Audio goes out of sync when recording to external device

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Jay111] “While monitoring my project from the timeline using a Sony mini DV deck/monitor (using firewire), the audio and video are in sync. However, when I try to record the project (press “record” on the deck or use FCP to activate it), the audio goes out of sync by about one second.”

Sorry, but that just can’t be possible…
There is no difference whatsoever in just playing (“monitoring”) the timeline via a deck or camcorder and hitting the “record” button on that same deck or camcorder.

What CAN be possible…
is that you didn’t play the timeline “all the way through” in one pass (that’s when the sync problems usually show up) when you were just “monitoring” it during the edit.

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.