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PP CC 2014.2 – new release, same issues – how to sync using timecode?
Dear fellow Editors and Media Professionals,
I’ve moved this post to this section as there was no answer on the “basics” forum.
My production house is growing and we’re looking for improvements in our workflow. Since all our editors (me included) like Premiere Pro, we consider using it in several new TV shows.
But, we have the same problem with each release – I still can’t find a way to synchronize tons of clips from multiple cameras using timecode. In Sony Vegas, for example, you can do it with one click, provided that each camera has a name (cam1, cam2 etc) which is visible within each clip’s metadata.
The current feature for synchronizing in Premiere is creating multicamera source sequences for each shot. But it is only worth it if you have long shots of entire scenes, when shooting a movie maybe. Each selected clip in the project panel is treated as a new camera. It would actually be great if you could select two bins instead (cam1, cam2) and insert them on tracks 1 and 2 using timecode, and creating multiple multicamera source sequences at once.
Selecting two clips by hand every time when you’ve got tons of them and syncing them takes a lot of time and to do that you have to be absolutely sure that they actually were shot in about the same time.Does anybody have any idea how to put multiple clips on a track, and align them by timecode? I know the obvious way to quickly copy the timecode in point, paste it in the timeline and insert the clip – I’m looking for a faster way…
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4 Replies
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[Adam Kawecki] “But, we have the same problem with each release – I still can’t find a way to synchronize tons of clips from multiple cameras using timecode. “
In the multi-cam function you have the option to use TimeCode as your sync.
[Adam Kawecki] “The current feature for synchronizing in Premiere is creating multicamera source sequences for each shot. But it is only worth it if you have long shots of entire scenes, when shooting a movie maybe. Each selected clip in the project panel is treated as a new camera. It would actually be great if you could select two bins instead (cam1, cam2) and insert them on tracks 1 and 2 using timecode, and creating multiple multicamera source sequences at once.”
We shoot reality type stuff with cameras stopping and starting all day and Premiere Pro puts all these clips into a single timeline. You don’t select each clip, you select all the clips for your particular segment you want to put together and off you go.
Place all the clips, including audio, you want to sync in ONE bin. They all have to be in the same bin.
Select them all, and run the Multi-Cam feature. In your case, choose timecode, but this also assumes the audio is timecode as well. We never use timecode, we use Audio for our sync since we always use a slate at the beginning of the first camera roll. we don’t always use a slate once things start happening.
Then sync. You will end up with a few multi-cam sequences most likely, but from that point, you can open them up as a Timeline and simply copy and paste the elements you’d prefer to have in one timeline.
We’ve been using this for some new lifestyle programming, (cooking, travel) with 4 primary cameras and 2 or more GoPros. Sync is so freakin’ good. 20 hours of material across 6 cameras or so. Sync’d in about 5 – 10 minutes and away we go. And that’s all UHD 4k material.
All audio is recorded via an H6 Zoom and we don’t use any sort of jammed timecode. Sync is amazingly good in CC.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative MediaCraft and Career Advice & Training from real Working Creative Professionals
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What Walter said. And I mark/subclip/tag everything in Prelude and then just create Smart Bins (say, Scene2_Take3) and it gets even easier.
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Dear Walter,
Thank you for your response. For synchronization based on the audio we use the most recent PluralEyes version.
The issue with the timecode sync in Premiere is that when you select x clips from camera 1 and x clips from camera 2, plus some audio files, Premiere creates a “bad” sequence – with as many tracks as there are clips, and they’re not synchronized. This is an extremely painful bug and impossible to work with. And you shouldn’t have to synchronize by audio when your footage comes with a perfectly synced TC. Also, what was pointed out so many times before by other users, you don’t always get good audio from your camera to synchronize it with something else (sometimes there’s no audio at all, only timecode).I was hoping that maybe someone found a workaround, or can confirm that this actually works if you do something differently, like change metadata or something.
I am not entirely sure that this is the case for all camera types or maybe Premiere doesn’t support metadata from some cameras, as I’ve only worked with several Sony’s and Canon’s cams. But even if there’s support for some superb cams that doesn’t help an average TV editor like myself, because you get all types of footage every day, and all I want to do is to save some time and money.
Adobe seems to ignore this very basic function for a couple of years now, and I’ve tried their forums – there’s only promises for future releases. -
[Paul Neumann] “What Walter said. And I mark/subclip/tag everything in Prelude and then just create Smart Bins (say, Scene2_Take3) and it gets even easier.
“Do you this for every clip/audio?
Im pre-planning and would like to know how others are doing this.
I have a few posts concerning Premiere CC 2014 and Audio Sync both audio and timecode issues as well as XML and Resolve.
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