Synchronize audio and dynamic link?

[jampff]

I have used the synchronize audio feature many times. Today I'm running into a new behavior and I'm wondering if it's normal.

I have a small AE comp (dynamic link) in the timeline, above my footage. The audio in the AE comp is from the same exact audio in the footage. I kept it that way on purpose, so that I could use the synchronize audio feature to sync it to the correct point in the timeline quickly and accurately. But, every time I try to synchronize audio, I get the "a match could not be found" dialog. Even though, it's literally the exact same audio file in both clips: the footage and the AE comp.

Just to make sure, I tried syncing another clip with audio to the footage and it worked fine.

Also, in the past, when this error occasionally happened, I found that choosing "Render Audio" first would make the sync work. But, not this time.

So apparently... synchronize audio will not work, under any circumstances, with dynamically linked AE comps... is that correct? Is that a bug or a feature?

Thanks!

[PaulMurphy]

Sometimes there can be a slight lag when updating audio between Premiere and After Effects through Dynamic Link. Have you tried saving both projects, closing them, then re-opening and trying again? That might help sync things up.

[jampff]

Discovered the problem. It appears to not be a Premiere Pro problem after all, so I will be moving this question to the After Effects forum.

The issue is not Dynamic Link, but since I thought it was originally, I sighed and decided to render the comp instead. (I didn't want to do this at first because I still need to tweak it quite a bit. It was going to be helpful to see it in the correct place in the Pr timeline, however.)

After rendering, it STILL wouldn't synchronize audio. !!!??? So I decided to just sync it manually in the timeline... and that's when I discovered...

That After Effects had stretched out the audio so that it was slower (!!!) and took about half a second longer to play that short bit. Even though the audio in the Pr timeline and the audio in the Ae comp came from the EXACT SAME wav file. Sending it to After Effects somehow lengthened the audio. No wonder it wouldn't sync!

@PaulMurphy I will try closing and reopening/deleting cache/resetting preferences etc. Thank you! But this is still super weird. Ae is stretching out audio. 😞 Not cool.

I'll be asking for more help in the Ae forum.

[PaulMurphy]

This could be related to a mismatch in audio sample rates. After Effects automatically converts audio to 48 kHz, so it might have interpreted a file that's 44.1 kHz as 48 kHz.

[Warren Heaton]

@jampff 

That is odd.

What happens if while both After Effects and Premiere Pro are open if you copy and paste the WAV file back and forth between Timelines?

I've seen a difference in duration with the same WAV or AIF file in the two Project panels (with the AE side showing the Source Footage duration as being 1 frame longer), but then show as the same duration when added to a Timeline in either application.

Which versions of each application are you using?  And what are the audio settings of your WAV file (channels, bit depth, and sample rate)?