Best practices for syncing audio BEFORE editing

B

BATman

Active member
Hi there,

I have all my footage from a Canon 7D and my sound recorded with a Tascam DR-100. This is the longest projects I have done (well, it'll be a 10 to 15 minutes long short film, but I have a LOT of takes) and manually syncing the sound will be a pain. I know about Plural Eyes and I might go that route. I know about Merge clips but that is also even a larger pain. However my question is about what's the best practice for editing my timeline since I do not know which clips I am going to end up using. I want to sync all the clips first and then play by editing a rough cut. I am thinking about maybe even making 2 versions of the movie.

What's best? (I am using Premiere Pro CS5.5)

1) Open a new sequence, sync one entire clip with its correspondent sound file. Then open another new sequence and do the same with the following clips and sound files. And finally, open a new 'master' sequence and add and cut all the other sequences in it?

2) Open a new sequence, sync one entire clip with its correspondent sound file. Render that sequences and then use those newly rendered files into a new project or bin to create a new 'master' sequence and cut those new files in it?

3) None of the above, here's how I do it:

4) 1 or 2 plus or minus this:



I will appreciate your advice very much since it is driving me sincerely crazy.

How are you guys doing something like this? What's your workflow on a similar situation?

Thanks so much guys and you all have a great night!!
 
I shoot so that the scratch audio on the camera is enough to edit by. Hopefully your DSLR audio can suffice?
The advantage is that you sync after you edit, this way you only need to sync the clips that are used.
It's a HUGE time saver.

Check out this post on my blog and in particular the comments after it, they may be of use to you
A trick for audio sync on a shoot without a slate
 
Last edited:
I'm currently doing 2. I was worried that rendering video and putting that back into a timeline to edit, then rendering again might lessen the quality, but I guess this is digital and not analog video anymore :)
 
J Davis said:
I shoot so that the scratch audio on the camera is enough to edit by. Hopefully your DSLR audio can suffice?
The advantage is that you sync after you edit, this way you only need to sync the clips that are used.
It's a HUGE time saver.

Check out this post on my blog and in particular the comments after it, they may be of use to you
A trick for audio sync on a shoot without a slate
Click to expand...


Hi J Davis,

Thanks so much for the info. I really appreciate it!

The reason why I want to sync all of my clips is because my entire movie is based on improvisation (with A LOT of information about the story, particular scenes and roles). So, I am not sure which clips I am going to end up using since without a 'formal' script, it is a bit tougher to cut a scene that makes fluent sense. But I have close to 200 clips! I was trying last night and I was OMG! It is going to take me more time to add those markers and snap them to sync, than editing the whole movie!! So, I downloaded the PluralEyes 30 days trial and did the sync deal. Well, it came out with a huge time line and they are gaps I need to review and I am not sure if it is worth my time because the results are uncertain at the moment for me. Basically, I do not want to go to ALL the review process with the PluralEye result and find out I am going to need to end up doing what the original plan was anyhow. So, it will be twice the pain then. I am thinking about trying the merge clips as suggested by Jim.

I will try to write an update once when I find a fluent workflow...

Thanks again!!

CrackDown said:
I'm currently doing 2. I was worried that rendering video and putting that back into a timeline to edit, then rendering again might lessen the quality, but I guess this is digital and not analog video anymore :)
Click to expand...

Very much indeed. Thanks for your reply CrackDown!!

Jim Simon said:
How so? The feature was designed specifically to make this type of editing scenario easier.
Click to expand...

Hi Jim,

I hope so. I will try it out. It is just a new feature for me. Once when you have a merged clip, can you pull it up on your viewer and cut it and tread it as a 'regular/normal' clip? Can you build a time line with merged clips only? If so, that would be a (or the) solution. I am a bit scared because they are not the 'real' clips but the 'links' to them. I guess it does not matter since the timeline is basically a visual representation of just that, (links) right?

I look forward to your/you guys' answers...

THANKS!!!!!!!!
 
I have not tried this myself yet, but you could try DualEyes, which syncs video files with separate audiofiles. It can even merge the video and audio into new files for certain codecs (I believe MOV files from Canons are supported, but you'll have to verify this). Seems simpler and more automated than other workflows if it works. Thankfully, they have a 30 day demo to see if it works for you.
 
Merged clips act just like normal clips. They can be loaded into the Source Monitor for setting In/Out points. They can be used in a sequence and behave just like any other clip.
 
Cool beans

Cool beans

Jim Simon said:
Merged clips act just like normal clips. They can be loaded into the Source Monitor for setting In/Out points. They can be used in a sequence and behave just like any other clip.
Click to expand...

Thanks Jim. I am trying the Merged Clips and they are working fine. However, I have to delete the audio track from the camera because I cannot change it in my main Sequence. Here's my workflow:

I import my video and audio files. I select both, the video and audio file I want to sync. I drag them in to a new sequence. I navigate until the sound spike from the clap board. I add a maker (Marker > Sequences Marker > Set Next Available Numbered... ) on both the video clip and the audio track from my audio recorder. I aligned the with Snap turned on. Then I go Clip > Merge Clips...

It creates a new 'Merged Clip' asset in my project panel. I can open it in the Source Monitor, but I cannot mute the Audio 1 track which is the one from the camera. If I go back to the new Sequence with both Video and Audio track from the recorder and mute it, nothing happens. Only when I delete the camera's audio from the new sequence with the synced clip, is when I can have the sound of the audio recorder only.

Is this the only way to get the 'good' sound using the Merge Clips in my Source Monitor to add them to my timeline?

Anybody doing the same here? Is this the 'best practice'?

Thanks Jim and all!!
 
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