Sound for Video Session: Sync and Timecode 5 July 2016

Hi audio enthusiasts! This week we'll cover syncing audio to video and timecode and some basic lessons I've recently learned since jumping in to timecode. You can hopefully learn from my mistakes and bad assumptions. :)

Sync Tutorials:

[RallenMan]

This was a really nice overview on timecode.

You referred to "the timecode track" on pro cameras that support timecode or TC. There is no TC track in these cameras. What happens is the TC signal from your Mozegear Q28 or Tentacle is plugged into the camera TC port. The analog LTC signal from the TC box (Q28) is decoded into the SMPTE digital equivalent and that TC set of numbers resets the internal camera TC clock to that value. Whenever the camera Records a clip, the exact TC value at that moment in time is written as meta data into the video file iXML chunk in the header of the video file. In the case of an audio recorder like your SD 633, when you press Record, the TC data is written into the broadcast wave format file (BWF) for that take as meta data. The frame rate is also encoded into the TC signal and that is written to those same areas of the video and audio files. If the exact time is known at time of file creation, and the frame rate is known, and the TC clocks are very accurate in audio and video recorders, then the sound and image can be synced up exactly for any set of clips.

[Mitch_dsm]

You are so cool coming up with subjects like this. Timecode workflow is more and more accessible, people need to get familiar with it.
DaVinci Resolve convert LTC to actual metadata timecode information as well (it's free). It doesn't put it in the file though, but you can export a sync timeline from it.

[RallenMan]

TCXO - Temperature Compensated Crystal Oscillator. X is an electrical schematic symbol for a crystal, like C is for capacitor, R is for resistor. TCXO means the crystal that oscillates to produce accurate clock ticks is mostly unaffected by changes in temperature. This is an awesome advance in accurate time keeping because back in the day what they had was a temperature Controlled crystal oscillator. They put the crystal in an insulated temperature controlled oven inside the frequency generator instrument and brought the temp up to much higher than ambient temperature, and that way the crystal temperature never varied, and the clock was very accurate.

[OptimisticSimplicity]

Great video again, very informative, thanks

One thing if you could address or might as well demonstrate if possible for you to? Show Zoom F8 and GH4 with timecode in action? will be great, thanks

[RallenMan]

JackGreenAudio I would agree with Curtis that PluralEyes can fail to sync for several reasons, noisy environments can mess up PE, how about clips with no sound or very low sound, they will not sync with PE. With a multicam shoot with two or three or more cameras there can be many clips that are shot with no or low sound that will not sync with PE. I did one recently for a corporate meeting, we had 4 DSLR cameras running Tentacle sync boxes. We had 186 video clips and my audio from a SD633. All clips synced in about 15 seconds using Tentacle Sync Studio including many that had no sound to speak of in the audio track other than the Tentacle LTC audio. Then we exported an XML edit file for Premiere that took another 2 seconds to create. If you tried doing the same thing with PE it would have taken far longer and likely would have failed to sync everything. TC is not just more reliable, it is completely reliable. The production company had never shot with TC before and they usually spent 2 to 3 days manually syncing clips. They were so blown away with what I did for them that they now want to use TC on all shoots even if there is no sound just to get the multicam timeline sorted out in a few seconds rather than days.

[RallenMan]

Curtis, I am looking around to buy a small high function 4K camera and being primarily a sound guy it is important for me to have both a mic in and headphone out connector. I almost bought an a6300 but it lacks a HP out. The A7S2 is nice and has both but is larger and more money. Do you have a list of or can you suggest other cameras that meet my need? If I back off on 4K then the 80D is a choice but I disqualified it as it does not have a clean HDMI output.

[JackGreenAudio]

Comparing Time code to something like pluraleyes ? When/Why would you use timecode instead?

Thanks your videos are fantastic!

[michaeljorcutt]

One thing nobody seems to talk about on all of these newer Time Code Generator devices Videos out there, is "Timecode Drift". It can be a big problem if the internal clocks are not super accurate. Sound Devices are the Pinnacle when it comes to accuracy in Time Code with their gear. Not sure about some of these other products, because nobody seems to address it.I know the battery can last 40 Hours with one of these, but that means little if the Time Code is Drifting all over the place in that 40 Hours.

[andinbriwel]

I'll try to make a video about this if I get any down time.

[remektekmedia]

Recording video on Atomos Shogun Flame out of Fuji X-T2
Recording audio on Zoom F8 field recorder

The Zoom is acting as TC source, which is plugged into the Shogun.
Video processing is coming out of the camera, at 3 frame's of delay, so when I use FCPX to sync clips, they are 3 frames out!
The Zoom can add delay only to its output (Master and Sub) but not to the internal (multi track) recording on the SD cards.
The Shogun can add more delay to the video, but we need -ve delay! This could be achieved by simply recording a TC, which is 3 frames less than the incoming TC, but this is not available.

Is there a batch way to slip synced audio by 3 frames in FCPX, or is there any good way to over come this issue?

Thanks,
-Paul

[felipehenaovideo]

Interesting, Go to my knowledge library,

[ojoaomoutinho]

Is possible to apply this sync method to the Tascam DR-10L recorder?