Syncing Audio After Picture Lock

[Dave Beard]

Hi Everyone,

So, I've run into a bit of a problem. I just finished editing my first feature with red footage. I mostly do commercial work, so this is a different ballgame for me.

I have a locked rough cut, with reference audio, and I'm ready to start conforming my project back to RCX. I made the assumption that I would be able to sync my multi track audio to my clips included in my XML from FCP, but I'm having trouble figuring out if this is possible or not. If not, does anyone have any ideas of how I could get my multi track audio synced up with my picture at this stage of the game? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Marc Wielage]

I would talk to your post house and ask them what they're going to need. Traditionally, they'll need the film broken down by reel, usually in less than 20-minute segments, cut on a scene change or at least a moment where there's no music crossing over the transition.

Here's a list of tools that can reconform original multitrack audio within FCP and Avid and Pro Tools:

http://www.maggot.co.nz/software/assemblerator.shtml
http://www.editrace.com/
http://www.synchroarts.com/products/titan/titan.asp

I would leave the original scratch track audio there as a reference. Note that Pro Tools is a very, very standard editing/mixing program for the sound world, and is widely used for TV and film. Programs like the utilities above are indispensable when the "locked" film suddenly becomes "unlocked," and changes happen.

 

[Dave Beard]

I'm assuming that this is very dependent on the audio timecode matching picture? Unfortunately, audio was recorded on a recorder that does not have timecode. Am I screwed?

 

[Sid Idris]

change your perspective - undoubtedly you have one last edit ahead of you. you're film will probably benefit from the extra pass...

You have to manually slate sync the audio to the video clips and link them (so when you drag the video clip to the timeline it brings the dual system sound with it). Once all the audio is linked you'll have to start cutting again using the picture lock as a reference...

 

[Dave Beard]

... I know I absolutely need to replace my camera audio with my multi track audio, I guess I just wonder if I should have synced multi track audio before I ever started editing this film. Seems to be a waste, but look who's talking, I'm the one that is going to be manually syncing audio for an entire feature film.

 

[Sid Idris]

yes that's typically how it's done especially when you don't have timecode sync on audio & video. Our first feature was shot that way and we hired an assistant editor for 3 days whose only job was to link the audio. Of course he missed some because when I exported the OMFs for the audio post house I noticed the audio timeline required video files (meaning he'd left some scratch sound in the final product). I had a couple of late nights hunting scratch sound in a timeline with 2000 cuts....

 

[Dave Beard]

So you're saying if it's manually being linked, it should happen before I make my first cut, or should I wait till I have a locked cut, and then just link the files that I need?

 

[Sid Idris]

before your first cut. After the shoot we hired an assistant editor to link all the audio. From that point on we did all our editing using the dual system sound.

 

[Doug Beatty]

Timecode is your best friend. I learned that the hard way as well.