synching audio with dslr

L

laniwolf

Member
Okay Im familiar with using clapboards, and PluralEyes, But is there other ways to synch audio? Any tips or comments will be appreciates.
 
Well, if you are asking about ways to do it automatically, Plural Eyes is really it as far as I know.
But long before there was plural eyes, most folks had to spend the time matching up audio with video manually. In my timeline, it helps to look at the sound peaks visually, and try match up the waves, peaks, and valleys. Usually helps if there is a loud noise or something at the beginning or end to find and use as a reference point.

Otherwise, audio syncing is a real pain.
 
Thanks Gilden, I was wondering if maybe people were using the Date Created that appears in the property of the file, because it has the Day and Time the clip was created to aide in the synching process.
 
I load everything in my timeline, make sure I can see the waveforms of the audio file and the audio from the camera files too, then zoom in a bit and start matching up footage based on the waveforms - super easy. It's VERY tedious at times but works great once you get rolling with it.

Best,
Adam
 
laniwolf said:
Thanks Gilden, I was wondering if maybe people were using the Date Created that appears in the property of the file, because it has the Day and Time the clip was created to aide in the synching process.
Click to expand...

yes ... i do this
I wrote an article about taking advantage and making use of it LINK

also I'm sorry I have to disagree with M Gilden. Manual audio syncing is not really such a pain!
I've done it many many times and you get really fast at it. However he is right about doing it visually
by looking at the pattern of peaks. Thats the way to go.
 
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J Davis said:
yes ... i do this
I wrote an article about taking advantage and making use of it LINK

also I'm sorry I have to disagree with M Gilden. Manual audio syncing is not really such a pain!
I've done it many many times and you get really fast at it. However he is right about doing it visually
by looking at the pattern of peaks. Thats the way to go.
Click to expand...

Nice description of your workflow, J Davis. Yes, this is how it would be done, and how it was done long before DSLRs made dual-system audio more common (music videos, multi cam / multi mic setup, etc).

As to why I consider it a pain- personally, I archive a lot of my footage and recycle it in other projects. I'm not always using the same NLE in each situation, and I'm often collaborating clips with other people who have their own choices of platform and NLE. Keeping video and audio tracks archived together can be very frustrating across platforms and storage mediums. When speed and efficiency are important, its just another thing to worry about. Although perhaps I was making it sound worse than it really is. I find it a handicap in my workflow, and an unnecessary one for most of my projects.
 
What can be a bit confusing with just looking at waveforms on a timeline is when you have several takes of the same dialogue -- a character saying the same things several times -- which sound take goes with which video clip? One thing I do is when camera and sound is running, if I don't have time to get in a visual clapper board, I just clap my hands loudly and then say something unique before the take starts (could be anything "pineapple"..."floorboards"..."green"..."woolly fox"...anything). Then when I work with those takes with similar dialogue/waveforms, I just listen to the unique word or phrase on the video clip after the clap, then listen to the sound tracks and find the matching take with the unique word. The clap at the beginning helps with synching as others have said. I've been editing for many years so it's very simple for me but might sound over complicated...I just put it out there.
 
Yes, sometimes with run and gun stuff there is no Scene 4 and there is no Take 27...there is only "pineapple"...
 
yep I just say a number

now if we were working to a storyboard we might add to that number

eg

27, scene 1, take 4

im not across the proper lingo for slating - eg the correct linguistics for a reverse of the same thing or whatever

I prefer a generated number to saying 'pineapple' because I tend to run out of ideas and one can end up with two "guava" takes :)

S
 
I just finished my first music video. I made all the possible production mistake and especially related to audio. I have a external master audio, and singer needed the song to be played in a cd player so he can sync up well. And he is already out of sync with the audio i played on location. So i had to deal with 3 different audios. His voice, on location cd player sound, and the master track.

I did sync them up manually. It took a while, but i got it done, and infact very well.

My workflow was:
-Master track in the timeline
-Selected the best clips including the audio and put it in the v1 and audio track 2.
-Let's say i have a shot of 5 seconds which i want to use, i found the very strong vowels like Baby, Time, etc which does not have a peek(unfortunately) in the waveforms, but i was able to exactly nail the actor lip plus b n the audio. I set the marker for this B in the master track and the audio from the original shot. I play it back and forth by muting one or another in the timeline
-Now just set the marker in the video track, and brought it to match with my master track marker. Snap in must be turned on.
-You need to see the result yourself. It's 4.40 min video, shot hand held only with 5D mark ii and it's going to be premiered in aug 27th. Will post the link here then.

I have tried plural eyes trial, honestly, i don't have a good opinion on them. there will be very less control on what you want to do right away unless you spend lots of time learning plural eyes and make it effective. I didn't have time for that.

Goodluck!
 
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