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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Multiclip: Synch Using Timecode not working properly

  • Multiclip: Synch Using Timecode not working properly

    Posted by Jim Bromley on August 26, 2010 at 10:47 pm

    Hi all,

    I’m cutting a show that was shot with three cameras, all running the same timecode. I select all three clips and attempt to create a multiclip, and choose to use Timecode as the method when prompted. When I go to view my multiclip, they are out of synch… sometimes it’s half a second, sometimes it’s a few seconds. Sometimes two of them line up perfectly and the third one is off.

    I can easily work around this by just choosing an arbitrary timecode and setting an in-point on each clip, and then choosing to use In Point as the synch method. That works just fine, so the timecodes are indeed synched properly on the clips.

    Any idea why using Timecode as the synch method isn’t working? It would save me a minute or two for each setup to just use the Timecode and not go through setting in points. I’m assuming it’s just some option I’ve missed in my project setup or something. Thanks!

    -Jim

    Jim Bromley replied 15 years, 11 months ago 2 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Michael Sacci

    August 26, 2010 at 11:46 pm

    How was the timecode sent to each camera, did you also send reference to the cameras?

    Normally this is a camera problem and not a FCP problem.

  • Jim Bromley

    August 27, 2010 at 4:14 pm

    Hi Michael,

    I’m not sure how the timecode was sent to the cameras, I was provided the data from multiple P2 cards on a hard drive.

    When you say reference do you mean reference audio? Two of the cameras did have native camera sound turned on, the third (which was actually the master shot) did not have any audio. Audio was recorded as timecoded .WAV files to a CF card that I was also given. I had gone through and Merged these .WAV files with the silent master footage before attempting to make the multiclip. I left the other two clips alone with their crummy (but built-in) audio.

    It sounds like this might account for two of the cameras being in synch some of the time when the third one isn’t. All three cameras were shot 24 NDF, so I don’t think it’s a framerate thing, and setting the inpoint at the exact same timecode (I’m not using a visual reference) on each clip produces a perfect multiclip… is it maybe because each clip isn’t starting at the exact same timecode? They’re each off by a few seconds, but I would think using the timecode to align them would completely ignore when they actually started and just fill in black for the clips that started later.

    -Jim

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