Merge audio and Video

Hello,

We are shooting DVCpro HD for Video And Sounddevices 744 fot audio.

We are shooting lot's of conferencing stuff. The idea is to let the sound roll and just start the camera when it's getting intresting.

So during one long audio track there are a lot of video clip's to be synced.

When I now use "merge clip" I get the whole audio file merged with one of the video files. So everytime i'm syncing a video clip of 1 minute I get the whole audio file of an hour.

What I would like is just all the video clip's to line up with one audio file. So I have my one hour audio file, and when there is video there is video.

Is there a way to do this?



thanks,


Chris Everts

>So during one long audio track there are a lot of video clip's to be synced.

I'm thinking subclips.



www.strypesinpost.com

How so in sub clip's?
I have to create all the clips myself? There is not an "autosync" feature?
we are now shooting tape 35... I would really prefer if audio and video could line up by itself based on timecode...

chris,

sounds like you're syncing up all your video clips against the audio in a timeline.

one way to go from there would be to export your timeline as a self contianed quicktime move,
bring that back into FCP, and edit away.

this will work if you are editing at your native resolution, and not some low-res version.

the problem is you are editing a clip that has no reference back to your master media.
so make sure you keep your syncing timeline as a way to go backwards if you should ever need to.


but now im going to change tack, and ask why you want ALL clips to be merged into one mega-clip.
wouldn't this be easier to edit if you had separate clips merged with the audio?

to that end, go thru the timeline and edit out the in-between audio, or blade it around the video clips.
link each vieo/audio pair, open in the viewer, and SUBCLIP.
this will subclip the audio, trimming the heads and tails to match the video duration.
(this is what Gerard was talking about)


cheers,
nick

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the time you've spend on my question.
I would indeed like to sync my video against the audio. So the audio is sort of "master".

Now when I have an audio track of 10 minutes, I want that to be my clip length and sync all the video clips that are there in that 10 minutes. Maybe in that audio track of 10 minutes there will be 3 video clips of 2 minutes, and therefor in the 10 minutes of my audioclip there will be 6 minutes with picture and 4 minutes without.

If I use the merge clip command, it takes just 1 video clip with my audio clip. So to have all the video clips in the timeline I have to make 6 clips with every time the full length audio clip of 10 minutes.

I have to make DVD's from our footage for the director. So this 10 minutes wil result in 3 times the audio of 10 minutes. I then can Blade around and make it into one clip of 10 minutes with the shots lined up and then subclip.

To do this, is going to take me a lot of time, I hoped there was a way to let FCP do this automaticly. I think I have seen the other way around works, syncing more then one audio clip with just one video clip....

You could maybe use the make multiclip sequnece function to speed up the process if you have the right timecode. Is your camera's timecode recording in free run or regen?

oh, yes, you can sync multiple audio with one video,
but not the other way around UNLESS...


you create a Multiclip,
where you can have all your separate video clips as separate "Angles" in the multiclip.

i haven't made a multiclip like what you'd want,
but it'd be a bit like a multiclip for a music video.

you wouldnt merge the audio, i think,
but rather include the audio track as another angle???

unless the clips have time of day TC,
you'd have to go thru the timeline and give each clip some AUX TC.

basically go to each clip,
copy the SEQCEUN TC at that point,
open hte clip into hte viewer, modify > Timecode ((map it to a keyboard command)
and paste the seq TC into the AUX tc,

then you can select all clips in the Browser, right click and "create mutliclip" based on AUX TC.

but as i said, each clip is a separate angle. to me it seems too complicated.

i would just merge each clip and subclip, trimming it down.
then if you need to see how it sits in relation to the overall flow,
place those clips back in a copy of syncing timeline.

or export your syncing timeline, like i suggested.


"I have to make DVD's from our footage for the director. So this 10 minutes wil result in 3 times the audio of 10 minutes. I then can Blade around and make it into one clip of 10 minutes with the shots lined up and then subclip. "

well you'd just mark in & outs around the picture potion, and edit into a timeline.
export & make DVD of that.
no sub-clipping involved.


nick

well there you go, Andy beat me to it.


nm

Hey Andy and Nick,


That sounds worth trying!!! I'll set it up soon. I think maybe the multi clip set up might work.
With the multi clip set up I can Also easily impose timecode in the footage.

We are running identical free run timecode on both machines. So syncing should not be a problem.

I think I might get higher speeds with switching the multi clip. Trimming all the subclips seems more work to me.

I don't have to merge the audio. I just have to sync the audio.

Well for the dvd part, the director wants to hear all that is recorded and see the picture when it is there. TC imposed.


Today we will end this part of our shoot in The Gambia in Africa and fly home.


I couldn't wait and just tried some a on my laptop. I think the multiclip is going to work. I can quickly scroll thru the clip and razor and switch when there is video.
I'll work it out when I get home.

Thanks so far!!