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Syncing two camera shoot
Hi all,
Having an issue syncing audio on two camera shoots. I don’t recall having this issue with the previous editing system I used (Sony ES-3).Here’s the rub. On two seperate occassions this week I’ve had to shoot interviews with 2 cameras. One a two shot and the other a close up of our guest. We are using Sony DSR-300’s recording to DVCAM tape. These cameras both have a proprietary wireless receiver/transmitter system that can be used, so we recorded our talent audio on the two shot cam and the guest audio on the one shot cam. Again, I’ve done this before many times and never had a sync issue.
After digitizing both cameras and the corresponding audio into Avid Xpress Pro HD, I am finding that the audio in both instances is one field off (or half a frame). When synced up as close as I can get it, I am getting a delay effect in the audio. If I move either track one frame forward or backward it makes the delay worse.
I realize if both microphones were recorded on only one of the cameras instead of one mic on each camera this would not be an issue, but we really needed to use wireless mics and you can only run one wireless systme on a camera at a time. Could it be that I just got lucky before by not having this sync problem? Or, is there a setting I can make on the Avid to correct this problem. I really don’t have time in my work flow to be transferring my source material to alternative formats. I am hoping there is a fix either on the cameras or with the editing system. Thanks!!
Dan
Clearwater, FL -
4 Replies
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Wow – I’m impressed! I’m not sure I could differentiate a field of difference!
Can you jam sync your time code in your cameras? That way you could sync your sources exactly.
Do you have Mojo? Are you feeding it external sync?? If not, that could some of the problem. Having a common source feed both the Avid and your deck might help the problem as well.
Jon
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Thanks for taking the time to reply, Jon. Yes, I most certainly can hear the audio out of sync. You can’t tell visually (looking at the video) that is off, but comparison of the wave forms in Sample Plot view, you can see as well as hear that it is off.
We are using Mojo with reference coming in from a Sony DSR-2000 DVCAM deck.
I’ve worked around it by cutting out the audio track of the microphone when that person is not speaking, but during sections where they step on each other it is noticeable…to me at least. I am favoring one track over the other to minimize the delay effect.
I’ll look into syncing timecode for both cameras next time.
Dan
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I’m not sitting in front of my Avid (and I’m not even sure this is available in the Xpress – I may be thinking Meridian) – there is (was) a color frame setting (again, I don’t remember where it was). It shows up as two green lines and is meant to show what field you were on…. I’ll try to find it tomorrow and post back.
Are you multicamming? How are you synching? If nothing else, I’ve used to tape cases as an emergency clapper…
Jon
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Haven’t tried multi-cam yet, although I have a project coming after the first of the year that I plan on using multi-cam feature.
For this, I am simply using an audio and video track for one camera and another audio video track for the other camera. I have the two shot camera as video track one and the close up camera as video track two. Since the two shot camera is locked down, I am leaving it as is. With the close up camera track I am editing out sections when I want to cut to the 2 shot. The editing work flow is fine with the exception of the audio sync.
We sometimes use the flash from a still camera in the absence of a clapper (or DVCam cases!)
Dan
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