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Sep 18, 2012 12:13 PM UTC
Open for Voting

Batch syncing audio and video using timecode

I'm having an impossible time locating what I thought was a very basic feature.

I have two cameras and one set of audio files, all containing synced SMPTE timecode.

How do I sync them all up?

Here's the audio, here's the video. Sync them for me using the timecode. Pretty straightforward right?

The "merge clips" function only lets me sync one video clip at a time to one audio clip. At this rate, it will take me hours to select each file individually. Is there seriously not a batch function?

    52 replies

    Known Participant
    Feb 22, 2021 12:34 PM UTC

    more than 8 years later....nothing has changed.

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    Participant
    Jun 12, 2018 6:53 PM UTC

    Hey Adobe, any plans to implement this feature that (1) DaVinci Resolve already has, and (2) that your paying customers have been requesting now for OVER 5 YEARS?

    Same problem here. Can't believe they've been ignoring this for 5 years.

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    Known Participant
    Dec 8, 2018 3:46 PM UTC

    Hi fellas,

    just noticed this thread is now 6 years old. Wonder if it makes 10. Really thinking about leaving Adobe if I just didnt bought all those plug-ins.

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    Known Participant
    Aug 21, 2019 11:43 AM UTC

    Hi everyone....just a reminder...almost 9 months after the last entry here.

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    TaranVH
    Inspiring
    Mar 26, 2018 6:38 PM UTC

    This is just dreadful. I call it "untangling christmas tree lights." Every single clip makes the process exponentially more difficult, since it might be paired with any of the other clips. To expect us to know beforehand which clips go with which other clips is absolutely ludicrous.

    I've got a big folder here full of 54 audio and video files. All of them have timecode. It should be one button press to synchronize them all, per layer, in the timeline.

    This guy found a brilliant workaround where he uses the metadata panel to assign Camera Labels to multiple clips simultaneously. I haven't seen anyone else talking about that. How to sync with timecode in premiere pro - YouTube

    From there, he uses the normal multi-camera sequence method.

    Problem: .r3d clips apparently do not allow you to attach a camera label?? The option is greyed out, as you can see in the screenshot above.

    I also can't seem to use the metadata panel to assign camera labels to .wav files either. The option does not even appear. Probably cause they're not "cameras."

    I'm stacking workarounds on top of workarounds, and still I'm stopped at every turn.

    I looked into Tentacle sync. It's OSX only. Looks like I'll have to use Davinci Resolve 14 to sync audio and footage. And then import into Premiere. Why don't I just use Davinci Resolve for the whole project? Good question.

    And yes, I submitted a feature request for better timecode sync. Over two years ago.

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    Participant
    Nov 5, 2017 6:09 PM UTC

    Maybe I'm doing something different than everyone is talking about, but the Multicam feature worked perfectly for me.

    I had external ISO audio recorded on multi-channel WAV files. During production, the audio guy sent me a wireless mixed feed which was recorded on one of the video's audio channels (He also sent me timecode which was recorded as audio on the other audio channel on the video, but it turned out this audio timecode was not necessary).

    All the clips were processed as a batch.  I did not have to match the wav files to their respective video files. I was able to select ALL wav and video clips and do a Multicamera Source Sequence using the AUDIO to sync everything.  I had 40 clips with 8 channels of audio, and it took less than 10 minutes to create the new material.  It also identified the audio or video clips that did not have a sync partner.

    If you have uncessary channels on your wav files, you can then map them out from the multicam source files using the Modify Audio Channels feature.  Here, I eliminated channels 2, 6 and 7.

    Theres a decent tutorial about this here:

    https://vimeo.com/123657864

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    Participant
    Nov 5, 2017 6:20 PM UTC

    Adding screen shots that didn't make it in on last post:

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    Known Participant
    Oct 18, 2017 1:34 PM UTC

    Man we missed to celebrate this Threads 5th birthday.

    Congrats to Adobe to not implementing a feature which is so FU..ING important to professional users.

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    Participant
    Oct 17, 2017 2:47 AM UTC

    Are you joking??

    This is the number one way in modern video of any kind now days.  And pretty basic stuff here.

    So I have a short I shot using two REDs, and I started editing with the scratch track thats on camera.  Sound guy sent over his files in WAV, from 2 LAVs and a Boom, all on one track.

    So I cant use an automate feature to drop audio on the track, and let the clips sort themselves via timecode??   WTF?  Thats how this all works, what is Adobe thinking??

    They spend all their time making automate features to HDR in Photoshop, and dont do anything with this for years.

    They are going to get bypassed if they dont fix this soon.  This is how it starts.

    Sucks, Ive used Adobe since the early 2000's, and they are getting worse at real functionality.

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    Known Participant
    Sep 3, 2017 7:40 AM UTC

    we use those but the Programm doesn't work with .r3d. When u have one of those the Programm is for free.

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    Participant
    Sep 2, 2017 4:40 PM UTC

    Gonna chime in here real quick.

    Just last night I had the same issue. Hours of footage, no audio ref on footage, only timecodes from both.

    I researched and stumbled upon https://www.tentaclesync.com/#download

    Apparently they make the hardware needed for timecode syncing on set, but they also have software to go along with it. It's not free though, but they do offer a 14 day trial. One quick trip to my email account later and I was good to go.

    I opened the program, drag'n'dropped all my footage and my audio in the same "bin", and presto. All synced via timecode. Didn't even have to click any "sync" button first. That's even better than a one-click-solution

    Exported an XML, import in PPro, og voila. A nicely synced timeline. From here I go in and trim audio overflowing clip duration manually and link footage and audio together per clip. So that part still sucks, but the frustration of the sync proces is out of the equation now. Saved me a couple of hours

    Hope it can help some of you having the same issue!

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    May 3, 2017 6:37 PM UTC

    its 2017. Adobe still didnt fix a basic problem every editor know. yes, right you can sync 1 video, 1 Audio *applaus*

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    Participant
    Sep 29, 2016 3:45 PM UTC

    It's 2016, any update?

    Any improvement on Adobe CC or CS6 yet?

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    Known Participant
    Mar 21, 2017 6:58 PM UTC

    It's 2017 by now and STILL it doesnt work!!!
    This also explains why bigger companys still use Avid. If Adobe wants to get new customers they should include such a basic feature.

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    Kevin J. Monahan Jr.
    Legend
    Mar 21, 2017 7:52 PM UTC

    Hello JTJefferson,

    Sorry for the frustration. It would be a welcome feature for sure. Please file a feature request for that feature here.

    Here's some added info. It appears that many people use the third party plug-in, PluralEyes, for this feature. You can try a trial at RedGiant and see if works for you. You also might try this workaround using multicamera sequences espoused by Jarle Leirpol.

    Please let me know if any of these things would work for you while we work on this feature request. If others have the same request, kindly make that here.

    Regards,
    Kevin

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    Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community and Engagement Strategist – Adobe Pro Video and Audio