Sync by audio continues to fail

[Justin Opinion]

II continue to get this error, when the files clearly should sync. Am I doing something wrong? I think I am doing the same exact steps as I've done when it did work. Syncing clips manually makes have Premiere Pro about worthless - this is a constant in my workflow.

[Mike Dziennik]

Are you clips linked? They are all different colours. Does it work if you select just the clip on A1 and A3 for example? Which track are you using in the Synchronize Clips dialog?

[jampff]

I used to get super irritated by this... and then I discovered that, if I go to the Sequence menu and choose Render Audio first, and then sync with audio, it works. I'm sure there's a technical reason why this is a "feature" and not a "bug". Whatever. Hope it helps.

[Justin Opinion]

Tried rendering first (took 15 minutes), and it still failed. 

[R Neil Haugen]

A2 doesn't show any waveform at the beginning of the clip. Go into that, and set audio gain to max all peaks to maybe -6dB. It will probably work then.

Neil

[jampff]

So sorry the previous suggestion didn't work for you... it does for me. Waiting 15 minutes and no result must be super frustrating.

I don't know what your media is like... it could be that there actually is a slight discrepancy that is enough to throw the algorithm off. Like audio drift? (One device gradually slows down the audio, barely perceptible unless the file is really long.) Or... maybe one mic was very close to a voice and picked it up clearly but the other mic was far enough away that it just didn't pick up... or whatever. If the two audio tracks are "different" enough for PP to not match them... maybe try this:

1. Make a copy of the sequence (just in case)

2. In the sequence copy, trim your two audio tracks back to a very short span where each picked up the same audio clearly (maybe just the clap in the beginning, or a section where a few loud bursts happen). So basically, if your entire sequence was (let's say) 2 minutes long, trim the beginning and ending of each clip to just that span of 15 seconds (let's say) somewhere in the middle where the audio was clearly picked up by both mics.

3. Select both clips and synchronize with audio.

4. After syncing, they're lined up correctly in the timeline, and you can "untrim" them both out to their full length.

I know this works... but I do wonder if after all that it would have been easier to just manually sync the clips. Probably same number of clicks. ?

[Myles25412268wcff]

Synchronizing only the audio aside from the video part should work. Then move the videos back to their respective audio tracks since they are the same length. This worked for me.

[mickfir]

Premiere simply does not have the ability to sync audio when they are sufficiently different compression and bitrate.

 Over the past few days, I have spent 6 hours collectively with adobe support regarding this reprehensible audio sync issue. It will not sync audio that is of different qualities (bitrate, compression etc) I have been trying to sync WAV recordings from a ZOOM H6 (96000 Hz - 24-bit – Mono) to scratch audio from a Sony fs5 I 48000 Hz - 24-bit – Mono). It simply does not work.

6 hours of futile customer support. Including a 3-hour phone call. Nothing. They got me to upload the audio files to their server for testing.

And please no “I Am nOt hAviNg tHat IsSuE” comments. You aren’t having that issue because you’re a vlogger who never had to deal with real audio management.

Hundreds of dollars a year for windows movie maker with extra steps

[R Neil Haugen]

And please no “I Am nOt hAviNg tHat IsSuE” comments. You aren’t having that issue because you’re a vlogger who never had to deal with real audio management.

Um ... two things there ...

Perhaps you don't have much troubleshooting experience ... data as to who is and who isn't having an issue is absolutely necessary to nail down exact problems.

And perhaps there are other experienced, professional users that aren't having the same problem ... or can get around some of Premiere's at times odd audio behaviors. Ahem.

We don't any of us know the experience levels and workflows of others. Best not to make generalizations ... in general. Especially involving what seem to be intended insults ...

I've synced tons of media, all sorts of things with differences in sample rates, recording levels, all of that. Some times it works right off. The two things that cause the most headache for me have been level changes and sample rates (Hz).

For example ... if say the level on one track is more than 20dB lower than another, it probably won't sync. At that point, raising the level on the 'low' track normally fixes the problem.

And at times, I've had to change one audio tracks sample rate to match the other track.

The third thing is that at times Premiere is just nutso, especially with certain camera or recorder files,  true ... and then I've had to take both tracks into Audition, create a replacement file, then replace the Premiere audio with the new ones from Audition, which naturally ... synced easy.

Which of course is a right pain. And I've posted complaints about those as bugs naturally. But as a practical person, I did figure out how to get the job done quickly. And yes, it would be nice if the app handled this all better, no question there.

Neil

[mickfir]

Respectfully, apologetics and this culture of "workarounds" is why adobe software is so stagnant.

People are satiated with demeaning workarounds from forums and YouTube when they should be instead protesting officially to Adobe. If everyone did an insistent 3 hour call to Adobe support and didn’t let the representative go until he fixed the issue or agreed to take the audio files for analysing, things would improve.

[R Neil Haugen]

There's no "apologetics" in my post whatsoever. No clue where you get that.

Simple practical suggestions to get the work out the door.

I use both Adobe and BlackMagic products daily. BOTH are imperfect.

And yea, I've filed a ton of requests and reports especially with Adobe. I've posted a few epic rants here myself over the years.

And I ALWAYS encourage people with issues to post on them.

AND ... while we're all awaiting fixes, I give practical advice on how to get your work done through the imperfections. Today.

