Project audio has diagonal lines when re-opening the project file

Hi, I have experienced those diagonal lines many times when working with Premiere and Tentacle Sync. I have come up with a rather annoying solution, but also not a solution... grab a coffee. This might take some time...

XMLs from Tentacle Sync into Premiere Import. Diagonal lines.

Topic: The Tentacle XML workflow in Premiere often causes problems (diagonal lines) especially with mixed framerates and external audio. 

If a Tentacle XML is imported into Premiere, the sequence is edited, then closed and reopened, let alone moved to another hard drive, the whole project is a total mess, full of diagonal lines and all sync is gone. This doesn't have to happen all the time, but happens frequently. Especially in large projects with many external audio sources (mixers, Tentacle Track-E etc.) and mixed framerates. 

Important!!! Once the problem has occurred, there is no rescue for the project. Much more you have to re-import the whole XML and then do the following things. IMPORTANT! This whole process should be done at the very beginning, right after importing the Tentacle-XML. 

- 1) When creating the XML with Tentacle Sync, make sure that you choose the frame rate in which most of the clips were recorded, if possible. If that's not possible, just set the desired framerate/resolution and hope for the best. With audio same story: 48khz if most external was recorded in 48khz. 

- 2) After importing, test in Premiere which clips can be extended in the timeline. Although this should not be possible, some clips can still be stretched and diagonal lines will appear. With video files, this should not be the case if the frame rate of the clip matches the export frame rate of the XML. 

With audio it is more complicated especially with external audio, e.g. from the mixer or from Tentacle Track-Es. Here almost all clips can be "extended" and diagonal lines are created. 

- 3) Now to the tedious and time consuming part. Roughly speaking: You now activate the tracks of the corresponding clips, scrub through the timeline and exchange all affected clips manually. To speed up this process, it is best to use shortcuts. To prepare: activate the corresponding tracks, both Sourcepatch and Track Target. These are the blue boxes on the far left in the timeline track "A1" etc.. Then check "Selection Follows Playhead" under "Sequence". Now you can work your way through the timeline from clip to clip using the down arrow key on the keyboard. 

- 4) Once you have arrived at a clip, display the clip in the source monitor using the matchframe (f) and either drag it over the existing clip using the Alt key or use the key combination (I chose the shortcut "alt+x" for me) to reset the In and Out points in the source monitor and then use "." to overwrite the selected timeline clip. It is important that the playhead always is at the beginning of the clip to be overwritten. TIP: There is a quick variant that skips one of the above shortcuts (in-out points reset in the source monitor) To do this, check the following boxes in the Premiere preferences. Premiere>Preferences>Timeline: Here check "Set Focus on the Timeline..." and "Match Frame sets In-Point". Now you can overwrite each Cip one after another by using the shortcut sequence "Arrow down" > "F" > "."

The only important thing is that your playhead always is at the very beginning of each clip when match framing and overwriting.

Done. Now do this clip by clip and you will preserve the integrity of the project without the annoying diagonal lines across the clips and without sync shifts. 

Conclusion: Annoying but necessary. The whole thing requires focus and can take some time, especially with bigger projects, multiple shooting days, many external audio sources etc. but it’s worth it, trust me.

It would be great if Adobe/Tentacle would work on a solution here, as the problem unfortunately persists. 

It is generally recommended to use a Premiere based timecode workflow, as the problem does not occur here. However, this process is imho even more annoying and sometimes takes even longer. Also, this doesn't work if a camera doesn't support file TC and is fed with audio timecode (LTC) as is the case with most of my projects.

Hey there!
Did you come up with a solution? I set up a new editing system yesterday and since then I have the exact same issues. I worked the hole day at a ton of dialog and this morning after restarting everything is gone. I tried every tip I found like relinking, re-installing etc.

Totally desperate here.....never expirienced anything in all the past years

Hi Dean,

The issue occurs when import/ingest is done improperly with certain cameras. Cameras that generate media files to certain card based media like yours need extra consideration. The heart of the problem: these cameras generate clip names that are identical. Clips are also "spanned" and are rejoined in Premiere Pro with the assistance of metadata. So, when it comes to solving the issues of identically named clips and spanned clips - Premiere Pro requires their metadata.

For Premiere Pro to differentiate between identically named clips, it needs their metadata. For these cameras, the editor must ingest the footage via Media Browser so that the media can carry the metadata that was generated when the clip was originally recorded. Otherwise, if the clips are merely imported via dragging or File > Import, that metadata is then not brought along, is lost, and remains in the folders with the other metadata. It is then not referred to and will cause issues in relinking, especially if the media is further manipulated or moved from one drive to another.

Since Premiere Pro uses that metadata to differentiate between one media file or another via imported metadata that comes along with the clip, and if the metadata was never imported, the file has no information to differentiate it from another one with the same name. Whomever is handling your clips really needs to know this information or the situation you are in occurs and must be fixed manually, which is very time consuming. Most clips must be relinked properly one at a time.

At the outset, this issue does not present itself until multiple storage systems are used and the media is moved from one system to another. Here then, identically named media files are introduced into the media move. Premiere Pro becomes confused between multiple clips named the same things (there might be multiple instances of "Clip 001," for example), and without the additional metadata the media file carries by a proper ingest, Premiere Pro throws up its virtual hands and says, "I don't know if Clip 001 goes here or Clip 001 goes there - you figure it out - here's some hash marks showing your where I had problems."

I think we are missing some crucial pieces to the story and there may be further complications if you intend to pass the project back to audio post. Audio post used a tool to sync your second system sound. How was this done precisely? Was the footage already ingested by you or the audio post house? Have you used this tool successfully in the past? Did it create your clips based on merged clips or with multicamera sequences? If you are interacting with audio post, and you plan to collaborate, it should be the latter.

I would say that many people get themselves into this situation, and I'm sorry it happened to you. It is difficult to fix issues like this, so, sorry about that. Let the product team know about your pain on the User Voice sight. Add any requests for future workflows there.

Thanks,
Kevin