Syncing audio clips to video with time-code?

Any one know how to sync audio clips that were recorded to a different device than picture? We will have Time-code on picture that matches time-code on the audio.

Doe it matter wav or aiff?
Will I have to do this one clip at a time or is there an automated way of handling this?

Thanks, Mark

AIFF 48/16 is the best fcp audio format for your TL.

i am not sure if you do have TC for the audio that will match the picture if the audio was recorded on a separate device. I would guess that they both have TC but not matching.

however if they were recorded at the same time you can do this.

place the video on the TL in order that it was recorded. Then place the audio on the TL so that it looks like it is in sync. Move both back away from the beginning of the TL about 2secs.

hit play to see if it is in sync. This will let you know if the TC matches. If it doesn't then that 2sec offset will help you move the audio/video around till it does.

Make sure that the audio is a stereo pair. Try not to use the drag technique when moving the tracks around to sync. Instead choose the clip (audio or video) and with your number pad type say -10 to move the track back 10 frames or type +10 to move it forward.

If there are a lot of start/stops you may have to use the apple-B or Blade tool to make some cuts in the audio/video to sync those separately.

BTW if you do have to make cuts take an advil before you start, cause it will be a headache of tedious work. I have had to do this many a times and i have a large bottle of advil half full.:-)

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Hi,

I'm not really with J.Corbett when it comes to the format.

WAV is definitively the better solution as it allows more metadata which are read and which are also kept in the FCP project.This can make work much easier at a later state of the project.

If the audio was recorded on an external device it's pretty likely that it is WAV already and does have a "timecode".
BUT this "timecode" is not a SMPTE timecode or QT timecode track, it's a timestamp - means it will give you "samples after midnight" for the audio file start. This will be used by QT and/or FCP to calculate a timecode with SMPTE style.

When using those audio files you have to setup FCP carefully with one of yourown or the build in setups which do match the audio recording setup when importing those files. Otherwise you may notice some out of sync with longer recordings and/or some "timecode" mismatch. The out of sync of sound will/may happen with any format - FCP and other NLEs finally don't like NTSC when it comes to audio.

If you got BWAV (broadcast WAV) with timestamps and the sound recordist did a good setup you can easily line up the files to sync using timecode. But you should do that in the timeline as described above and then use the blade tool to make the clips "clean" before you link them. This means no overlapping of audio or video.

Regards
Andreas

Thanks for the info!

We will have matching time-code on Video and Audio, but is there any benefit to this?

I am wondering if there is a way to have FCP look at the time-code of a clip and line it up with the corresponding 6 track audio file (wav). The audio will of course be longer as it rolls first on the set.
I do not how just laying then in the timeline will let me sync them? This is syncing by hand and I know how to do this.

Thanks Mark

> We will have matching time-code on Video and Audio, but is there any benefit to this?

Oh yeah. And you're not even reaping the highest benefit of that. If you were syncing dailies for a feature (which I just did last month), you'd be worshipping at the altar of the Slaved Timecode Gods. In my case I didn't even have matching timecode, just a visual slate for the audio timecode, so it was still manual labour.

> I am wondering if there is a way to have FCP look at the time-code of a clip and line it up with
> the corresponding 6 track audio file (wav).

I'm not aware of such a way, but you could input the In points in the Browser. Since audio will roll first, you could enter the In point of the corresponding video in the Browser. I don't think it'll be any faster than doing it in a timeline, though. And whenever I need to sync things in Final Cut, I always retain the sync timelines with all clip sync relationships intact. Comes in real handy if you ever lose sync on something, and syncing is not a job you wanna do more than once!


www.derekmok.com

Quote
Andea
If you got BWAV (broadcast WAV) with timestamps and the sound recordist did a good setup you can easily line up the files to sync using timecode.

so fcp can handle wav like aiff, with smooth barely render audio. I always have thought that any other format in the TL other than aiff would click and pop or require render.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Quote
J.Corbett
so fcp can handle wav like aiff, with smooth barely render audio. I always have thought that any other format in the TL other than aiff would click and pop or require render.

It will handle WAV even better as it knows about some of the metadata which can't be included in AIFF files, both AIFF and WAVE are uncompressed. Apple AIF might cause problems with external apps as it is not standard AIFF regarding the header.

Regards
Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]

Be aware that BWAV is not the same as WAV. A BWAV contains more information than a normal windows .wav.

Can i convert mp3 to bwav?

Can i get bwav from compressor?

O, how much larger is the bwav?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

There's not really a need to convert .mp3 to bwav. bwav (.bwf) has information to do with the shoot embedded in it, like timestamps.

So there is really not much benefit to having synced timecode, I will still need to find each clips corasponding sound and line them up!

The sound guy is telling me how easy it is to do this, he says you just drop it in fcp and it all lines up!
I will be doing this on set and time is criticle so
I am asking for sound to be sent directly to the camera for this reason.

Thanks for the info.

Mark

There is a download-able app that will help you do this. If you have timecode on your separate video and audio clips (like if the production sound guy was generating timecode and jam-syncing the video camera with it, usually TOD (time of day) timecode, then you can export an XML of your audio and video clips. Open them in SequenceLiner and it will lay them out in a sequence for you in TOD order. You can then lasso each group of synced tracks (one of the clips on the timeline) and drag that group of tracks into a bin to create a new clip from the synced audio and video. I like to do this to keep things clean for the edit process.

Give credit and love to the creator of SequenceLiner, Andreas Kiel

kiel@spherico.com

Find his instructions and download link here:

[www.spherico.de]

Cheers, and thanks Andreas!

Second system with matching timecode to picture, is the way to go for FCP if you want to finish sound professionally. Doing it that way lets you either run sound to camera or sync in post. Working with a pro sound house you then turn over all audio, either your sound dailies or your picture sound stripped from your quicktimes, and an EDL. YOu give them an OMF for reference, maybe to steal some stuff.

But any Pro audio guy worth his salt is going to want to have something that can be conformed in pro tools, using cady or something like that.