Sync Audio to Video in Resolve 18 using auto sync or manually

[@jessecumberledge4530]

Curtis your great! I do think there is an easier way to do this. If you make a multicam, and it doesn't sync properly you can right click the multicam and click open in timeline. Then you can manually sync everything. Once you sync, you then close that timeline. Your multicam is now ready for you to drop in your normal timeline. It keeps it much cleaner than the way your doing it IMO. I have learned a lot from you over the years. Thanks for all the free content. You can also drag the multicam on the left side of the timeline by the track section to open the multicam in a new timeline.

[@LearnLightAndSoundSessions]

Hi Jesse, thanks. Do you have anything showing the specifics of how you do this?

[@joelflescher7634]

Thank you so much Curtis. Editing and + looks so easy when watching your videos ... Such a great job !

[@curtisjudd]

🙏

[@GaryStockton]

Excellent tutorial Curtis. Very detailed. Happy New Year!!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks, Gary, and same to you!

[@Frame_Thi_Sen]

Hi Curtis, this was really useful, i plan to test this very thing next week so i will come back and leave another comment after that, thank you so much!

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@AlwaysDrawing2012]

Just what I needed for a current project. Thank you, Curtis! 😀

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@jandwstudios9729]

Thanks for this Fairlight has so many options, any additional education is very helpful. Looking forward to the course.

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@nyrubin]

I can't find the auto sync on the right click menu

[@curtisjudd]

Better contact Blackmagic support. Best wishes!

[@nyrubin]

@@curtisjudd hey thank you, I was trying to click on multiple clips. I had to them two at a time, if I remember correctly in premiere pro you can do as many different clips at once

[@aov_james]

I have never used fairlight features in davinci and I can't wait watch next tutorial :)

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@AllenCavedo]

Great demo of why timecode is the best way to sync assets. 😅 For real!

[@curtisjudd]

Indeed.

[@cameraheadstudios]

This is very helpful, I'm more a FCP person but slowly getting more and more into DR. Thanks..... Happy New Year

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks, glad it was helpful! 👍

[@seanwebb605]

Back in the day I learned Premiere and then work had me switch to FCP. The great thing was that FCP Express cost about $100 Canadian and I could use a simple no nonsense version on my MacBook Pro. But the FCP platform has changed so greatly that I'm better off going back into editing with the Adobe Cloud package including Premiere. After I scrape off the rest I'll have to learn how to toggle between Premiere, Audition and After Effects. Well....actually I never have had a solid grasp of After Effects.

[@brokeforever]

I've never been able to get a good sync with Davinci for some reason, I have to use Final Cut to sync files and that works like a charm almost every time.

[@curtisjudd]

I find Resolve's auto sync pretty hit and miss as well.

[@brokeforever]

@@curtisjudd Hopefully they can fix it soon with an update, other than that it's pretty close to perfect for my workflow.

[@TheVagineWhisperer]

Nice in-depth walk-through tutorial

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@seanwebb605]

Nice job Mr. Judd. Thank you for this.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks, Sean. Happy new year!

[@jannarkiewicz633]

You showed me enough to do this in CapCut. Thanks

[@michalgruszczynski9540]

Thank you! Your video helped me a lot today:) Have a great day!

[@curtisjudd]

Glad it helped!

[@connectwithmayank]

loved this video, waiting for fairlight video eagerly

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@JimRobinson-colors]

Nice video Curtis and happy new year. Same that Resolve still seems to have problems with a simple sync for multicam. something that Pluraleyes could do years ago. Especially with all the new AI that BMD ha engineered into Resolve - it still looks like they need to go back and fix things like this. cheers

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@kirinsnest5300]

I shoot with a Canon XA 55 camcorder. I'm pretty old school and often just want to record straight in on channel 1. The audio set up is sooo convoluted. But, they do have switches on the outside AND things buried in a menu. To improve my chances of getting the audio I want, I got a Zoom F6. It is a beast of another type. But I really like the preamps and the 32 floating bit. I have had mixed results synching the F6 recordings with the Canon MXF audio. I get those same error messages that are in this video. So, I am not totally loosing my mind. But, sometimes it synchs! I'm trying hard to standardize my technique to get standard results. Oh, Curtis with all your sway, please lean on Canon and Blackmagic to get this straightened out. Thanks. In the meantime, thanks for the workaround. I'll just have to resort to it after a couple of tries with the waveform synch, instead of going down a rabbit hole trying to make it work like it should. That's pretty old school too!

[@curtisjudd]

🙏

[@andrewmason8691]

Thank you, thank you, Chris. I have a question which follows on as the next step to consider…do you edit audio in Izotope RX before ripple deleting various parts of you video/audio?

