GH3 Tascam DR-40 settings for GH3 sync in Premiere Pro CC?

Jaime Valles

Jaime Valles

Veteran
Hello, all.

I'm using my Tascam DR-40 to record external audio for some interviews I'm shooting with my GH3 cameras, but the audio keeps drifting out of sync between the two in Premiere Pro. If anyone knows what settings I should have on the Tascam or in Premiere to make sure it syncs with the AVCHD footage from the GH3 that would be very helpful. Right now, these are the recording settings I have:

Audio: Tascam DR-40, WAV file, 48000 Hz, 24 bit, stereo.
Video: GH3, AVCHD, 24p 1080p, Audio at 48000 Hz compressed, stereo.
Premiere Pro CC 7.2.1 (4) timeline: AVCHD 1080p square pixel, 23.976 fps, Audio sample rate at 48000 Hz

Is there anything I'm doing wrong? And if so, is there any way for me to correctly sync the audio I already recorded and keep it from drifting?

Thanks in advance!
 
Apparently, this is an issue with the Tascams.

This might be helpful:

A Note About Drift

When dealing with double-system sound and non-sync recorders, there is a chance that the sound will drift when put up against the video in post-production. Why? Well, it has to do with each device's internal clock.

Put two devices together that don't share a master clock (this is what "non-sync" means) and set them both to record at 48kHz. One might actually be recording at 47,998Hz (47.998kHz) and the other at 48,024Hz (48.024kHz). When these audio files are placed in the time line of an NLE or a DAW, where they play at an actual 48kHz, one will be playing slightly faster than the other. This can cause problems.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread...uld-I-get-quot

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread...25#post2437025
Click to expand...
 
Jaime Valles said:
Hello, all.

I'm using my Tascam DR-40 to record external audio for some interviews I'm shooting with my GH3 cameras, but the audio keeps drifting out of sync between the two in Premiere Pro. If anyone knows what settings I should have on the Tascam or in Premiere to make sure it syncs with the AVCHD footage from the GH3 that would be very helpful. Right now, these are the recording settings I have:

Audio: Tascam DR-40, WAV file, 48000 Hz, 24 bit, stereo.
Video: GH3, AVCHD, 24p 1080p, Audio at 48000 Hz compressed, stereo.
Premiere Pro CC 7.2.1 (4) timeline: AVCHD 1080p square pixel, 23.976 fps, Audio sample rate at 48000 Hz

Is there anything I'm doing wrong? And if so, is there any way for me to correctly sync the audio I already recorded and keep it from drifting?

Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...

i have had this exact problem. It was so bad that Pluralize couldn't fix it amd I gave up trying to sync with it.
 
GHKAM said:
Apparently, this is an issue with the Tascams.

This might be helpful:
Click to expand...
Damn. So you're saying it's not a settings issue, but a limitation of the technology?! The interview is only 46 minutes long... and the audio drifts significantly from the GH3 audio. What I don't get is that the two GH3 cameras appear in perfect sync with each other, but not the Tascam. Is there really nothing to be done?
 
Jaime Valles said:
Damn. So you're saying it's not a settings issue, but a limitation of the technology?! The interview is only 46 minutes long... and the audio drifts significantly from the GH3 audio. What I don't get is that the two GH3 cameras appear in perfect sync with each other, but not the Tascam. Is there really nothing to be done?
Click to expand...
Apparently the GH3's have the same internal clocks, but the Tascam runs different.

You may be able to adjust the clip speeds/length..in Vegas it's called stretch, in Premiere I think it's called 'rate stretch'.

I would look/ask on an Adobe forum to be sure.
 
You will see drift in most any non-sync situation. That's just the nature of the beast, and generally the drift will start to become apparent after about 10 minutes. How much drift really depends on the devices in question.

You can try to time-compress or stretch the video to match the end points of the audio, or you can stretch/compress the audio to match the video. Or, you can go through and cut a couple of frames out of the audio every so often (20 second intervals, or several minutes, depending on how bad the drift is). The latter is tedious, but the best way to maintain sync without artifacts of time compression/expansion.
 
