Audio WAY out of Sync when moving from FCP5 to FCP6

If anyone can help with this, I'll be your best friend.

I've been working with some projects where the assembly edit is done in FCP5 and then sent to me (I copy all media & project files to my own hard drive) for me to finish in FCP6. Usually it works fine, but twice now the audio on certain clips has been waaaay out of sync in FCP6 -- when they were perfect in FCP5. I've tried deleting and re-capturing the problem clips in FCP6, but it doesn't fix the issue, so I've had to reset similar in & out points for that clip in log & capture, then capture again (a 'new' clip) and replace each and every cut in the timeline for that problem clip.

I'm working with SD DV, batch captured from tapes in 20-minute clips. In each case so far, I've had four 20-minute clips, and just one of the four went out of sync.

Anyone else had this issue? Is it too much to hope for that FCP5 -> FCP6 will translate correctly?

Assemblies are done with this system on a G5:
FCP 5.1.2
QT 7.1.3
OS X 10.4.8

Finishing is done with this system on a new MacPro:
FCP 6.0.3
QT 7.4.5
OS X 10.5.2

Thanks for your help,
Greg

MediocreFilms.com
(They're better than they sound.)

Sounds to me like you have a more serious version of a problem that has been present since the FCP4.5-FCP5 upgrade. Audio would sometimes just move on its own, waveforms would cease to accurately represent where your playhead's at (eg. a sound spike would appear early in the waveform, compared with what you hear when scrubbing audio). My usual fix is to use Clip Enable/Disable to turn off all audio at the problem spot, or to disconnect media and reconnect, but since you already did a recapture, you've already gone a step further and the above workarounds wouldn't cut it.

One thing I've also noticed is that it could be related to audio render files. And also, Clip A at Point X in the timeline can be affected by a clip that's entirely separate but at the same point. Disconnecting/disabling the other clip(s) can help.

What happens when you Match Frame the clip? Does it retrieve the right section from the master clip or not? Or are you getting this audio problem in the Viewer as well? What happens if you play those clips in QuickTime Player?

Since only one of your four clips went out of sync, it's possible that there's something wrong with the audio at that part of the tape, or just one clip went corrupt.


www.derekmok.com

Hmmmm... thanks for the info. Yes, I am getting the problem in the viewer as well as the canvas/timeline. But when I reveal the problem clip in the finder I can open and play it in the Quicktime Player perfectly.

I just tried everything you suggested, Disconnecting/disabling the other clips and using all 3 options of match frame (which I've never used before -- I don't know what it is!) did nothing to help the problem.

And I know the audio on that part of the tape (actually 2 tapes -- it's happened twice now) is just fine, because I've created a bran new clip with slightly different in & out points and captured anew just fine. The bummer about that is I have to replaced every edit from the 'bad' clip one by one. (In this case, about 20 cuts.)

So has anyone else had this issue or been able to fix it? Any other ideas here?

Thanks,
Greg

MediocreFilms.com
(They're better than they sound.)

Hmm... the source footage is a single stream (video and audio embedded in a qt file). Are they in sync there? If they aren't in sync, is there any timecode discrepancies on the tape? Any dropped/long frames? Audio Sample rates?

Are they set to Dropframe? Also, between FCS2 and FCS1, any speed changes can cause stuff to go out of sync.

Uh oh, Im all of a sudden getting it here too. I think this has to do with recent updates. Im making a new posting at the top to sound the alarm.

-Christopher S. Johnson

Hey strypes - Yes, source footage is in sync, no timecode issues or breaks. This is 23.98 advance pulldown footage. No speed changes applied.

Christopher SJ - sorry to hear you're having the issue too, hopefully we'll find the solution soon!!

MediocreFilms.com
(They're better than they sound.)

Hey there,

I'm going to offer a simpler theory... (which comes with a short story to help it make sense just in case)...

Guy goes out to shoot event...
he shoots an interview using onboard mic... 2 channels... 48khz...
then he shoots a stage scene in the middle of the tape, with 4 mics, 4 channels, 32khz...
then goes back to 2 ch, 48k.
He knows this... so on his machine... its fine...
gives it to me...
I lay them on a FCP 6.0 48k sequence... all things go wonky.
I have to identify, which sections are at the lower audio sample rate and separate place them in order to sort it out.

Good luck.

-Synthian