Syncing Audio and Video

[IraSeigel]

I'm doing sound at a filmaking conference, and this software was mentioned. Does anyone here use it? Would it help anyone here?

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

[Angie]

I'm doing sound at a filmaking conference, and this software was mentioned. Does anyone here use it? Would it help anyone here?

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

We asked a friend at HDNet about it a couple years ago. His comment was that he didn't think the technology was quite there yet. Based on that we passed.

[Seancom]

Hi Ira,

We use a similar product by the same company called, "Plural Eyes." Works like a champ. We use it after capturing second system audio and shooting video with our dSLRs. It works with our Final Cut Pro rig and does a nice job of syncing our timelines. Our clips tend to be short, maybe as long as five minutes. Although I have used it successfully with sequences as long as 90 minutes. We roll our Zoom H4n across the entire shoot and might have a dozen or so video clips from each camera. We throw the whole mess on a timeline and Plural Eyes sorts out each camera's angle in sync against the H4N track.

[Ian Alexander]

Hi Ira,

We use a similar product by the same company called, "Plural Eyes." Works like a champ. We use it after capturing second system audio and shooting video with our dSLRs. It works with our Final Cut Pro rig and does a nice job of syncing our timelines. Our clips tend to be short, maybe as long as five minutes. Although I have used it successfully with sequences as long as 90 minutes. We roll our Zoom H4n across the entire shoot and might have a dozen or so video clips from each camera. We throw the whole mess on a timeline and Plural Eyes sorts out each camera's angle in sync against the H4N track.

Interesting. Do you know if it actually syncs motion in the video to the Zoom audio track? Or does it just sync the audio from each camera to the Zoom audio? If the latter, visual sync will vary depending on the source distance for each camera.

[Seancom]

It needs the audio from the camera to match against the H4n track.

[Ian Alexander]

It needs the audio from the camera to match against the H4n track.

Do you find that you have to tweak the sync then, to get the lips, guitar strums, and drum hits to match the audio? Of course, the farther the camera is from the source, the more delayed the sound is, relative to the light. Maybe your cameras are close enough to the stage that this isn't a factor.

[Seancom]

I've never had a video/audio sync issue with Plural Eyes. It has been rock solid for us. What I have experienced is when there was a weak source signal on the camera audio (for example if the auto gain is off) then Plural Eyes had problems syncing to the master track.

[Dave Labrecque]

RE: distant cameras and audio sync

I would think that you don't want 'accurate' syc in the event of distant cameras. I.e, you'd want the lips to sync, rather than look how they look to a distant camera, which is early compared to the recorded sound. I haven't had the pleasure, but I'd imagine that such shots are adjusted manually to better match the lips to the sound, whereas this program should handle that automatically.

My rough calcs show a frame of delay at only 41 feet (at 24 fps). Seems that this would come into play more often that I'd thought. Standard atmospheric temperature and pressure, of course. Underwater shots would be much less problematic. But, then, folks typically aren't doing many 'long shots' under water.

[Sean McCoy]

And not a lot of talking underwater, either.

[Dave Labrecque]

And not a lot of talking underwater, either.

I've actually heard of some divers who are pretty good at it. Seriously. Handy when when hand signals fail. Ironically.

Even so, I wouldn't want to get my 416 wet.

Unless we're speaking strictly metaphorically. But in that case, the nerd factor in my prose might preclude me from being successful. If ya get my meaning.

But I digress...