can probably whip up something in Davinci Resolve's Fusion module. But that's a bit out of my expertise.
posted by kschang at 8:22 PM on October 20, 2023