Synching/multicam in FCP X

[David Tripp]

Hello all,
I wasn't too sure where to post this but decided eventually to post it in here, as I would imagine that there are more people doing similar things to what i am doing.

So I did a few edits in FCP X and thought brilliant I really like the workflow, so for the next wedding project decided to go with doing the lot within FCP X now that they have the synching/ multicam option. Googled a few tutorials and thought that looks pretty simple so lets have a go.

Imported all my footage for the wedding and thought i would start with putting together the Ceremony part. This consisted of footage from two cameras and the audio (WAV) collected on the Tascam. Normally in FCP i would chuck them all in the timeline in chronological order in separate tracks with Audio below, open up Pluraleyes and hey presto the whole lot would be synched, and it wouldn't take that long.

Although now in FCP X, I think I am doing the correct workflow, I select all my clips, made easier by keyword assignment, right click and select make multicam. After hours of rendering I get a clip that is spaced out over about 20 tracks and are not in order at all. Does anyone else happen to have the same problem?

I am temped to go straight back to FCP, but would really like to resolve this issue.


thanks
Dave

[Chris Hsiung]

I've also found that it has trouble syncing well if the camera has been started and stopped numerous times. Each take gets put in as a separate angle (rather than one) and if the audio isn't similar enough it doesn't always match it up closely enough. You can try right clicking a clip in an angle and try syncing by audio again. Make sure you've selected the Tascam as the main audio.

[David Tripp]

I probably could, but it seems that i am doing a lot of work now in this new program which kind if negates away from the reason i swapped over to it in the first place, which was to save time. Plural eyes in FCP was really good for that and cut down my workflow no end.

I've had a quick look in the FCP X forum and there are a few threads about it in there but can't really se the same problems.

I am going to start from scratch again and see how i get on.

Starting with transcoding all my media into proxy files to see if this speeds it up. I am guessing that all you are doing there is putting it into a prores format that you would have had to do in FCP anyway it's just that i can do it now in the background. Hopefully this may speed things up when i start to do the multicam tasks etc. So i can play around with it a bit more and try and get it to work.

I like the idea of having all my raw media on an external and being able to work from the proxy media on my main macbookpro, as i do a lot of editing on the train. I think also the proxy media doesn't take up as much space on my drive as the prores files used to when I was editing on FCP on my MBP. If that makes sense?

Is anyone using plural eyes in FCP X with success that they had with plural eyes in FCP?

Thanks
Dave

[Mathieu Ghekiere]

First maybe try to select all the clips from the same camera, and give them the same Camera Angle.
You can do this in a couple of clicks (where in old FCP, you have to do it, clip by clip).

So if you have 4 camera's, first do that. I suppose you will have 4 tracks then.

I've had pretty good experiences with the multi cam sync of FCPX. It synched a 5 hour recording, chopped up in a lot of pieces. There were only 2 or 3 clips in the wrong place.

[David Tripp]

ok thanks,
Sounds promising,

it must be a user problem this end !! ;)

[Scott Brooks]

I know nothing about multi-cam editing, but I do know this ... last night I tried what seemed like forever to get the first and second act of a show (single camera) in sync with my digital audio which was one continuous source. I gave up around midnight, updated my Plural Eyes and it worked the first time.

[David Tripp]

Do you mean tried to sync it in FCP X using the inbuilt software function without success, and updated your plural eyes so you could use it through FCP X and it worked.

this will be the next step for me when I get round to it. I still can't get it to sync.

[Scott Brooks]

Originally Posted by David Tripp

Do you mean tried to sync it in FCP X using the inbuilt software function without success, and updated your plural eyes so you could use it through FCP X and it worked.

this will be the next step for me when I get round to it. I still can't get it to sync.

David ... that's exactly what happened. I tried many times to get the FCPX to sync and it would not. I updated my Plural Eyes that I had been using in FCP and it worked on the first shot.