How to adjust audio sync of entire sequence

Question

How to adjust audio sync of entire sequence

I am cutting a short film that was shot on Super 16mm, transferred to ProRes, and the audio which was recorded separately was all synced by the sound guy (very experienced) and given to me along with the rushes in two identical length files.

The first thing that I noticed was that the sound was actually out of sync with the pictures, and that even with waveforms visible, the volume of the audio that was heard did not relate to the volume indicated on the waveforms. I asked the sound guy, and he said he'd had that once before when he prepped audio for Final Cut. He said just re-sync the audio and go for it. So I did.

Now we are 14 versions of the cut later, and we needed new hard drives as we'd run out of space, so I purchased two 2TB drives (Master & Back-Up) and copied everything over. When I first opened the project I had to re-link the audio & video which all went very smoothly as always.

BUT!!! The audio has now re-set itself back to the correct sync and the waveforms all line up with the sounds & volumes like they should have in the beginning. So I have a ten minute film all cut together with all of the audio out of sync on hundreds of little pieces of Video & Audio.

Is there a way that I can somehow adjust the original linked video/audio master files by a certain number of frames so that when I reconnect to that adjusted master all of the audio & video will pop into sync?

If anyone has had any experience similar to this I would love to hear from you.

Posted on Sep 14, 2011 9:38 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 15, 2011 8:51 AM in response to STUPENDOUS!!!

Yes, using the slip tool, Press shift-L to temporarily unlink audio and N to turn off snapping... Then press S. Your cursor will change. Assuming all of your audio is the same # of frames off, select your audio clips holding down shift (you have to hold shift for the first clip you select as well). Then press either + or - and the # of frames your audio is off. For example -10 or +6.... HTH

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Answer 2

Sep 15, 2011 9:20 AM in response to STUPENDOUS!!!

If all the material came in at the wrong frame rate (which can happen - do some searching here) if you can figure out what the speed change should be, you could batch adjust all the audio files using soundtrack pro. I would copy all my files and do the adjustment and then do a reconnect to the adjusted files to be safe.

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Answer 3

Sep 15, 2011 3:31 PM in response to Christina Rodriguez

Thanks Christina. The only thing is that all of my volume control keyframes and beziers will be pushed along with the audio which wouldn't work.

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Answer 4

Sep 15, 2011 4:03 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

Thanks Michael: All footage is correct frame rate 24fps it's not a speed thing, it was some kind of weird sync bug that came, (possibly a Pro Tools vs. Final Cut compatibility issue) that went away after much editing. The problem is that every clip is out by the same amount and all clips have audio level keyframes and beziers that I'd like to retain. Currently the audio level beziers are in the correct position relative to pictures, but because of the audio sync shift the ups and downs are affecting the audio incorrectly. I need to adjust the RAW master audio clips and reconnect so that they come back into sync again.

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Answer 5

Sep 16, 2011 8:18 AM in response to STUPENDOUS!!!

so create duplicates of the files. Bring them into fcp. Modify the timecode the appropriate amount and then reconnect to the duplicate files. You could try modifying the timecode of the original files, but I think it would be safe to use duplicates.

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Answer 6

Sep 16, 2011 10:01 PM in response to Michael Grenadier

Michael Grenadier wrote:

...Modify the timecode the appropriate amount...

Hi Michael, this sounds like what I want to be able to do. But I've never done it. Where do I do this? I'll try and search for info, but if you've done it successfully and have any hints I'd really appreciate that!

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Answer 7

Sep 17, 2011 8:29 AM in response to STUPENDOUS!!!

There's a modify menu in fcp. And in the modify menu is "modify timecode"

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