Audio Boost

Hello,

I am currently in the hell that is syncing a feature film shot on a Canon 5D MIII with its audio. I started using Pluraleyes, to very bad results. It wouldn't sync the majority of the clips, out of 100, I'd say it would get 30. I think the main reason for this is that the camera audio on the 5D was really low during the shoot, and perhaps if I could boost the camera audio of the pro res clips, I might get better results. I know you can boost audio in soundtrack pro, but seeing how there are over 1500 clips, I'd rather not have to run each one seperately. Since the camera audio can sound like crap, and it doesnt matter, I really just want to boost every single clip in one fell swoop, if possible. Does anyone know a good workflow for this? I am using FCP 7 Studio. Or, am I way off base here? Missing something with Pluraleyes?

Thanks,

Mike

> I think the main reason for this is that the camera audio on the 5D was really low during the shoot, and perhaps if I could boost the camera audio of the pro res clips,
> I might get better results.

You're basically looking for a software that can batch-process clips with boosted audio. MPEG Streamclip can do this, but I've never trusted it for any purpose other than final delivery of compressed clips -- I am not happy with MPEG Streamclip for anything to do with timecode, frame rates, or motion.

You can try running it on, say, 20 clips first and see if you're happy with the results. Also make sure that PluralEyes does work better after running the process. If not, then it's a non-issue and not the solution to your problem.


www.derekmok.com

you can lift the audio of the clips in FCP, and batch export them.

best method, IMO would be to put all the clips on a timeline,and lift the levels there, and if that is still not loud enough, apply the gain filter.
then copy/paste those lifted clips into a new bin and batch export.

Pluraleyes has a setting where it analyses the audio more closely, but it does take longer.
never used it myself.

you could also try the new WooWave, or WooSync.
they say they do a better job than Pluraleyse.


nick

> you can lift the audio of the clips in FCP, and batch export them.

I've had a strange occurrence where audio-level adjustments to clips in the timeline were eliminated when the clips are put back into a bin for batch export. Clips reverted back to 0dB boost. It's not happening now, though (just tested), so it's probably not set behaviour.

Given that you have 1500 clips, you should try to avoid having to re-convert them. You'll be double your storage-space needs for no reason.


www.derekmok.com

Could be you dragged the clips to the bin, Derek?
that can sometimes give your the "Creating New Master Clips" thing, and the new clips will all be set to defaults.

definitely do a small test on a few clips. check your panning afar the export, too.

1500 clips.
hmm, well you *Could* do reference files, but you'd be courting possible disaster.
maybe reference files for the pluraleyes process, then reconnect to the originals.

test a couple of scenes and see if it works before you do all of them!

in my small amount of time spent with pluraleyes, i've gotten lots of missed slates, too.
it might have been simpler to just sync manually in my case.


nick

> Could be you dragged the clips to the bin, Derek?

I did...but when I tested it earlier tonight, that retained the levels. The earlier issue may have been due to the fact that I was still using FCP5 at that time, on a PowerPC. Perhaps they fixed it.

In my experience, PluralEyes really isn't faster than a quick, experienced assistant editor. It's just less hassle.


www.derekmok.com

"I did...but when I tested it earlier tonight, that retained the levels."

i haven't figured out why it sometimes feels a need top "Create Master Clips" and sometime not... just another weird FCP inconsistency!
Creating Maste Clips can take a really long time, and i don't know how to stop it other than a force quit, which is really not what i'd want to do after doing a bunch of work in the timeline.
so i generally copy paste as a matter of course.


re speed:
i agree. of course having slates in frame, and clearly clapped helps immeasurably.

& if you are lucky enough to have matching TC, then "Sync & Link" (XML tool) is simply brilliant


nm

You should test the boosting theory, because PE doesn't really listen to sound it looks at the picture of the sound. So boosting the level might still bury your sound in noise.

PE definitely functions better when you organize the footage.

Ethan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You should test the boosting theory, because PE
> doesn't really listen to sound it looks at the
> picture of the sound. So boosting the level might
> still bury your sound in noise.
>
> PE definitely functions better when you organize
> the footage.

Thanks guys, this has all been very helpful. When you say organize the footage, Ethan, what exactly do you mean? Put all the audio clips directly under their corresponding pro res file in the timeline before you run plural eyes? Is this what they mean when they say "clips are in chronological order" in the Plural Eyes options?

I did the add gain option to no avail. Maybe I am putting too may clips for plural eyes to handle. But, if it can't capture a ton of stuff at once...I am not sure how much time it's actually going to save me...like Derek said.

Yes I mean the chronological order matches, but there reaches a point where brute force ie doing it by hand would be faster then re-batching everything. If you had started at the first fail you'd be done by now.

Smaller batches helps as well. You might find, certain days go better then others. For me I never do more then a day of dailies at a time, for myriad reasons. I'll let PE do its thing, then I'll go through the synched timeline, and delete what synched. Do a quick check to make sure everything is Kosher. Re-name the Timeline, and send it to PE Again.

Hopefully after that there is maybe 3-4 left unsynched, I'll mark the slates and let PE make the clips. (use marks option) One of the things I like best about PE is that it will REPLACE the camera audio. Which means, I'm not continually unpatching those tracks, or deleting them or muting. I use to think I wanted them for sync reference, but D5 audio is generally 1-2 frames out anyway.