How to sync clips in multicam ?

[ryan_khoo]

Hi all experts out there,

I have 5 video cameras shooting at my niece singing & I placed all the video cameras at different angles. I also record the audio singing in garageband. Thus I have 5 video files (with video & audio) and 1 audio only file (from garageband)

Is there an easier way to sync all the 5 videos & audio ?

To make it easier to understand what I meant, I am looking to do something like this (which was done in Final Cut Pro X) on the Premiere Pro:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmjioVhWApI

Hopefully it can be done so that it saves me the trouble & time to match wavefile or having to "bang" a clipboard every time I do a new video take ...

As I will be jumping ship to Premiere Pro now, please say it can be done ... keeping fingers crossed ....

Thanks

[Briantho]

Of course it can be done Ryan and I'm using it quite a lot. However, the multi camcorder window only caters for up to four camcorders simultaneously - I believe Avid allow any number? Anyway, when I've used five, having edited the first four I've taken the output of them and simply overlaid bits from the fifth, if you follow me.

There are some excellent free video tutorials on this (google appropriately) and I found the facility MUCH easier to use than the equivalent in FCP but maybe that was just me. As far as syncing is concerned it's still up to you to choose some identifiable event or sound but then you can place a simple mark at that point on each clip and use the "Synchronize" command which frankly only saves you pushing everything into place. After that you create a new sequence and drag into that the sequence containing the four (or whatever) tracks, right click on that, Enable Multicamcorder and then open the special Window for multi cam editing. One thing that I've never seen mentioned in any tutorial: if you move the CTI with your mouse (window underneath at that point) don't forget to click on the multi cam window before pressing play again otherwise it will give you a VERY stuttery impression. You might well be able to manage everything using the J,K and L keys along with Page Up/Down plus the space bar but every now and then I feel I have to drag the CTI a long way back. It's then that I have to remember to get the focus back on the multi cam Window - click!

There are also considerations as far as which sound track gets used. It's all in the tutorials

PS. I've written the specifics above from memory but I think it's right. Do yourself a favor and start off by looking at some short tutorials.

[Briantho]

Oh my goodness - I just watched half that youtube movie you mentioned - that is SO clumsy! That's also called "Hack and Whack"! That's what I used to do - PPro multi cam is very much easier, you'll love it

[Bob]

Ryan, there is no "magic bullet". Multiple clips with audio tracks will still need some way to identify a common point where all clips are in sync. Unless you have some way to record all shots using the same external timecode, you are going to have to manually do that yourself. Once those points are identified, you can line up the clips. That fellow in the video you linked to was using Final Cut Pro's merge clip feature to line up the clips. Premiere Pro also provides a synchronize command that gives you the same synchronization options as the merge clips feature. It's probably easiest to set a numbered marker on each clip and then use the clip synchronize command to align them.

As Brian says, the multi cam feature in Premiere Pro is great and makes it very easy to cut between tracks. Watch this tutorial to get a feel for how it works: http://library.creativecow.net/harrington_richard/Premiere-Pro_Editing-Multi-camera-Productions/1

[RJ Johnston]

Has anybody tried PluralEyes? I read about it on another website. Kind of expensive.

http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

[Bob]

Thanks, RJ. I wasn't aware of that program. Looks interesting.

[ryan_khoo]

As Brian says, the multi cam feature in Premiere Pro is great and makes it very easy to cut between tracks. Watch this tutorial to get a feel for how it works: http://library.creativecow.net/harrington_richard/Premiere-Pro_Editing-Multi-camera-Productions/1

Thanks Bob, but using this method, we still have to manually find the "clip board banging sound" & put a marker. We may be 1 sec or a few frames out of sync, right ?

Also, what I am looking for is for the 4 videos to sync with an audio file recorded at the same time, I wont be using the audio from the video clip but rather audio recorded from garageband. So, all the for videos must sync with this audio file. The tutorial did not show us how to do this. In the youtube I show earlier, FCP X can snyc with the audio at a click. Can we do this in Premiere Pro ?

Thanks

[ryan_khoo]

Has anybody tried PluralEyes? I read about it on another website. Kind of expensive.

http://www.singularsoftware.com/pluraleyes.html

Thanks Johnston, do they have a version for FInal Cut Express ?

[Bob]

From what I understand, that Synchronize Clips feature he used in that youtube video is only in Final Cut Pro X. That capability is not currently in Premiere Pro. The Premiere Pro multicam editing is used after you sync the media clips. The PluralEyes product that RJ found appears to solve the synchronization problem for Premiere Pro. It is a standalone program, not a plugin. You import the media (video and audio clips) into a sequence and export the sequence from Premiere Pro as a Final Cut Pro XML file. The XML file is processed by PluralEyes to sync the media and you export the results as an XML file. You then import the XML file as a new sequence and the sequence contains the media aligned in sync on the timeline. You can then use the Multicam feature to edit the synchronized multicam sequence.

There is a getting started video that walks you through this. You should watch it. Go to http://www.singularsoftware.com/tutorials.html#premiere_basics and click on the Premiere Pro getting started video link (about 2/3 down the page).

[Briantho]

...We may be 1 sec or a few frames out of sync, right ?

...

Hi Ryan, for that specific problem here's some great advice from Helen: http://www.muvipix.com/phpBB3/viewtopic ... 420#p57677

I know it doesn't automate synchronization but it certainly helps!

[ryan_khoo]

Thanks guys,

So, it looks like Premiere Pro cannot do auto sync of clips yet like the new FCP X can.

Hopefully, in Premiere Pro CS6, we can have this feature.

Cheers

[Chuck Engels]

I think you will find that any auto sync is not what you expect it to be Ryan

This is Apple's explanation of Auto Sync

Automatic audio sync

When working with DSLRs and video cameras, it’s increasingly common to record high-quality audio separately. Final Cut Pro compares waveforms from the camera audio and second audio source to sync sound automatically – down to the sample level. If camera audio is unavailable, Final Cut Pro uses timecode to match recorded audio with picture. In short, syncing by hand is a thing of the past.

This really has nothing to do with multi camera editing although it may look like it does.
It will be nearly impossible to get identical wave forms or timecode from multiple cameras.
With the way that Final Cut X looks right now I'm not sure what features really work and which ones don't