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Known Participant
January 10, 2024
Answered

Audio not synchronized when importing XML from Premiere Pro to DaVinci Resolve

  • January 10, 2024
  • 1 reply
  • 5552 views

I'm trying to import a sequence from Premiere Pro into DaVinci Resolve as an XML file. The audio is synchronized in Premiere but unsynchronized in Resolve. Is there a way that I can *resolve* (Ha!) this?

Correct answer Ben Insler

@Ben Insler @Kevin-Monahan That unfortunately isn't the cause because the issue isn't exclusive to just one sequence. For example, I created a sequence out of the three files in the Google Drive link that I provided to Ben Insler and the audio was still unsynchronized even though none of the files were missing from neither Premiere nor Resolve.


Hey @Noah347163857vmm,

 

Your issue is resulting from the fact that your Indeterminate Media Timebase (located in Settings > Media) is not set to correspond to your editing timebase.  This is resulting in a calculation mismatch between Premiere Pro and Resolve. 

 

Audio doesn't have a frame rate.  When recorded audio is tagged with BWF frame rate metadata, Premiere Pro can use that metadata to determine which frame rate was intended for the file.  Without this metadata, there is no way for Premiere Pro to know, or guess, the intended frame rate.  In these cases, Premiere Pro will default to using the Indeterminate Media Timebase unless you explicitly modify the timecode of the media in Premiere Pro to a specific Time Display Format.

 

Resolve, on the other hand, handles this differently.  Since your entire Resolve project is given a single timebase, Resolve will interpret untagged audio to the timebase of the project.

 

In your case here, your footage is 24FPS, as is your sequence in Premiere Pro.  But your Indeterminate Media Timebase is set to something else, likely 29.97FPS.  Your Resolve project timebase will be set to 24FPS when you import the 24FPS XML from Premiere Pro.  This is creating a conform mismatch with your recorded audio - the math between Premiere Pro and Resolve doesn't line up becasue Premiere Pro thinks it's making an XML from 29.97 media, but Resolve is trying to conform that XML against media that it sees as 24.  The frame counts end up all over the place, and your Resolve conform ends up wrong.  The Resolve conform works with your on camera audio becuse the audio is encapsulated with the video, and thus paired with the video's embedded timecode and framerate metadata, which both apps can read.

 

Luckily, there's an easy fix.  Just change your Indeterminate Media Timebase to match your editing timebase: 24FPS.  All indeterminate media will recalculate its Time Display Format, and the math Premiere Pro performs to generate its XML will now correspond to the frame rate that Resolve will be enforcing in its project.  Re-export your XML and bring it into Resolve.

1 reply

Kevin-Monahan
Community Manager
Community Manager
January 10, 2024

Hi @Noah347163857vmm,

I read about your problem. I have not heard of this issue before so it may be project specific. Let's try, though! 

 

Can you double-check the sequence settings for Resolve and make sure that the sample rate and frame rates match precisely? If not, you may need to make manual adjustments.

 

I hope we can help you. Sorry for the issues.

 

Thanks,
Kevin

Kevin Monahan - Sr. Community & Engagement Strategist – Pro Video and Audio
Known Participant
January 11, 2024

The frame rate is 24 and the sample rate is 44100hz. I also noticed that the audio files don't begin where they're supposed to. In other words, the audio clips are all where they're supposed to be on the timeline, but the correct part of the file isn't being played.

Kevin-Monahan
Community Manager
Community Manager
January 19, 2024

@Ben Insler @Kevin-Monahan Of course. In the following Google Drive link is one video file and two audio files.

 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ki2scAUEmpVD4jUSxki-dUig2UyQI_6F?usp=drive_link


Hi,

I had a product team member offer a possible cause for this issue:

quote

Any chance there are disabled clips in the sequence? In a previous case, the report was “audio drifting out of sync” but the real issue was missing (disabled) clips in the edit that shifted everything in the track to the left.

 

Can you check that out as a possible cause for the drift?

 

Thanks,
Kevin

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