3 Camera Synced Multicam in FCPX goes out of sync

[Anders Utterstrom]

I haven’t done any multi cam work in the new version. But back in February/March I did a sync with 4/5 cameras. For over an hour of footage of a rock band. I used my master audio (separately recorded) as a base and synced all cameras to that audio. That was my approach and it worked our remarkably well. I think that was in 10.0.3. Ripple training has some good training videos covering this.

Anders Utterstrom
Chicago, Illinois

[Juan Luis lopez fons]

Hey Anders, thanks for the reply. I actually synced my clips via your method plus a bit of manual re-positioning. I am working on version 10.0.5 and the problem’s that the clips go out of sync when all three cameras break, regardless of the fact that both sound files kept going. It’s like FCPX doesn’t respect the fact that the continuos audio tracks create. in essence, implicit black video tracks that should keep the clip in sync.

If you have any other ideas, I would love to hear them. Thanks

Juan

[Anders Utterstrom]

This what my timeline looks like in 10.0.6. It’s different as I used a split screen plug-in to create the project.

It’s hard to explain but I have my master audio and 3 video tracks going and also some additional graphics. I then had, for example, two/three/four images of the singer/songwriter from different camera angles all synced up. Lay down the audio, sync one camera angle first, then try two…to get a hang of it.

It should work. Sorry if I can’t be of any better help. I struggled at first with multi cam editing but I got a hang of it. Maybe someone else has some good advise. Best advise, try out some training.

Anders Utterstrom
Chicago, Illinois

[Andy Wilson]

Hi,

This is just a long-shot but when I upgraded to 10.0.6 some of the new features didn’t work as there were supposed to so I thought it might have been caused by having to upgrade six times (10.0.0 to 10.0.6).

I properly uninstalled my much-upgraded version of FCP X (including the various settings files) and reinstalled 10.0.6 as a new install and guess what, the software glitches had gone.

If you can’t find the answer to the syncing problem, maybe this will work for you.

Andy

Thanks

Andy Wilson

[Andy Neil]

[Juan Luis Lopez Fons] “The problem is that when I close the Angle editor and return to edit my multicam clip, all the footage after all 3 cameras break is out of sync. When I return to the angle viewer to check sync, all the footage from the 3 cameras after the break IS in sync.”

If the video is showing in sync in the angle editor but out of sync in the timeline, then this sounds like a bug or corruption of your multiclip. Here’s how I’d try to diagnose:

First of all, is there anything special about the audio tracks? Are they 16 bit or 24 bit? What about the audio of your camera angles?

Also, does your project match the video/audio settings of your multiclip?

Secondly, I would try rebuilding the muliclip in the hopes that there’s some corruption with the one I initially made.

I’d try an export of the area in the timeline that’s showing out of sync to verify that it’s actually out of sync and not just a delay playing back the video or audio in FCPX.

I might trash my preferences to see if there’s some glitch or bug that can be resolved this way.

I might take the audio clip and break it into smaller clips or convert it to the same or other format (basically create new media) and try to rebuild the multiclip.

Last resort, I might delete FCPX and reinstall it.

Your problem, by the way you described it, doesn’t sound like operator error or you not understanding how multiclips work. If the clip is in sync in the angle editor, it should be in sync when edited into the timeline.

Andy

https://www.timesavertutorials.com

[Juan Luis lopez fons]

Hey Andy, thanks for the response. I actually trashed system prefs and reinstalled the program and the bug was still there. I think the problem may lie in the fact that a colleague gave me the installer for FCPX but since I don’t have his apple id and password I can’t do software updates on it, which means I am stuck in a fixed 10.0.5 version. Do you think this could be part of the problem? I could just fork the $300 and get my own version of the program… would that change anything?

Thanks

[Juan Luis lopez fons]

Hey Andy, thanks for your advice. I trashed prefs, nothing special about audio (48khz, 16bit), project and multicam settings were the same and no luck. I then tried to export a small range from the middle of the multicam and Export gave me a video of ALL the clip, as if it didn’t respect the range selection. I got this problem TWICE. So, I decided to reinstall FCPX (a colleague gave me the installer and since I don’t have his apple id and password I am stuck with a fixed version of 10.0.5… could that be the problem?) and problem was still there.

I was able to solve the problem by deleting my multiclip, creating a new one with 2 out of the 5 angles and then manually adding each extra angle and “syncing to monitoring angl”e until all 3 video tracks and 2 audio tracks were in sync. It now works and both the multiclip video in the event library and in the angle inspector match. Thanks a lot for your help and suggestions, it was very valuable.

Final question: I am doing multicam editing with one audio track but I wanna use both audio tracks to cover both the interviewer and interviewee. To do that, do I need to manually import the audio clip and position it underneath my multicam edited clip or is there a more automatic way to do it? Can I live switch 2 independently synced audio tracks to the switching video?

Thanks again

Juan

[Andy Wilson]

Hi Juan,

Other Andy here. As you want to use two different audio recordings for your source, the best way I can see this working is to import the second track and manually align the sync to the first track, but not under your multicam clip.

Instead I would go to the angle editor, select one of the two audio tracks that you want to use, then select “Open in timeline” and open it. Then drag the other audio track that you want to use into the timeline underneath the first track. Then manually sync them.

When I edit two separate audio channel recordings I sweeten the sound and make any other adjustments in the opened timeline, as above (ie. in the opened timeline within the angle editor).

When recording wide dynamic range speech that needs to be heard on the small speakers of mobile devices (such as multiple speakers during church sermons, using a hand mic and a lapel mic) my favourite filters are the Gain (which if needed, I add first, but I only if I need more than the 20db of gain, that the following filter provides). I then add the Limiter filter, which provides a maximum of 20db of gain. With the right settings, this compresses the audio beautifully.

At this stage I also mute any sections of audio that contain unwanted stuff, such as room echo, coughs, babies crying etc. This completes the audio sweetening and when I go to the multicam clip to edit the video I don’t have to do anything more to the sound.

I learned this from Larry Jordan’s training videos. Hope it is useful.

Andy Wilson.

Thanks

Andy Wilson

[Juan Luis lopez fons]

Great advice Andy Wilson. Thanks

Juan