If your clients can wait a couple years for a job, they're very different than mine. 😉

[mstegner]

"They got me to upload the audio files to their server for testing." 

I was able to get the files you uploaded, and one was only a few seconds long.  It might be too short for the DSP to work properly, do you have longer examples that I can try?  

[mickfir]

There doesn’t need to be further testing. On my end if I go to the EXTREME hassle of exporting both audio clips in the same format, hz rate, etc, then it syncs no problem. But that is NOT a fix given the sheer number of separate clips needing syncing.

That is all the info that YOU, ADOBE need. Your software is just incapable of recognising blatantly identical audio tracks simply due to their differing formats and hz rates. Fix that. The very definition of ‘scratch vs external recorded audio’ is that the quality is different.  Also, while you’re at it, stop focusing on gimmick ai rubbish and clone Plural eyes by red giant... real multi-channel, multi layered audio syncing. You know… something worth paying for. But I guess that doesn’t get hype video influencers to make ticktocks about you?

And R Neil Haugen: no, my clients won’t wait. I just invest in additional software that… drumroll… works. No one waits; just Adobes pro users are flagellated for the sin of need to get work done with software that has had the same issues for 10 years. And it seems some enjoy this paradigm.  

[R Neil Haugen]

In all seriousness, I totally understand the anger and frustration. The discontinuance of PluralEyes without a good substitute has hammered many people.

Apparently, the multicam of Resolve and Premiere must have been "good enough" for enough people usage of PluralEyes was dropping. Ergo, g'bye.

But "good enough" for many isn't nearly what a lot of others like you ... and me too, realistically ... needed.

I'm glad there's an Adobe audio staffer on this thread. Premiere's multicam and proxy audio options are simply inadequate for many users.

As I noted above, I do try and help others find a way to get the job done even though the program ain't doing what we really need. Often, there are ways that don't add a ton of time but do get the blasted job done. I look for those where any of us can find them.

And feel free to post detailed rants. I've certainly done my share. Just ... do give the details of what screws up that outta not be screwing up.

Neil

[knbstewart]

Bringing this thread back to life - experiencing the same issues. I have good onboard camera audio guide track (48hz, uncompressed, 2 channels) and the recorded Production Audio (48hz, .wav, 4 channels). Both the onboard audio and production audio have clean recognizeable waveforms. Trying over dozens of clips, NONE of them synchronize using the 'synchronize' tool. My method is selecting the clip and audio I want to synchronize > right click > select 'synchronize' > select 'audio' 'track 1' under 'synchronize point' > hit 'ok'. 

Troubleshooting steps taken (all of which did not work):
-unlinked audio, trying to synchronze only certain tracks

-pre-rendering audio & sequence

-trying to synchronize only one clip and one sound file in a fresh, otherwise empty sequence

-increasing the audio gain on both guide and production audio

Not expecting much, but wondering if anyone had any fresh ideas / tips in 2024...

thx

[knbstewart]

Well.... solved my issue, was stupid user error. Posting the fix in case anyone comes across this and is stupid like me. When the 'synchronize' window comes up, the target track you select must be a track containing the production audio you are trying to sync, NOT the guide audio from the clip. 

I had this set to track 1 (following an incorrect tutorial I saw online...). In my example, where my production audio starts on Track 3, when I set syncronize to Track 3, voila, it started working:

[Jennifer28452693zrxb]

Hi, this only slightly solved my problem. The main problem, for me, is that the "audio" under "syncronize clips" is greyed out.  Thus, not providing an actual option to sync. The question is: Why? I downloaded an interview from a presentation and want to add a portion to a video essay. The video and audio are on one track. I attempted to trim the clip in adobe audition and edit back into PP. That didn't work. I have been working for a week to try and solve this problem. To no avail. The out of sync is slight, but so much so as to be irritating. As you can see I do not have the option of which you referred to change the "track channel."

[knbstewart]

Hmm, in your example screengrab, it appears you only have one stereo audio clip though, is that correct?

For synchronize to work you have to have 2 seperate audio files:

1) an onboard camera guide track - something recorded WITH the video that is already in sync (but is likely not optimal for audio)

2) your recorded production audio, intended to be used for the edit, but not yet synced

The syncronize tool will work to try and sync these two audio files if both are selected.
Let me know if that makes sense, or apologies If I'm misunderstood from your screengrab what files you have / what your issue is. If I'm understanding correctly, the synchronize tool audio option will be greyed out unless you have 2 seperate files to try and synchronize together.

[Jennifer28452693zrxb]

Yes, that is correct. I only have one stereo audio clip. I have tried to edit in audition, but the video reference, upon playback, goes to black, so I cannot see the image synced to the audio. When I stop playback in audition, the video reference returns. In short, the video and audio are just slightly off. I even tried using text editor to trim, but the subject did not use filler words recognized by the algorithym, so I'm back to trying the old-fashioned way. Any suggestions for how to fix, what should be a very simple sync, are welcome.

[mstegner]

@Jennifer28452693zrxb 

"I only have one stereo audio clip."

The Synchronize by Audio function is meant to sync clips via only the audio, and cannot sync video to audio.  The workflow is sometimes called “Dual system sound” and is meant to sync high quality audio from an external recorder to sync to the lower quality audio recorded onto the camera.  There is no function in Premiere to sync audio to video only.

[R Neil Haugen]

You could unlink the audio from the video, then switch the timeline to audio units. Then nudge your audio track.