Moving from PluralEyes to Premiere Pro Create Multi-Cam Sequence Workflow

[angelog272]

I used PluralEyes for years and had my workflow down pat. When it stopped working – I started trying to use Premiere Pro’s “Create Multi-Cam Sequence” feature. It does not seem at all intuitive. With PaluralEyes – I’d put everything in a timeline, synch it, nest the video, change the sequence settings, scale the video clips, choose the correct audio track, and start editing. I must be missing something because Premiere’s sync is just not that easy to get set up. Most of my projects are 3 hours of footage with 3 cameras. The first thing is that every time I try I get a “could not synchronize one or more clips in the current selection because a match could not be found” error. It doesn’t show which clip is the issue. There’s no helpful info on how to get passed that. But by selecting the clips in different ways I can usually get it to create the multicam sequences. But sometimes it numbers them say 1-7 and then there’s an extra one called ACAM and then there are usually some clips left over that weren’t processed. I drag the multicam sequences into a timeline. Great. But then I see no way to choose which camera’s audio track you want it to use anywhere along the process so far. It always chooses camera 1. My main audio is always on camera three. So I have to double-click on each multicam sequence from the timeline, go in, and mute/unmute the right camera. Then I have the sequence settings to deal with. I shoot in 4k but edit and output in 1080. I edit in 1080 because I like knowing how far I can punch in on shots and this is easy to see by doing it this way. So then – I have to again double-click each multicam sequence, and change the percentage of the video clips to 50% so that they appear full frame in the timeline I’m editing with. This all seems a bit complicated. I know I must be missing something but I haven’t found any tutorials that address large projects. I miss Pluraleyes right now = Any suggestions are welcome!

[PaulMurphy]

Hi there,

Here are a few tips that might help:

Clips not Synchronized:
If you check 'Move source clips to Processed Clips bin' when you create your multi-camera source sequences, any clips that aren't added to this bin afterwards are the ones that were unable to be synced. Otherwise, you can also use Premiere's Video and Audio Usage metadata columns to see which clips have been added to a multi-camera source sequence and which haven't. Usually a clip has not been synced because its waveform or timecode does not match any other clips in the selection.

Audio Track Selection:
I made this tutorial to explain the way Premiere selects multi-camera audio.

Scaling Multi-camera Source Sequence:
You should be able to scale your multi-camera source sequence directly in the timeline. If you need to flatten the multi-camera sequence to reference the original clips in the timeline, any scaling will be transferred over.

I use multi-camera pretty extensively in longform projects, so if you have any other questions, let me know.

Cheers,
Paul

[angelog272]

Thanks so much Paul - checking out your tutorial now and will try again. Appreciate it!

[angelog272]

Hi Paul,

Thank you so much for the response - the video is great and I look forward to using your youtube channel as a resource.

I made a quick video of my issue. for some reason - it just fails altogether and I get an "audio synch failure" error.

Here's a link to a video in dropbox if you have the time.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/3j9m9s0twk074ny/synchiussues.mp4?dl=0

I can't figure it out!

[R Neil Haugen]

Just as a quick comment, not having seen your video example ... if the volume levels are a fair amount different in the various audio tracks, it can 'fail' to find a match.

Sometimes I need to apply a source Leveling effect to maybe max peaks at -6dB before I can get it to work in a multicam setup.

[angelog272]

Thank you so much.

I just selected the b and c camera clips and did rightclick / Audio Gain and set to -6. A cam is the lav audio so that should be plenty loud.

Unfortunately I got the same "Audio Synchonization failure" error and it didn't process anything.

You mentioned a source lefeling effect - so perhaps the way I tried to modify the audio on the clips isn't the correct way?

In any case - many thanks for your help.

[R Neil Haugen]

Are you working in a sequence, or applying the effect to clips selected in the bin? "Source" effects are those applied to clips selected in a bin, or to clips in the Timeline panel ... when the Source tab is selected in the Effects Control Panel (ECP).

Source effects are applied to all instances of any section of a clip anywhere in the project. Effects applied to section of a clip on a sequence in the Timeline panel only apply to that specific section of that clip on that specific sequence.

[angelog272]

In the bin. I don't have a sequence yet because the Create Multicam Source Sequence feature won't work.

But I think I'm lost. When I highlight a clip in the bin and open the ECP - no options seem to show up there.

[R Neil Haugen]

The ECP will only be "in play" for clips on a sequence.