GHKAM said:
Apparently, this is an issue with the Tascams.
Click to expand...
Just for the sake of absolute clarity, there is no problem with your Tascam. Indeed, the drift might be because its clock is more accurate than your GH3s, not less. As Alex says, it's simply that they are not sync-ed together.
 
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I use the DR-40 to capture audio using my AF100 when I can't run to the camera, like on the stabilizer or some jib stuff but the takes were short enough that I never noticed. I'm sorry to hear about your trouble but I certainly appreciate the heads up.

The infrastructure for jamming sync is still pretty expensive. I wonder why some of the higher end recorders like the Tascam DR-60 don't implement that circuitry?
 
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hscully said:
The infrastructure for jamming sync is still pretty expensive. I wonder why some of the higher end recorders like the Tascam DR-60 don't implement that circuitry?
Click to expand...

Because the DR-60D isn't higher-end. It's still a budget recorder. Moving up to the TASCAM HD-P2 adds the ability to sync to an external master clock. But then, in the DSLR world that adds only so much since the camera cannot sync to a master clock.
 
Wow. Thanks so much for all the info and insight, everyone.

Alex H. said:
Because the DR-60D isn't higher-end. It's still a budget recorder. Moving up to the TASCAM HD-P2 adds the ability to sync to an external master clock. But then, in the DSLR world that adds only so much since the camera cannot sync to a master clock.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I was wondering about that. It doesn't matter that I get a super high end audio recorder if the GH3 can't sync with it via an external master clock...

So, the only way to get good lav mic audio in perfect sync with a GH3 is by using a Beachtek or other XLR adapter to bring in the good audio directly into a GH3 while the interview is recorded, right?
 
Jaime Valles said:
So, the only way to get good lav mic audio in perfect sync with a GH3 is by using a Beachtek or other XLR adapter to bring in the good audio directly into a GH3 while the interview is recorded, right?
Click to expand...

I think you're over-thinking it.

No DSLR is going to offer the same quality of recorded audio as a dedicated audio recorder. Second-system is the way to go, and non-sync is the only option. Drift is going to happen over 45 minutes, but you aren't using that uncut, in its entirety, are you? Once you get the interview logged, you can nudge the clips you want back in sync.

If the drift bothers you that much, cut the interview into 10-minute (or shorter) chunks and nudge sync for each. Once you take :15 out and drop it in your master sequence, it won't drift.

By the way, which way does it drift? Does the DR-40 audio get ahead of, or behind, the video? And at 10 minutes, how far off is it?

For what it's worth, my DSLR audio kit consists of a MixPre-D and an FR2-LE. I never have drift issues over the length of an interview. In fact, I ran the recorder at a live event, recording a feed from the house mixer, along three video cameras. Nothing was sync'd. Over 90 continuous minutes, there was no discernible drift from the recorder. My DR-40, however, drifted quite a bit (it was in the back of the venue catching the room).
 
Alex H. said:
Because the DR-60D isn't higher-end. It's still a budget recorder. Moving up to the TASCAM HD-P2 adds the ability to sync to an external master clock. But then, in the DSLR world that adds only so much since the camera cannot sync to a master clock.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I got that you can't sync a DSLR anyway, I was thinking of the AF100 which is off topic I reckon.
 
With the new Pluraleyes 3.5 now has drift correction built in and full AVCHD support so that should help GH2/GH3/GH4 users.
 
So far, everything Plural Eyes has advertised has worked pretty well. This probably will too.

I agree that nudging is often the simplest and fastest fix. Unless your sync has drifted off in less than 3 minutes.
On a 30-minute continuous take I might have to make a maximum of 4 or 5 cuts and nudges - total time spent doing this: about 3 or 4 minutes.
 
I have tried the new version and it seems to work very well. I synced a GH2, GH4, and Tascam DR-40. GH2 & GH4 were AVCHD files as it was only a live play, not a lot of movement, so I went low bit rate. I just loaded the AVCHD files and the Tascam WAV file into pluraleyes 3.5 and it synched it perfectly. I've always had a problem with AVCHD in earlier plural eyes edition as it would never work right, but I think Red Giant finally got it right with 3.5.
 
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