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brandonc94721701
brandonc94721701
Participant
May 8, 2017
Question

Tracks Out of Sync

  • May 8, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 1464 views

Hey,

So I recorded a podcast recently. We didn't have our regular gear so we had to improvise. We recorded two mics into a Tascam recorder an the third direct into Audition. The Tascam tracks recorded at 44100 and the Audition track at 48000. Audition says it converts the sample rate when I drag it into the multitrack session but they still run out of sync with each other. I can get them timed up near perfectly at the beginning of the recording but as the recording progresses they get more and more out of sync. It sounds like the track recorded at 48000 gets ahead of the 44100 (which makes sense) but shouldn't they be able to sync perfectly if they are bring converted in the project?

1 reply

R
Community Expert
Richard M KnightCommunity Expert
Community Expert
May 8, 2017

How much does it drift over what duration, any two recorders will drift if not locked to wordclock.

    brandonc94721701
    brandonc94721701Author
    Participant
    May 10, 2017

    It seems to drift exponentially. How do I lock them to "wordclock" what is that?

    SteveG_AudioMasters_
    Community Expert
    SteveG_AudioMasters_Community Expert
    Community Expert
    May 10, 2017

    brandonc94721701  wrote

    It seems to drift exponentially. How do I lock them to "wordclock" what is that?

    You can't do this after the event; the clocks have to be locked at the time the recording was made in order to keep them in sync. Not only that, but they'd have to be running at the same rate to start with, or syncing them wouldn't be possible anyway.

    Your only solution here is to look at the duration of the tracks, and use time shifting to alter one of them so that it's the same length as the other. They won't be absolutely in sync, but you should be able to cancel out most of the drift if it was continuous. Generally the way to do this is to do the sample rate conversion first, and shrink the longer file to fit the shorter one, but you could try this the other way around if it's more convenient.

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