[@curtisjudd]

Depends on what type of video. If it is a short narrative film with lots of takes, no. If it is one long take, then yes.

[@spencertorok]

dang, came here to see if i was doing something wrong. but glad to know the issues are with the C70 audio. Still frustrating though

[@curtisjudd]

Blackmagic would like for all of us to use their cameras 😀

[@peterstrachan3609]

Just getting started on DR. It would be really useful if you could start a few steps earlier. Imagine a long form project with many off-loaded camera and audio cards. Each one in a dated folder. Import them all into DR.l to preserve the naming structure, there are lots of files you don’t need! Next, the first video card/bin (001) with the corresponding audio card. What do you do then to sync them up?

[@joecaruso9990]

Hey Curtis! Thank you! I love DaVinci Resolve! I do music. I use Cubase and they sync wonderfully. Even though I add a bunch of VST's through Cubase I've learned to NEVER add reverb in Cubase to my audio file. It will NEVER sync. I will add reverb in Fairlight, or use my raw file from Cubase and add my reverb file and match it up, then remove the raw file. Thanks again Curtis! As always great content!!

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@TheHellst0rm]

Great video! One question: Is it possible to offset an embedded audio track by a certain duration? You mentioned in the DJI mic review that it has a delay of about 26 ms, so I it would be nice if it's possible to just repair that delay for each clip.

[@curtisjudd]

Yes, will need to nudge the audio in the timeline for each clip.

[@keithbennett5179]

Thanks ! Great Video and Happy New Year!

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks and happy new year to you!

[@ShahinAnsari-e6s]

Thank you so much for the video. The pace of it was great. Can you help me find some sites that have free video clips? Everyone I see in searches ask for an initial investment. Also, are there any clips with separate voice file so I can download and test to see if I can do this. I already tried it with some clips I have, but I do not have clips that have a separate voice recording. I am a teacher btw, and want this for my class.

[@andrasupor]

Alternatively 7:09 at this point you could also right click on the multicam clip and choose open on timeline. And then edit the multicam as a timeline and add and sync the wave file from the audio recorder manually inside the multicam clip.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks for the tip.

[@GabrielsLogic]

Thanks for this video Curtis!

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@david_pollack]

In my first short ( ~8 min) with an actual crew - I learned some significant lessons - which is good. I let the crew place me in a dire place regarding synching video and audio. I know better and take full responsibility. One video clip from the camera could encompass many takes. Or one. And a chunk of time, the slate was done at the end. Similarly, The boom did not always start and stop with the camera. And thus, the number of takes on a give audio clip could be distinct from any video clip. And don’t forget the Lavilier’s and another recorder device used (a table top used for a poker game scene). I have not yet investigated what the soundman did within those clips. I am frightened to find out :) Also, for each boom and laveilier track has an second identical track with a 6db difference. I think this adds only a bit more complexity as I will take the same action for each pair since they are exactly the same, except for the 6db difference. Effectively, I have a many-to-many relationship between the number of takes on the video clips to the number of takes on the audio clips. What do you think I should do? My thought: I take 10-20 hours and break everything into defined takes. I would then attempt the auto-sync and/or auto-align. One benefit of this approach allows me to optimize organization and the use of metadata, keywords and smartbins. I surely could use some advice. Thanks!

[@curtisjudd]

Unfortunately, yes, take the time to sort it all out before you edit. 😔

[@david_pollack]

@@curtisjudd Thanks mate

[@Tapepusher]

It can't be just me... but the zoom is soo limited in Davinci, you can hardly zoom in at all! When trying to manually sync I'm basically guessing where to put it, when I should (just like in Ableton and other software) be able to just zoom all the way in to the samples and shift it to being in sync.

[@curtisjudd]

Good feedback.

[@stereothrilla8374]

It is! I’ve recently transitioned from FCPX to resolve and got really spoiled using the to pinch to zoom functionality on Apple’s Magic Trackpad. I’m currently exploring the possibility of regaining that functionality in Resolve by potentially assigning custom hot keys and experimenting with some of the trackpad’s settings in accessibility.

[@machytka]

Thanks for the effort. Do you know you to link an Allen Heath SQ desk to Fairlight as a controller, that you can mix with real faders?

[@curtisjudd]

Can I? I tried a couple of years ago and couldn’t get it to work.

[@bluedun9816]

Looking forward to the Fairlight video.

