Automatically syncing multiple clips and lots of audio like PluralEyes possible?

[James Culbertson]

[Tangier Clarke] “Is there any way in FCP X to hand off multiple clips and audio and it’ll “figure it out” in the way I described above?”

Yes, it works amazingly well. The key is to make sure all clips from the same camera or audio device have the same ReelID. Then you can just select everything and do a “make multicam clip” using the default settings and it will sync up just about anything.

[Tangier Clarke]

Hmmm. could you elaborate on that process a bit more please. I somewhat understand what you’re saying, but if you could explain that workflow. Are you stringing it out on a storyline first or doing selecting in the event? Are you saying that FCP X will (based on a selection of a lot of audio and video clips) will figure out which ones go together and therefore will make multiple multicam clips?

Thanks for the response.

Tangier

[James Culbertson]

As one example, I received a two camera shoot of an hour long presentation shot with DSLRs. The main camera operator screwed up the zoom recording so we had no continuous master audio. There were 7 camera A shots and 16 camera B shots. I labeled the two cameras ReelIDs uniquely, then did a default make multicam, and the clips all synced up perfectly after about a minute using audio waveforms, and leaving temporally accurate gaps where the Camera A operator had to pause the camera (assuming no camera b overlap).

[James Culbertson]

I’m rendering something in FCP7 at the moment so I can’t remember the precise terminology. But in the FCPX event you need to make sure all clips ReelID or CameraID (can’t remember the precise event column names) are labeled uniquely, like “zoom audio,” cam1, cam2, etc. Then just select all the multicam clips in the event and do a make multicam.

[Tangier Clarke]

There’s something that sounds a little dangerous here. What I’m hearing is that you have to manually make sure the “reel” field is the same for all clips. Changing reel names is not something I’m sure I want to do.

If I have an AF100 (hold two SD cards) and a GH1 as a B cam. My reels will be as such:

shoot-camA-01
shoot-camA-02
Shoot-camB-01
zoom-audio

So if I want the clips created from these cameras (considering potential start/stops), in FCP X, I have to change the reel names before selecting all of the clips and zoom audio and choosing make multicam or sync for this to work?

Like timecode, I treat the reel as sacred unless forced into a situation where I have to change it or for some reason it was missing on import.

Tangier

[Michael Garber]

Here’s a good video for creating multiclips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viDC5XR35GE

Michael Garber
5th Wall – a post production company
Blog: GARBERSHOP

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[Tangier Clarke]

That’s a nice solution. However it only give me one multicam clip. I’m wondering if FCP X can look at clips and generate multiple multicam clips. Thanks for that video!

Tangier

[Kevin Rease]

If your reels are named as you have them listed you don’t have to change anything. I generally use camera angles to sync my media, but that is just how I work. You should be able to leave everything else at defaul and it should all sync nicely.

[Tangier Clarke]

I’ve been selecting clips based on the reel, duration, angle and creating multicams from there, but I like this method.

I was just trying to see if FCP X could generate multiple multicam clips without a lot of setup in the way that PluralEyes can organize on a timeline several isolated synced clips. Granted, I’d then have to take those from the timeline and drag them into the browser window (making sure they stay linked) to actually work with them as clips, but just wondered how far FCP X could take it’s syncing ability before I have to tell it (by selection and adding angle names) which clips should go together; perhaps for example strictly be evaluating audio.

It’d be nice if I said effectively (making up numbers)- OK here’s 100 video clips and the zoom audio clips that go with it, and FCP X returned 12 multicam clips in sync or even just 12 synced clips.

Thanks everyone for all of your insight.

Tangier

[Jeremy Garchow]

What do you mean when you say you want a bunch of multicam clips?

Meaning, you want each multicam clip to be discrete?