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FCPX multicam syncing and editing with multiple audio and multiple video tracks
Hi All,
I’ve found questions about syncing and editing multiple video lanes with one audio track in a multicam clip (ala music video where the final audio is a prerecorded audio track. Also found posts about syncing multiple audio tracks to a single lane of video in multicam clips (e.g. an interview with several mics active)
My situation has both multiple lanes of video and multiple lanes of audio, and I’m looking for a workflow that will apply.
I have 8 audio clips that were from lav mics worn by 8 different people, recorded by separate recorders. There were 7 cameras, some moving around, others fixed, in several rooms. Each camera generated a few clips, and the clips have embedded audio.
In the audio clips from the lav mics, the sound is for the person wearing that mic. Each mic made a single long clip spanning all the video clips.
In the video clips, the camera audio has whatever is in the room (fixed cams) or field of view (moving cams). I don’t want to use the camera audio much, just for a tiny bit of room ambience.
The people were moving from room to room during the video clips.
So what I need to do (I think!) is sync and then cut the sequence of video shots (preferably using the multicam angle editor if possible). Not sure how to sync them. Then for each cut, have only the audio from the mics of people on camera in that cut.
I’ve tried making a multicam clip using all 8 audio tracks, along with all the video clips, but after selecting the cuts, how do I go through and enable/disable the audio lanes, so we only hear people who were on camera in that cut?
Apple senior support said not to use compound clips inside a multicam clip, but I’ve seen reference to compound clips (sometimes referred to as sync clips) here and in Andy Niels multicam tutorial part two, as partial solutions when there is both multi audio and multi video.
Apple senior support suggested
1) making a multicam clip with all the video and all the audio
2) put the clip into a project, copy it 8 times, one for use as only an audio lane.
This seemed to preserve all the syncing, but makes a mess for editing.Thanks!
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12 Replies
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[Michael Williams] “So what I need to do (I think!) is sync and then cut the sequence of video shots (preferably using the multicam angle editor if possible). “
No, you certainly do not want to be doing any editing in the angle viewer. That would be completely counter productive.
[Michael Williams] “2) put the clip into a project, copy it 8 times, one for use as only an audio lane.”
That’s ridiculous if you asked me and rather embarrassing that a “senior supporter” would suggest something like that.
The solution is in fact simple: you sync everything as you described, i.e. with all video and audio tracks, and in the project you want to use the AUDIO COMPONENTS feature for editing in and out of the audio as needed. It’s absolutely brilliant imho, and the exact thing you’re looking for. But to explain the ins and outs of using it would be asking far to much of my keyboard. I highly recommend you look at e.g. Ripple’s training on the subject to get up and running much much faster. For example this: https://bit.ly/14vbotD
Or even start with this (also from Steve of Ripple Training) to get a taste of what I’m talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAtrqUo6YBw
– RK
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Funnily enough I’m involved in a similar sort of project.
My current thinking is to see if I can find a way of taking the audio into something like Protools or Logic Pro X and make a multi-channel WAV file. Then bring that back into FCP X and use that with the muticam.
Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor -
[Michael Sanders] “My current thinking is to see if I can find a way of taking the audio into something like Protools or Logic Pro X and make a multi-channel WAV file.”
Sure. You could simply send it to Logic via a simple XML export or via AAF to ProTools. I just don’t see what advantage that would bring. How is is working with audio components in the timeline not more than enough for what’s being described? That is pretty much exactly what they are for. Makes editing multichannel audio an absolute breeze. WORLDS easier and faster than e.g. with 7.
– RK
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Robin,
Thanks! The APple support guys refer to editing in the angle editor as “cutting”. I mean choosing which angles throughout the timeline first, which generates many small clips on the timeline. Then as suggested here, I can expand the audio of each clip and add audio angles as needed, and that works yesss!!
The only problem now is that I’m finding that FCPX didn’t successfully sync all the clips after all. When I examined one video lane and one audio lane, they were in sync, but that was hasty. Other audio weren’t in sync (although it appears all the video IS in sync)
So are there tweaks one can do when generating the multicam clip that might get FCPX to generate different sync results? I know in Plural Eyes there are settings like “Try Really Hard” and “Level AUdio” that cause different sync results. Anything in FCPX?
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[Michael Williams] “So are there tweaks one can do when generating the multicam clip that might get FCPX to generate different sync results?”
Which technique is decided completely upon the quality, length and other properties of your footage. If a simple audio-based sync isn’t getting you the desired results, then there are various other options you can try, yes. For that I would highly recommend either this
https://youtu.be/1KeklPP6XEM?t=1h35m52s
Or even better, going straight to Ripple’s multicam training for any and all details.
– RK
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Robin,
Thank you again! The suggestion of using sync to monitoring angle is a great one. Do we know why FCPX can sync using that feature but not using the “make multicam clip” feature?
What I’m finding myself doing is dragging all the events into the timeline, exporting the XML to Plural Eyes, syncing there, then exporting from PE as a multicam clip back to FCPX.
In the User’s group video, they mention CU’s and ISO and other insert shots without audio that must be synced. I have the same problem in the project here… two lanes of robocam footage without audio. It also appears that the robocam footage is slightly “off” somehow, because if I line up the starting point by hand, the ending point is off quite a bit (the clips are roughly 20 seconds long) Any thoughts on how to handle syncing clips that lack audio? Tips n tricks?
Michael
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Hi Michael,
I’ve done what you describe on another project. It worked well as long as the editing was finished on the video.
However most of the plugins for Logic (Waves, iZotope, etc) that are great for dealing with sound problems also work as plugins on FCPX, and can be applied to individual “cuts” using the tricks discussed here with a multicam clip.
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I would sync the clips of talkie byte with its recorded audio via ‘synchronize clip’ tool first, save and rename, and then use them in multi or otherwise..
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Thank you Yamini. Apple support is saying not to use compound clips inside of the multicam clips. Does anyone know why?
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I hope someone can help with this issue its very frustrating.
I am using two camera’s and 3 audio devices – lav mic, shot gun and dynamic mic – all connected to zoom h6 recording device and all recording at the exact same time. The purpose of the recording is for an interview.
I select all video and audio files in the browser and create a multicam clip, relying on audio syn from the camera mic. For some reason I get a very slight echo from the lav mic but the other mics are ok.
Now, this is the bazaar part, if I drag just the audio clips into the timeline there is NO echo and I don’t have to make any special adjustments to the audio tracks to get rid of echo. It just works fine. I can then create a compound clip with all 3 audio with obviously no echo. It is only when I create a multicam clip that the slight echo occurs, which makes no sense to me.
All this would be ok if I was able to create a multicam clip with just the video and create a compound clip with the audio and then somehow edit them together but as far as I know this can’t be done.
I’m hoping I don’t need to take the audio into another audio program and create one wave file then bring it back into fcpx and then create a multicam clip. And I’m not sure how to make audio syn better once the a multicam clip has been created, which I don’t actually think is the issue anyway.
Has anyone else had this issue, I hope you can help.
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