Premiere and sync sound -- Replace timecode audio in the timeline?

[aemilia scott]

This is not r3d related, but there are so many titans on this forum, I thought I'd throw it out there.

I edited my film in Premiere 5.5 using timecode audio that my location guy jammed into my video files. I also have separate audio files as WAV files.

I edited using the reference audio, and now have a final cut in the timeline. This was how I did it, on the advice of someone who was not a sound mixer. It seems I should've synced pre edit, however I've already crossed that bridge.

My new, excellent mixer has asked me if I can replace the reference audio with the 6-channel wav audio so she can take that into Pro Tools. I saw the method for using Merge Clips, but that generates a merged clip in the Bin. Not the timeline.

So I'm looking for any workflow that gets my WAV audio in the timeline, synced up via timecode with my video clips.

Thank you, Titans.

Aemilia

[Christopher Barrett]

Hmm... this may do the trick, Mills... not sure how it will affect clips already in the timeline, tho

Merge clips in the Project panel

To merge clips in the Project panel, do the following:

1. Select the video clip you wish to merge audio clips to. Note that you can only have one video clip in any merged clip.
   
2. Shift or Control-click (Command-click for Mac OS) to select the audio-only clips you wish to merge with the video clip.
   
3. Do one of the following:
   • Choose Clip > Merge Clips
     
   • Right-click (Control-click for Mac OS), and then choose Merge Clips from the shortcut menu.

The Merge Clips dialog launches. Choose from one of the following options for the point of synchronization:

• Based on the In point: For locating sync based on the In point, at the clap of the slate, for example.
  
• Based on the Out point: For locating sync based on the Out point, at the clap of the tail slate, for example.
  
• Based on matching timecode: For locating sync based on common timecode between the clips.
  
• Based on numbered clip markers: For locating a sync point based on a numbered clip marker in the middle of the shot. This function is disabled unless all component clips have at least one numbered marker.

Click OK. Your merged clip will now appear in the Project panel, with a name that matches the video clip, or the top-most selected audio clip (based on current sort order in the bin) if there is no video. “- Merged” is appended to the end of the new merged clip’s name. Users may rename this item, if necessary.

[aemilia scott]

I've been trying that for the past couple of hours, and have had the problem of the merged clips ending up in the bin, and not effecting what exists in the timeline.

I wonder if there is some sort of descent replace option that will get the footage into the timeline and apply the edit points I have. I tried "replace with" a clip from the bin, but it didn't honor timecode. just set the thing at the beginning.

curiouser and curiouser.

[Marc Wielage]

I have seen this post disaster before. I know of programs that can deal with this to some degree in Avid and Final Cut Pro, but not Premiere.

My advice would be to hire a good post supervisor (and also possibly a sound supervisor), and have them work on whether to fix this within Premiere or Pro Tools. If you included all the Sound Roll metadata, there's a chance this can be salvaged in Pro Tools.

One choice for 3rd party tools includes Assemblerator:

http://www.maggot.co.nz/software/assemblerator.shtml

I bet, though, an experienced editor might be able to manually reconform it in a week, assuming there's not many hundreds of hours worth of material and it's relatively straightforward.

[aemilia scott]

Marc, there was no one to solve the disaster but me. Yatzee!

You were right, I had no choice, and I pulled an all-nighter last night manually reconfirming everything and then gave an OMF to my sound editor. I think they say experiences like this put hair on your chest.