General POST workflow...

B

bfsound

Well-known member
Ok so i have been gathering tons of info from this site and the people on it!

Im just curious as the the general POST workflow. And i will try and use a basic scenario to help you explain to me the basics..

Lets say a live concert was filmed using 2 cameras, and a different mult track audio was recorded as well as the on camera audio.
You get back and log and capture all footage, so now you sitting there with all your footage digitized and you have a rough take of audio (may need some editing, EQ etc... the basic audio work) Whats next... Do you cut a rough timeline using the camera audio while editing/ mixing the sepaerate audio. Then once ready add the audio file to the timeline or what. I use FCP/ E for my video and various DAWs for my audio work. For our audio rig we were planning to record 24 tracks but it might be anywhere from a stereo to 24.

Thanks
 
I usually leave the audio till I have the video locked.

One thing to watch out when you record audio separate from video is drift. Depending on the accuracy of the clock in your audio recorder (and the one in your video cameras), you can end up with the audio drifting slightly out of sync with the video, especially with very long recordings. You can deal with it in post by shortening the duration of the audio track in your DAW but it could have an effect on the audio quality.

With good gear, it won't a big problem. Alternatively you'll have to find a way to sync both audio and video to the same clock master/generator and that can be an expensive and complicated endeavor. Anyway, it's something you should test before you commit completely to the setup.

I mention this because I'm thinking of doing the same thing at a festival I'll be working on in the summer. I've recorded audio separate in the past but it's only been for short durations (under 15 minutes), but with the festival I'll be recording for 6+ hours. In the past I just recorded the audio to the cameras but I want to add ambience mics and record in 24-bit so I can get cleaner audio.
 
Hmm all good info, we were going to pick up a studio live 24.4.2 that can be clock to an external word clock, and i wonder if that same clock could generate master TC for the cameras as well...

Any way most A/V would be around 30-45 min long. But if i only get or use a few songs per "session" then sync should be fine... Hopefully?

So basically however my cutting preference, cut a timeline and get it tight as can be and then add in the final audio...
 
Video cameras need black burst/video sync which is not the same as wordclock. Timecode is just metadata, it's not a clock master. It's like a stamp at the beginning that tells you where to start counting, each of the device then uses it's own clock to do the actual counting (which as a result could still go out of sync).

I'm still doing research on the most affordable way to sync everything at a live event, but one way would be to have a device that can generate both wordclock and black burst, like a Rosendahl Nanosyncs HD. It's just an expensive route to go.

If it's short clips, it shouldn't be a problem.
 
hmm for 2k not bad honestly, some word clocks alone go for that so if it does both im game for 1!
 
bfsound said:
hmm for 2k not bad honestly, some word clocks alone go for that so if it does both im game for 1!
Click to expand...

Before you waste $2k...

Your camera must be able to sync to an external clock in order for this to work. Typically, you'll see a BNC connector labeled GEN LOCK. In other words, if you're using your DVX or a comparable camera, no master sync generator will help.
 
Thanks C2V i was thinking about that.... No BNC = no master clock :( So basically with the DVx i just hope for as little drift as possible...
 
bfsound said:
Thanks C2V i was thinking about that.... No BNC = no master clock :( So basically with the DVx i just hope for as little drift as possible...
Click to expand...

I did a 2-camera shoot with DVX100a cameras, and so there was no camera sync. however, we manually synchronized free-run TC as best as possible, then shot a slate with a clapper board. This was covering a conference with several speakers, so we had down time, tape changes, the whole bit. I noticed no drift. Once I'd aligned the slate between the two cameras in post, and calculated the real difference in TC between the two, everything else held steady.
 
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