Train wreck video shoot need advice!

[nateo200]

Alright so I was thrown ass backwards into shooting a board meeting for the place I work at with a Panny AVCHD camera with the left channel hooked to an XLR lavaliere mic hooked to the main guy...The Panny would NOT allow me to use the other empty channel to capture sound from a shotgun mic or even just the built in mic...incredibly frustrating because the lav mic went in and out...luckily I recorded the entire thing on my Zoom H1 handy recorder for insurance in case it screwed up...however syncing this audio is a NIGHTMARE....I shot 1920x1080p 29.97fps....for whatever reason I always have issues with sync when I am NOT at 24/23.976fps....I have no idea why but in 24p projects FCP X syncs everything up magically and I don't have to freak out at all...but in 29.97fps projects the audio will NEVER sync together...so I manually match the wave forms...its not that hard just time consuming...anyways I match it PERFECTLY at the beginning but it just falls out of sync down the timeline tell it has a massive echo to it.......happens EVERYTIME and I honestly am just going to do everything myself next time BUT for now I need to edit this nightmare...The project is an hour and 41minutes long first 40 minutes~ sound fine but when I go down the time line to like an hour and 10 it sounds horrendously out of sync...last I checked audio didn't have a frame rate....cant use timecode because its all fudged up. What do I do?

I'm supposed to hand this video out to board members who missed the meeting via DVD.

 

[arjen92]

I'm not a professional, so these are just some amateurish solutions.

I guess it has to do with the fact that the frame rate is not exactly correct. Perhaps it's off a mini second each 24 frames. Perhaps FCPX interpretets the footage as 30 fps. So you could try whether that's off.

You could just cut every 5 minutes when nobody's talking and sync the sound again. You only need to do that 20 times. Might take you an hour or two.

 

[monokakata]

Couldn't you return to your source clips and then use Handbrake (or maybe Compressor) to retime them to 24, before you import them into FCP X?

Maybe I'm missing something, but that seems like a fairly simple solution to me, because if (as you say) everything works properly at 24, then if you can figure out an external way to give FCP X the clip at 24, you'd be good.

It doesn't explain why you're having this problem, but your goal is to get the job done one way or another. Could work.

 

[boch82]

Quick Solution:

Download the app Plural Eyes....

It will automatically sync audio and video as long as its the same on both tracks and spit a file back to FCP

 

[Artful Dodger]

I read something like this about a month ago concerning the audio bit rate being a touch off or different and things went crazy yet FCP X didn't look like there was a problem until 30-40 minutes through the video. Not even sure if this is the same thing, just a thought

 

[nateo200]

Couldn't you return to your source clips and then use Handbrake (or maybe Compressor) to retime them to 24, before you import them into FCP X?

Maybe I'm missing something, but that seems like a fairly simple solution to me, because if (as you say) everything works properly at 24, then if you can figure out an external way to give FCP X the clip at 24, you'd be good.

It doesn't explain why you're having this problem, but your goal is to get the job done one way or another. Could work.

That would take about 12 hours on my computer....I don't have the luxury of having an 8 core Mac Pro that eats H.264 for breakfast, lunch and dinner....

Quick Solution:

Download the app Plural Eyes....

It will automatically sync audio and video as long as its the same on both tracks and spit a file back to FCP

I've actually tried that with about the same results as FCP X....

I read something like this about a month ago concerning the audio bit rate being a touch off or different and things went crazy yet FCP X didn't look like there was a problem until 30-40 minutes through the video. Not even sure if this is the same thing, just a thought

I think your thinking of the Original Canon 5D MkII shooting at true 30p and not 29.97 and audio not syncing very nicely unless you conformed it. What your talking about rings a bell I just don't know the specifics...


I ended up just syncing as best as I could....next time I'm just going to shoot at 24p with the audio set up of my comfort/choice....most of the stuff is completely stationary in motion so I don't see why my boss used the camera at 60i and 30p when you can actually save some space using 24p (and believe me this camera runs and runs....). Just upset I couldn't make it work perfect.

 

[Artful Dodger]

At least there is a way even if it's a bit much for you. I had one person think they were helping me and shut off my camera for a 35 minute session thinking the lights meant the opposite while I was running new cable for a second box feed. I came back and my skull split that morning.

 

[matteusclement]

can you put the audio file into fcpx and then export the "video" file with 24p output? the audio file would then be in the right rate (or export at 30p if that's what you need. you follow?

 

[apple fish]

last I checked audio didn't have a frame rate....cant use timecode because its all fudged up. What do I do?

This drift may be happening becuase your source footage is different from your project settings. fcpx imports audio using the project settings, not the video source settings, and it's annoying. youtube video, and then check out wave agent. it's a free download which allows you to properly conform your audio to the appropriate frame rate. the youtube explains how. hth