[@curtisjudd]

It'll be a full course. 🤓

[@wkmpellucid]

Curtis, the Deity timecode generator works just fine with the Sony FX30 and the Sound Devices MixPre3 II. Just finished testing and jamming and removing the Deity to see if the two stay in sync. After jamming I waited 30 minutes before doing a recording. A mix was sent to the FX30. The video was recorded on an Atomos Ninja V. The video was transferred to a hard drive along with the wave file from the MixPre3 and both files were imported into DaVinci Resolve Studio 18. The video and the wave file were synced using timecode. I don't know how long the timecode generator can be removed and the sync maintained. It is possible in situations where the session is not too long that the sync will not be affected. I was interested to see if it could be accomplished with just one timecode generator. I may do a more extreme test later.

[@curtisjudd]

ThNks for sharing, Keith. 👍

[@Sheriffvlogs]

What if the Scratch audio Isn't good enough to sync and u are spending days trying to sync or u didn't clap at the beginning Wouldn't time code make it easier than using audio? There are times Where Scratch audio is very hard to sync manually Especially looking at waveforms that looked totally different on each audio track.

[@LearnLightAndSoundSessions]

Of course. Use timecode if you can!

[@jannarkiewicz633]

To make it work the camera must have audio recorded to match the waves form. Sorry, for the noob question.

[@MyStutteringLife]

Thank you for this 👍

[@curtisjudd]

You're welcome!

[@gomezcreativemedia]

Happy New Year. Do you have a tutorial on syncing audio with a MixPre3 using Tentacle Timecode with Log or BRAW in DaVinci Resolve?

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks and same to you! The process would be the same as demonstrated here.

[@Jehosephat126126]

Is this only in the paid version? I don't show this option in mine and I have 18.5 downloaded.

[@roadyrockproductions5348]

hey Curtis is there a way to sync audio and video clips, then export the synced clips back on to the hard drive?

[@curtisjudd]

Yes. Sync like we cover here, lay out the clips in a timeline and export.

[@roadyrockproductions5348]

thanks 🙏🏾@@curtisjudd

[@avis911]

Hi , I was wondering if there was a way to do multiple clips at the same time, I have a short film where the sound was recorded on a separate recorder ( zoom) with only reference audio on camera, It was a single camera shoot, we also did clap slates as backup to waveform sync, but obviously I have ended up with a mountain of footage which all need to be synced to the respective audio recorder files, I can do one clip at a time or perhaps there is a way to simultaneously select multiple videoclips( with embedded sound) and multiple audio clips ( from recorder) and have them all sync together. I have tried the one clip at a time method and waveform sync works perfectly, I am just trying to speed up my workflow. Let me know your thoughts.

[@curtisjudd]

I usually use the macOS app put out by Tentacle Sync called Tentacle Sync Studio. You just drop all of your audio and video clips on the app and it syncs them up in just a couple of seconds. Then you export an XML file which can then be opened in most video editing apps.

[@DejaGruvBand]

How does this work when you have a a show audio file that is 2 hours long. Will it synch to camera audio that is not as long?

[@curtisjudd]

Not sure, you'll have to try it. I found the results were really unreliable with footage from my non-Blackmagic video clips. Fortunately, you can try the free version to see if it works for you.

[@jonathanhall5670]

I started always using a Rode mic go 2 on the C70 and setting level to auto for cleaner scratch and have not had a sync issue since😉😀 before that it was always mess🤦.

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@przybylskipawel]

Great tutorial! I have a question. On your edit page after all the alignments your multicam video shows as 1 track of video. I would expect it would be shown as two clips one over another. What am I missing here?

[@curtisjudd]

When I create a Multicam clip in Resolve 18, it shows as one track of video and I use the secondary viewer to switch between cameras.

[@przybylskipawel]

@@curtisjudd Oh! OK :) Thanks a lot. I didn't know that feature.

[@Sebs_yepes]

Can someone help me please! When I go to auto sync, the option to do it with the waveform for some reason I can't select. Any ideas or suggestions?

[@curtisjudd]

Select the video AND corresponding audio clip first.

[@elliotmark5093]

what do you do if you need to manually sync a single camera clip?

[@curtisjudd]

That last method we covered here, literally line up the waveforms while zoomed way in.

[@2424rocket]

Well I have 200 video clips and audio clips that need to be sunk up before I want to start editing. Obviously as wonderful as resolve is, it ain’t gonna do it. I’ve been told pluralize no longer exists… Anybody know a program that can do this for me?

[@curtisjudd]

Why can't Resolve do it? Did you try to select all in the media pool, right click and sync?

[@quickpickle]

For the life of me.. why doesnt davinci offer a feature which syncs multiple clips together? Its like something which seems totally ignored by developers. Ive got a wedding with 2 cams and multiple clips of each cam to edit and I need to be able to sync all the clips. I tried using plural eyes but it just doesnt work right with davinci. Does anybody know of any software which can do this for davinci? Or is there some secret hidden setting in davinci which can do this? I used to do this quickly in premiere pro and plural eyes.

