Batch syncing audio and video using timecode

[Guest]

I'm having an impossible time locating what I thought was a very basic feature.

I have two cameras and one set of audio files, all containing synced SMPTE timecode.

How do I sync them all up?

Here's the audio, here's the video. Sync them for me using the timecode. Pretty straightforward right?

The "merge clips" function only lets me sync one video clip at a time to one audio clip. At this rate, it will take me hours to select each file individually. Is there seriously not a batch function?

[Jim_Simon]

how do they get their footage synced?

One clip at a time.

[SonicN2O]

That means there’s no point in using timecode

[Jim_Simon]

Well, the point in using timecode is that it's a simple one click operation to sync each video clip with it's corresponding audio.

[SonicN2O]

How does that work?

[Jim_Simon]

Select each, right click, Sync by Timecode.

[Guest]

its 2017. Adobe still didnt fix a basic problem every editor know. yes, right you can sync 1 video, 1 Audio *applaus*

[KevinAGI]

I am on my 5th feature film in premiere and the merging of clips individually is murderous on my assistant. We have got to get this improved. Why cant it do multiple and split to individual files like in multicam?

Kevin

[Jim_Simon]

Feature Request/Bug Report Form

[KevinAGI]

Done many times since CC 2014. No one is home in the real feature department. I have had personal conversations with people from Adobe over many years about tools that are missing or incomplete for doing serious work. They have their own path. I just need a modern editor that has not forgotten that there are people working in the Sub 2 million dollar film market.

Kevin

[Jim_Simon]

Take a look at Resolve 14.  I'm in the process of moving over to that myself.

[KevinAGI]

When I am in between projects. I've got another 7 weeks on this gig then it will be time to check out new things.

Kevin

[Meg The Dog]

"Why DaVinci Resolve is the Ultimate (Free) Tool to Sync Clips"

https://blog.frame.io/2017/05/15/sync-clips-in-davinci-resolve/

MtD

[azret23]

You can use Avid Media Composer: select clips from one camera, go to menu Bin->Auto Sequence. It will allign all clips to one track with gaps in between. Do that to all cameras and export sequences to .aaf file. Than import those sequence to Premiere.

When importing to Avid Media Composer use "Link to AMA files"  command to avoid converting tour footage to DNxHD.

[Holy Ravioli 02]

Gonna chime in here real quick.

Just last night I had the same issue. Hours of footage, no audio ref on footage, only timecodes from both.

I researched and stumbled upon https://www.tentaclesync.com/#download

Apparently they make the hardware needed for timecode syncing on set, but they also have software to go along with it. It's not free though, but they do offer a 14 day trial. One quick trip to my email account later and I was good to go.

I opened the program, drag'n'dropped all my footage and my audio in the same "bin", and presto. All synced via timecode. Didn't even have to click any "sync" button first. That's even better than a one-click-solution

Exported an XML, import in PPro, og voila. A nicely synced timeline. From here I go in and trim audio overflowing clip duration manually and link footage and audio together per clip. So that part still sucks, but the frustration of the sync proces is out of the equation now. Saved me a couple of hours

Hope it can help some of you having the same issue!

[jtjefferson]

we use those but the Programm doesn't work with .r3d. When u have one of those the Programm is for free.

[ericcastro]

Are you joking??

This is the number one way in modern video of any kind now days.  And pretty basic stuff here.

So I have a short I shot using two REDs, and I started editing with the scratch track thats on camera.  Sound guy sent over his files in WAV, from 2 LAVs and a Boom, all on one track.

So I cant use an automate feature to drop audio on the track, and let the clips sort themselves via timecode??   WTF?  Thats how this all works, what is Adobe thinking??

They spend all their time making automate features to HDR in Photoshop, and dont do anything with this for years.

They are going to get bypassed if they dont fix this soon.  This is how it starts.

Sucks, Ive used Adobe since the early 2000's, and they are getting worse at real functionality.

