audio out of sync on the timeline every time I open FCP 7

[Nick Meyers]

are you using mp.3 audio?
or H.264 video?

those formats are unstable in FCP7 and under,
and need to be converted to AIFF or WAV of audio, or ProRes for video

sometimes even AIFF or WAV can be trouble if you are using 44.1Khz files in a 48k sequence
again, converting to your sequence settings will fix the problems

or have you rendered your timeline or done an audio mix-down?

sometimes the renders come out wrong, with shifted content.
deleting your renders (Tools Menu > render Manager)can get you back to normal,
but if it keeps happening , look into your audio format as described above,
or trash your FCP preferences.

nick

[Richard Van harderwijk]

Hi

Nick is right, convert the files to the same sample rate in a codec with timecode in it, one with constant bit rate.

Also see
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/8/1165498#1165577

[Curt Lafurney]

I concur with Nick but another thing to look out for is h264 as the video format of any clips. FCP7 hates h264 and will reject it in unexpected ways without any warnings. Convert any h264 clips into pro rez 422 HQ for the most stable result. Yes your video format will defiantly bleed into the audio making it glitchy and twitchy, I’ve had it happen from h264 brain farts.

There is no such thing as luck, it all boils down to experience.