[@curtisjudd]

Not sure. Would be nice if they worked this out.

[@roderickpolak]

This would make me step from Adobe to Davinci... Any solution you or others found?

[@petrub27]

Sometimes it's a hit and miss with 32 bit files. Also, even when sinced metadata still shows 16bit audio. Davinci user here

[@LearnLightAndSoundSessions]

Definitely still some things for BMD to refine in Resolve.

[@rogerdayton]

Is the a maximum amount of time a video should be so it's unlikely to get any drift? At the same time, I guess you could clap again in a video to have addition sync points if needed.

[@LearnLightAndSoundSessions]

Depends on the camera and audio recorder. For most modern cameras over $1000, 40 minutes is no problem. Usually by an hour there may be a frame or two of drift.

[@physiqueDrummond]

As Judd wrote, it depends largely on your camera. I would be curious to test any "serious video camera" for clock drift as I did with my Fuji X-E1 and Nikon D300s. See the results in my project log titled "But it's only parts per million!" (include the quotes in you search!) TL;DR: those sub 1000$ not-built-for-video cameras can't shoot a 8 minutes take without seeing noticeable drift at the end.

[@AjushiPhotography]

Everyone fails to mention if your audio is 32-bit and not 24-bit - DV will not automatically sync audio - at least in my experience. BTW - I never have trouble syncing C70 Video and External audio as long as everything is 24-bit - 32-bit never works. Just my 2 cents.

[@curtisjudd]

Thanks for sharing. Our audio clips here were 24-bit poly wave files with 4 channels. I suspect it is the channel count that caused the issue here. Resolve SHOULD be able to handle that but didn’t.

[@anthonychirco]

It would be great to have AI auto-detect the slate clap or human clap in a clip and add a marker by itself. It would speed things up when having to sync "manually" !! - Blackmagicdesign, if you're listening ... heeeelp!

[@anthonychirco]

PS I'm also having issues with Canon clips and having to manually sync a whole doc series, woof

[@curtisjudd]

They don’t even need AI, just a better sync algorithm. Adobe, Apple, and Avid figured this out years ago.

[@surgefilmsbroome7239]

This is the only avenue where Premiere is far better than Resolve. I wish BM would work on their algorithm a little, it would save a lot of editors a lot of time! :/

[@curtisjudd]

Interestingly, it works well with footage from BMD cameras. I agree, if they really want this to be used industry wide, they’ll need to get it working with footage from other cameras.

[@djvphotography]

Although I already understood the value of timecode, after watching this video I can see why timecode is so valuable in terms of saving time in post-production and generally simplifying the audio syncing process.

[@djvphotography]

I forgot to mention I am also excited about the new Fairlight in Resolve course you mentioned in the video.

[@curtisjudd]

Yes! Super helpful when you have a lot of clips to sync.

[@dougdavis4324]

My audio wont sync no matter what I do. In premiere it works easy, plural eyes works as well. But NEVER in resolve. I hate this.

[@curtisjudd]

It is frustrating. Seems to work well with Blackmagic cameras but spotty with others.

[@kamalsinnofilms]

I dont know why people praise this software if its very complicated to sync a multicam sequence. i was hoping resolve solves this probem as opposed to Adobe PP. However now that i have been trying to auto sync audio for the past hour and jumping from video to video on youtube, I am seriously considering not buying resolve because most of my work in multicam editing. a\

[@curtisjudd]

It works nicely if all your cameras are Blackmagic.

[@dennypilot9856]

If there's one thing I understood from this tutorial is that Davinci is doing a crappy job of syncing audio to video

[@curtisjudd]

*with footage from certain cameras, e.g., Canon cinema cameras like the C70. If you use a Blackmagic Design camera, you likely won't have an issue.

[@dennypilot9856]

@@curtisjudd I actually do use blackmagic pocket cameras together with the Zoom H4n Pro recorder and davinci has issues with them as well. I think I'll just resort to timecode next time

[@NorroTaku]

pro tip clap *twice* for best results

[@LearnLightAndSoundSessions]

So clapping three times may have been the problem here?

[@curtisjudd]

Ok.

[@Jessiekim]

[@curtisjudd]

👍

[@JohnDoe-fu4qd]

when I right click that menu that you show in your video, is non existent on my version of resolve

[@curtisjudd]

Best contact BMD tech support.

[@JohnDoe-fu4qd]

@@curtisjudd I figured it out, it. Has to be in edit page.