Re: Audio issues driving me berserk! Any ideas?.

Just for the sake of anyone reading this post, we have managed to solve the issue via PM.

It was a 2-step process:

1. James had mixed up the synchronized clips (with clean audio) and the original ones (with only the camera audio) in the browser. That's perfectly understandable because FCP X adds no visual sign to a synchronized clip, as opposed to multicam and compound clips. It only adds the word "Synchronized Clip" to the name. As there is no visual reference on the clip itself, it's easy to confuse them with the original video clips.

That's why I have advised to create a Smart Collection for the synchronized clips, so they get put all together in the browser.

2. That led to the second part if the issue. As James had already made a lot of cuts in the timeline, using the original clips instead of the synchronized ones, he needed to replace all the wrong clips in the timeline with the synchronized clips. He found the solution, which I am pasting here:

"First I tried stripping the original media of its audio then relinking but it wouldn't allow me to do relink when the file was so different. I ended up having to create a new synchronised clip (after having stripped the audio away from the original media in the timeline) and then right clicking on every clip in my project timeline, selecting "reveal in browser" and then pasting that in and deleting the original."

The conclusion is: keep your clips well organized in the browser before doing any editing, so you don't cut the wrong clips onto the timeline. Problem solved.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Great catch Ronny!
Easy to overlook and something that is not that apparent.
Now if my overflowing brain can remember this when I need it.

Glad you got this corrected James

Happy Editing
Greg

Thanks so much!

Actually, Ronny, that's almost but not quite what happened. It was the first suggestion you gave.

What happened, it transpired, was that when I had made the synchronised clips, I didn't realise that the camera had recorded audio as well as the separate audio recorder. No wonder they synchronised perfectly!

I either didn't realise the camera had recorded the audio or I didn't realise the implications of this. As far as I was concerned (being quite new to having separate audio), I just had MORE AUDIO! I mean, how could that be a bad thing, right?

Oddly some of the camera recordings didn't appear to have audio and some of them did.

So the synchronised clips had the video and two lots of audio in them. I didn't realise this until Ronny suggested it.

I was cutting together my project and realised that some of the clips sounded different; echoes or louder more reverb etc. Anyway, I was flummoxed since there was no rhyme nor reason for which clips were like this. I fiddled with the audio levels, channels in both compound and synchronised clips. This well and truly muddied the waters.

So, realising what had happened, I did what Ronny quoted above.

The only odd problem I've had is that when I right click and select "Show in browser" and then press "W" to add that into the timeline, the clip that copies is always at least 10 frames different. I.e it's not clipped exactly right and I end up (for expedience sake) just comparing the topography of the audio wave forms to get it about right. I had a hunch this was snapping or something but turning it off and on has made no difference. It appears to copy in something slightly off making precise edits a mess. This could be perhaps due to the time code being different after I removed the audio? No idea. Anyway, something that made it slightly more of a pain. Still, better than having to re-edit the entire project, right?

Lesson learned!