Syncing after the edit

[JoeC]

I shot a film on the 7D and have put off syncing the production audio until the edit is done.

I'm wondering if this is possible, if so - how to do it:
I would like to sync up each of the master clips and have all the edits taken from those clips have the new audio tracks. Currently, I have to sync each edit individually.


Ideally, I would have the camera audio and production audio (6 tracks total) simply be added to the edit.

I'm guessing I have to sync the master clip and export it- then replace the original file with the newly created one. When I tried that, I couldn't figure out how to get the audio tracks to carry over - it combined them to stereo. I found some preferences to allow for multiple audio tracks, but a message said my computer couldn't handle that many audio tracks.

Thanks
Joe

 

[arniepix]

Sorry to be the one to tell you this, but you're hosed.

The fastest, simplest way to do this is to sync all of your sound & manually recreate your edit.

The bright side is you've learned a very important lesson about media and workflow management. Specifically, cutting corners often costs more and often requires more work. The reason we usually sync up audio first is because it's really so much harder to do after the fact.

Also, if you're not cutting with your final audio, how do you know if you have usable audio for all of the takes you're using? I often reject shots because of this, or I work very hard to make audio from another shot work.

 

[Epeck]

There is a program that is called pluraleyes. that might help.

 

[Imaginate]

Here is what I did.

I created a second project and copied my sequence into that project, then copied all those clips into a folder and remove all the in and out points.

I then copied those full length clips onto a timeline and sync to my production audio using pluraleyes software. www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

I then erase the original camera audio from that timeline leaving only the new synced audio...

now go to each clip on the timeline set in and outpoint at beginning and end end of each clip and export a new set of master files making sure to call it the exact same name as the original.

------

Go back to your original project make a copy of your timeline and take your original footage offline then you the reconnect footage command and point it to your the folder with your new master files.



get a list of all the clips that were used in the timeline and to sync those ( the full length clip ) with pluraleyes then copy all those files into a separate bin and batch export them as a new source files.

Then do a reconnect footage command with the new synced footage.

you can give that a shot

 

[NoahK]

And yeah next time- sync clips before cutting. Otherwise you are making triple work for yourself.

-Noah

 

[JoeC]

In case anyone else needs help with this in the future - here's the solution I found -

Edited the entire movie with the camera audio -
went through all the sequences and clicked "reveal in finder" for each clip in each sequence - I then put a color label on that clip to denote it as one used in the movie and separated them into their own folders,
I also renamed all of these clips by simply adding a "2" to the back of their names
I started a fresh FCP project for syncing - I set the sequence setting for 6 audio outputs and on the front of the sequence settings window I chose "channel grouped"
I loaded the folders with the clips in them and the production audio and proceeded to spend a week syncing each clip - keeping the camera audio on 2 tracks and adding the 4 tracks of production audio to each clip.

after each clip was in sync, it was exported as "quicktime movie" and I unchecked "make movie self-contained" - this created a fairly small reference file which was in sync. I named these the same as the original, but erased the "2" I had added to the end of the name. The goal was to fool Final cut into thinking these were the files that I had edited with in the first place. I was careful to not trim the video clip at all in the syncing process, sometimes the audio would be longer than the video, so I would trim that, but I didn't change the length of the original video clips.

I then put these smaller reference files back to where the original files were.
When I opened up the FCP project for my movie, I did get a message saying that the clips were different, something to the effect that tracks had been added or time changes - I chose to import as independent clips anyway -

The final step is to then go through and click on each clip in the movie and when that clip is in the canvas - select "match frame" and the new reference clip will appear in the viewer - with the in and out points already set where they should be - then all you gotta do is drop that clip over the old one and it will have its new audio attached to it....

There may be a more elegant solution, but in the end, this was certainly a quicker method for my particular situation - I probably only used a third of the clips that were shot for the film- so I didn't see a need in syncing up everything.