Advice on syncing an edited, multicam studio shoot of drums.

Shigeta

Shigeta

Well-known member
Hey guys,

I just came back from a shoot this past weekend in which I recorded a guy playing drums to some tracks by various bands. It was audibly recorded by a professional sound engineer to Pro Tools and I recorded it visually with an xha1s and an above-head angle.

Anyways, we kinda struggled through it (learning expirence!) and we would call out what part of the song it was, what take, etc. to get as specific as possible to make syncing in post not hell. The reason it will be more than standard syncing is that the audio track will be edited to make the best sounding overall track, free of mistakes that a one-take shot would entail.

Anyways, I was wondering if there was a good way to sync the cameras with a timecode or specific points that the audio can be editied, log where/ how long the edits were, and what parts are from what take to make my job 100x more bearable.

I thought of organizing it into song, part of song (verse 1, outro, etc), and take, then clap it with a slate.

Then the audio editor can say, "Ok, on Song 1, verse 2, timecode xx:xx:xx to xx:xx:xx, we replaced it with Song 1, verse 2, take 2, timecode: xx:xx:xx to xx:xx:xx.

Time code would be the measure of time after the clap.

This is all I could come up with for now, not too familar with the effecient way to do this stuff, and as you can see, it's kinda long, so I am more than open and welcome to any suggestions!

If there is anywhere I can clear up, let me know. It makes sense to me, but if not for you, I'd be happy to clear it up for you.

Thanks guys!
 
I did a drum track video for a larger song I was working on. The way I did it was to record 3 takes of the drums all the way through with video and audio rolling. Then in my audio timeline I comped the 3 takes into one with the best parts. But I also made a quick recording of me saying "1" "2" 3". Then back in the audio timeline I put the "1" at the beginning of cuts to take 1, and "2" to the cuts going to take 2 etc. Got it? So whenever there is a cut to another take you hear me saying the take number. I mixed the final drum track, and mixed a track of just the "1" "2" "3"s. Then I move over to the video...

I Synced all 3 takes of drums (hopefully you were working with a click!) on the video timeline. And I also synced the final mix of the drums as well as the "1-2-3" track. So then with the video editing I just followed the numbers. "1" - go to take one, "2" - go to take to etc... It worked out great and it wasn't hard.

Here's the result:
 
Here is an email I sent the drummer about a re-shoot. Do you think this plan of action would work?


I would have the monitor as well (hopefully) a remote to start/stop the recording on the DSLR along with a 32gb card to switch out so we wouldn't have down time to transfer. We fill a card, switch it, dump while recording. DSLR would only need to be accessed to switch cards (every 40 minutes, then every hour or so).

Canon Xh-a1 x2 would be setup, recording 2 angles at once. One has a lavalier microphone that is set to your vocal level to capture what region (Pro Tools name for "take" or recording section) it is. (I had the xha1 mics set so low to not clip, the audio from his mouth wasn't audible.) A clapper board will mark sync points, and also have information written on it (Song, Region). It would be shown and "clapped" to all three cameras to ensure a solid sync point on all and it would sync as well to the room and overhead mics that Stephan is recording.

This ensures a solid three-prong way of confirmation of region and timing. You saying the region and song, the cameras seeing the region and song info on the slate, and also have 3 points of syncing from the claps of the slate that are recorded on the audio engineers' end as well. I would stop the cameras after every region so when I log the clips, I will name them by region and be able to pick them out of a folder when I get the edit notes back from you guys.

It's low-tech, but it would work. When you guys are editing it, you would take the region, then say what part of the region you used (after the 3rd clap) till when you stopped, then what part of the song that is in. For example:

Faint- Linkin Park

Song Starts at 0:02

0:02:000- 0:17:150- Region 7 (0:05:100-0:20:250)


So, song starts at 2 seconds till 17.15 seconds and the part you used is from 5.1 seconds after the third clap until 20.25 seconds after the third clap. See where I'm going? If you do this for each part, it will make editing incredibly fast.
Click to expand...

Edited for clarification
 
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Man I don't know. Your email is hard to follow. If you have the drummer click in with his sticks you won't need a clap board. It seems wastefull to just leave the DSLR camera running. And risky too. If anything goes wrong on the camera you've lost all the takes. And the camera may well overheat. And I don't even know what you're doing here: "One has a lavalier (Tie-clip) microphone that is set to your vocal level to capture what region it is." I'm an audio engineer, and I've never heard of "reigns" when recording. Why do you need a lav? Do you mean audio "level" or do you mean to say the "height" of his mouth?

Honestly for a music video (if that's what you're doing) it's best for video to just have the guy play sync after the song is done. You're doing 3 cameras AND multiple takes. Way too much to sift through IMO. I had one camera that I moved after each take. So wen I played the combined takes back it looked like I was shifting angles of the same take. I restricted it to 3 run-troughs of the song. If they are recording a real album I wouldn't want to possibly distract the players as they record. But if that's what the client wants...
 
Sorry, I should have explained it better. The audio engineer is using Pro Tools to record the drums. Each "recording" or section recorded is called a "region." The lav mic is to capture him calling out what region it is. They are Pro Tool's name for a take. I had the xha1 mics set so low to not clip, the audio from his mouth wasn't audible.

The thing is a drum cover song, not a music video so cinematic shots aren't required, just 3 angles. He likes to play seperately with the verses/ chorus'. He'll play the chorus 1, bridge, verse 1, etc etc seperately and may do multiple takes of each.
 
Chadfish said:
"One has a lavalier (Tie-clip) microphone that is set to your vocal level to capture what region it is." I'm an audio engineer, and I've never heard of "reigns" when recording.
Click to expand...

Well, you actually quoted him saying "regions", which is a pretty standard pro tools term - though you did say "reigns" in your reply. Reigns are for horses. And royalty I suppose. A region is a section of audio in ProTools.
 
I guess one should not use app specific jargon when describing a complex problem. And I should learn to spell.
 
Or you could buy pluraleyes and have the engineer make a drum track and a full track that start at the same time. Hit sync go grab a smoke and coffee. Come back and edit. I don't even clap anymore unless I don't know the editor or the director is not me.
 
Looks like you got it all squared away because the video looks great. Only critique I would make is that your subject doesn't pop from the background. A back light and maybe a sheet on the background would help a lot.
I have been planning a single-cam acoustic shoot in my studio with a friend's band, and this makes me want to get it done.
 
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