[Petros Kolyvas]

Hi Michael,

I’ve seen this advice suggested frequently, however in my small office we have three Final Cut Studio seats. Only on one system did the issue appear and simply opening up the project on another machine (which often completely different defaults) fixed the audio-sync-drift issue as Stephen noted.

To further illustrate the point, the machine with the sync problems was showing them even after Pluraleyes would complete the sync process. And round-tripping audio also resulted in the same kind of drift. Opening all these projects on other FCP workstations showed no such issues, so in this particular case the “default settings” mismatch isn’t applicable.

Other options that are often suggested include checking the framerate of audio, but even using something like Sound Devices Wave Agent to set the framerate of the audio in the broadcast wave headers to match the project/footage didn’t help on the system that was affected; only trashing the preferences did and I was initially remiss to do that because of loosing my setup.

However, at least it’s a simple fix – it would just be nice to know why it’s happening.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Well I’m very glad it worked for you! 🙂

Once I “fixed” the issue it hasn’t come back in some time – having used footage from Canon DSLRs, DVCProHD, AF100 AVCCAM and others.

I think that tool I linked to will allow you to back up your preferences when they’re “functional” such that you can restore them after having to trash them. I will try it out next time the “fix” is required. 😉

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Have you tried clearing all of FCP’s preferences? It’s no fun to set them back up but perhaps it’s what solved my own issue. I’m pretty sure Matrox’s driver install/uninstall routine does something of the sort – so that may be what did it for me in the end. I realise you’re not using Matrox hardware but I think this is an FCP issue.

Some people I know recommend this utility: https://www.digitalrebellion.com/prefman/
(Though I’ve always simply trashed them manually.)

I hope it helps! This issue is one of the most annoying I’ve come across.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Well it’s 2am. After a long day of work I decided to run through the tests.

I uninstalled the MXO2 (driver 2.1.x – most recent). Setup a sequence, synced some double-system audio to the appropriate clips and sync was maintained.

I then re-installed the MXO2. Lo and behold: it’s fine now. I’m going to do a few final tests, but it seems uninstalling and reinstalling the MXO2 was the ticket.

Thanks a million! 🙂

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

I am starting to wonder the same thing. I have a blasted MXO2 card in the newer Mac Pro. Although I’ve disabled it from within Final Cut Pro the 2.x drivers have been a nightmare of known-but-unreported bugs. Perhaps you’re right and this newest driver (installed just before Christmas, is the culprit.

Since it can’t hurt I’m going to uninstall the device and see if some headway can’t be made.

For the time being all sync-sound related duties are being done on the older machine. Those projects open up fine even on the new one.

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try it tomorrow and get back to this thread. 😉

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Here’s the thing, we have two mac pros with FCP 7.0.3 – both rooms are setup exactly the same way the only difference is one Mac Pro is older than the other. Both have the same software and updates. On one, everything works as it should, on the new(er) of the two. It does not. I just duplicated all the tests and on one system no-drift, other system, drift.

The giveaway is that the visual display of the waveforms on A3+ matches A1 and A2, exactly. Yet the audio plays back on those tracks, delayed.

Stumped.

Thanks for the link and the reply.

With respect to projects rate and audio rate; I use Sound Devices wave agent (since most of my audio is recorded on an SD product) to make sure any audio coming in matches the sequence settings. We also use workflows with lots of varied sequence settings and we’ve never had trouble round-tripping audio before.

As noted at the top of this post – our workflows work fine on one of the two systems, and now no longer (though they were working fine) work fine on the other.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Odd. Tried another file… worked fine. Went back to the first file, worked fine as well.

Operator error is my only conclusion.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Thanks Jeremy, I very much appreciate you taking the time to share your knowledge here. I will leave the option unchecked until it’s required.

Much obliged.

Pk

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

Hi Jeremy,

While I had to return the cards, thankfully I made a disk-image of each of the cards from that day’s shoot so I was able to follow your instructions.

I’m not sure what happened (don’t understand what went on except that when we were shooting the camera’s battery died and it was switched – this was the next clip recorded) but your suggestion worked. Can I ask what I did wrong?

More importantly. Many many thanks.

All the best,
Petros

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger

[Petros Kolyvas]

I never mentioned the R680, I was interested in the H680 (no on-board RAID controller.)

I was in touch with ATTO last night and they don’t recommend or support SAS to eSATA – it’s not that it won’t work, they just won’t guarantee it. They were curious about the possible setup though, indicating that I should take advantage of their 30 day money-back no-restocking fee and test it out – AND get back to them to let them know if it worked.

Ended up simply picking up a Sonnet-branded eSATA HBA.

—
There is no intuitive interface, not even the nipple. It’s all learned. – Bruce Ediger