So you're applying the effects directly on clips in the bin. And it's still not getting matches in "create multicam". That's unfortunate as the only thing left in Premiere is manual matches on a sequence.

[PaulMurphy]

A couple of things I noticed in the video you shared:

1. Caching Media: I can see your media is still being cached (blue progress bar in the bottom right). You should wait for this to finish before you try syncing with waveforms.

2. Error Message: The error message suggests some of your clips were synchronized. Look in your B1 and C1 bins to see if the clips were placed there. If you search for the word "sequence" in your Project panel, it will show you all sequences in your project, including multicam sequences.

Cheers,
Paul

[angelog272]

Thank you.

Unfortunately nothing was synched by PP. the sequences you see were imported from PluralEyes - i just added those because i have to get started on this one.

The blue bar is gone so I tried the multicam synch again within premiere with the same result. I'm so confused about what could be going on...

[angelog272]

[PaulMurphy]

No worries, I'm sure we can figure this out.

I'd be interested to see the waveforms from one of each of your cameras loaded in the Source Monitor. Are you able to take a screenshot and share it here?

Cheers,
Paul

[angelog272]

Absolutely. This is after adjusting the gain with the clips in each bin using rightclick / audio gain and boosting the b and c cams by about 6db per R Neil's suggestion. the a cam is only on the right side due to the way the lav mic records.

Looking at it I thought that maybe this was the issue. So I modified all of the A Cam tracks and set the source channel for l and r to r which fixed that. I ran another create multi cam sequence and got the same result - error message and no new sequences created. Have tried in both beta and latest vesions of Premiere. Pulling my hair out on this one! I feel sure it's me doing something completely idiotic. It's like it's finding one clip that has no matching clips and is like - yeah - I'll just not synch anything because of that.

[PaulMurphy]

I believe it is your A Cam that is causing the issue. There is no audio in Channel 1, but in your Multicam Sync Settings, you're using Track 1 of your Audio for your Synchronization Point. Set this to Track 2 and try syncing again.

Cheers,
Paul

[angelog272]

Thanks Paul.

So - the track 1 in the Audio Track Channel drop down refers to the left side of a cam?

I modified that A Cam in the bin pull both side from the right side (so there was audio in the waveform on both sides) and tried again and got the same result.

I also tried what you suggested with these settings:

and got the same result - with no new sequences created in any of the folders.

I tried with "mixdown" too - same thing...

[PaulMurphy]

Can I confirm what version of Premiere Pro you're using?

[angelog272]

24.5.0 build 57 mostly and I also use the latest beta version. have tried in both with same result.

[PaulMurphy]

This is quite the head-scratcher. For the sake of elimination, let's only test in 24.5.

Can you test this for me:
1. Duplicate one of the A Cam clips.
2. Select the original and the duplicate and try syncing together using Track 2. Does it work?

If it does, test the same thing with B and C.

[angelog272]

Absolutely. I'll try anything. I did that and it synched fine.

[angelog272]

Okay. This worked - and I don't know why.

• I selected all of the clips and modified them into mono audio

• Instead of highlighting the folders (a cam, b cam, c cam) , I flipped each folder open, and then click/shifted each of the a cam clips in order, then b, then c.

• Right click - create multicam - mixdown.

It worked - and the 3 clips it didn't sync were false starts. so all good.

thanks to all of you for your help...

[PaulMurphy]

That's great news that you got it to work!

Yes, you need to select the clip and not the bin. If you select a series of clips and the selection includes bins, you can omit the bins from the selection by pressing the Cmd or Ctrl key and deselecting the bins.

Cheers,
Paul

[Ali Jaber]

PluralEyes (2023.0) is still working fine on my side (latest PPro stable and Beta builds, win 10). I have similar projects like yours and I don't recommend PPro built in syncronization at all: PluralEyes way is much better, faster and more organized. Another option would be to use "Syncaila" (another paid software):
https://syncaila.com/

[angelog272]

Thank you. Yes I love PluralEyes - it's fantastic. I just know there will be a day when a mac update will make it unsuable. I tried Syncaila on trial and it wasn't nearly as fast or as good. I wish PPro would make it easier. I loved it when the PE plugin worked and you could do the synch after you'd set up everything in a sequence. Because you're right - the few times that the PPro create multi cam sequence have worked - it creates a mess that has to be reorganized.