[jtjefferson]

Man we missed to celebrate this Threads 5th birthday.

Congrats to Adobe to not implementing a feature which is so FU..ING important to professional users.

[Kenny_Reff]

Maybe I'm doing something different than everyone is talking about, but the Multicam feature worked perfectly for me.

I had external ISO audio recorded on multi-channel WAV files. During production, the audio guy sent me a wireless mixed feed which was recorded on one of the video's audio channels (He also sent me timecode which was recorded as audio on the other audio channel on the video, but it turned out this audio timecode was not necessary).

All the clips were processed as a batch.  I did not have to match the wav files to their respective video files. I was able to select ALL wav and video clips and do a Multicamera Source Sequence using the AUDIO to sync everything.  I had 40 clips with 8 channels of audio, and it took less than 10 minutes to create the new material.  It also identified the audio or video clips that did not have a sync partner.

If you have uncessary channels on your wav files, you can then map them out from the multicam source files using the Modify Audio Channels feature.  Here, I eliminated channels 2, 6 and 7.

Theres a decent tutorial about this here:

https://vimeo.com/123657864

[Kenny_Reff]

Adding screen shots that didn't make it in on last post:

[Jim_Simon]

That's a somewhat workable substitute for some folks, but the following is what editors are really looking for here.

https://blog.frame.io/2017/05/15/sync-clips-in-davinci-resolve/

[Shaun_F1]

My work around..

Source files -

Cam A

Cam B

External audio.

Select nothing but Cam A and create multi cam sequence. Sync via timecode. Check Create Single Multicam Sequence. Track assignment should be Track Label.

This will produce a sequence with all clips synced up to the timecode.

Do the same for Cam B + external sound together.

Note that the end result of this always incorrectly aligns the clip timecode to the sequence timecode. Although the footage and the audio will be correctly synced.

Have both sequences stacked above each other in your workspace to make the next step easier.

Now double click the first clip of Cam B in the sequence and cut it to match up with the starting timecode of the first clip of Cam A.

Now select all of Cam B + audio and drag it into Cam A's sequence and match up Cam A - shot 1 with Cam B - shot 1.

Done.

I often then copy everything and paste into a new sequence as I often find there can be audio issues with automatically created multi cam sequences.

[TaranVH]

This is just dreadful. I call it "untangling christmas tree lights." Every single clip makes the process exponentially more difficult, since it might be paired with any of the other clips. To expect us to know beforehand which clips go with which other clips is absolutely ludicrous.

I've got a big folder here full of 54 audio and video files. All of them have timecode. It should be one button press to synchronize them all, per layer, in the timeline.

This guy found a brilliant workaround where he uses the metadata panel to assign Camera Labels to multiple clips simultaneously. I haven't seen anyone else talking about that. How to sync with timecode in premiere pro - YouTube

From there, he uses the normal multi-camera sequence method.

Problem: .r3d clips apparently do not allow you to attach a camera label?? The option is greyed out, as you can see in the screenshot above.

I also can't seem to use the metadata panel to assign camera labels to .wav files either. The option does not even appear. Probably cause they're not "cameras."

I'm stacking workarounds on top of workarounds, and still I'm stopped at every turn.

I looked into Tentacle sync. It's OSX only. Looks like I'll have to use Davinci Resolve 14 to sync audio and footage. And then import into Premiere. Why don't I just use Davinci Resolve for the whole project? Good question.

And yes, I submitted a feature request for better timecode sync. Over two years ago.

[kyledettman]

Hey Adobe, any plans to implement this feature that (1) DaVinci Resolve already has, and (2) that your paying customers have been requesting now for OVER 5 YEARS?

Same problem here. Can't believe they've been ignoring this for 5 years.

[jtjefferson]

Hi fellas,

just noticed this thread is now 6 years old. Wonder if it makes 10. Really thinking about leaving Adobe if I just didnt bought all those plug-ins.

[jtjefferson]

Hi everyone....just a reminder...almost 9 months after the last entry here.