curleysound Posted June 11, 2007 Report Share Posted June 11, 2007 Got an interesting call today. A show I did with 4 Sony SDX900 HD cameras is using the camera sound (naturally) and called me because they had tone on one of the cameras, and needed to put the "backup" audio into the mix. Since the cameras were rolling 23.97, the post sup, and DIT both signed off on doing 29.97 for the hard disk recording. Now they're complaining that it won't sync. Any thoughts on how to correct this without saying "You're using the wrong audio in the first place" ? Thanks, Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old school Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Hey Tom, I feel your pain for the blame game post is laying on you. It never changes. You asked all the right people, and everyone seems happy.You recorded it as I do for HD all the time, 29.97. Most editors want it this way cause it's back up, and they're cutting in SD not HD. One question, was there a smart slate and was it 29.97? Also, if they(post) have synced up 4 cameras with 6 trks of sound into their NLE, laying your "back up" tracks to the picture of the camera without sound is not that hard. CrewC Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curleysound Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 No smart slate. The DIT gave us all lockit boxes, 29.97 for me, 23.98 for everyone else. I just emailed the post audio supervisor, and I think he's taking care of it. His name is Michael, at Plaster City Post, and he's been a great help all the way through. Thanks, Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmgoodin Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Just sync at the nearest Even Second. As long as the 29.97 was Non Drop it should hold sync fine. You just cant use frames after the 00 second mark to sync on. ----Courtney Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Eric Lamontagne Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Sounds like the lockit box given to you wasn't set right? Either with different TOD or something other than the expected 29.97ndf. Ask what the offset for the timecode is (ie. how 'off' is it). They can find this out from sync of the simple clapper sticks. If they are counting at 23.976 and 29.97ndf correctly, a simple offset will correct an incorrect jam. If the lockit was incorrectly set to a different frame rate then you can 'shift the blame' towards the DIT as it was given to you this way. Always minimum recommend a timecode slate and get a solid verbal slate ID and clapper sticks. You never know what will eventually save your butt. If they refuse then you have given your best suggestion and it's their perrogitive to deny. Good Luck Eric Lamontagne PS. monitor the return from the camera when possible. PPS. remember to 'gen' lock or trilevel sync for longer than 10min takes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Perkins Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 SDX900 is a Panasonic model. If you were shooting an SDX900 then the camera TC was 29.97 in any case. If it was a Sony F900, then the camera TC is 23.976, usually. When they say the audio won't sync what do they mean? The time stamps of the BWFs are wrong? Or is the audio drifting, ie recorded at an incorrect clock rate? If the numbers are wrong but the audio is running @ the right speed then someone messed up and a jam sync. If the audio is drifting there there are setup issues somewhere. Philip Perkins Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael P Clark Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Not sure this is the same deal, but I did a job where they requested 29.97 DF. They then tell me they edited in 23.976, and the TC was not showing the same as my files. Slate or CH2 TC. I doubt you had CH2 TC, buthere's what I did. They exported me an OMF at 23.976 and I opened up the OMF and exported that session as a 29.97DF OMF. Upon opening the 29.976 OMF all my audio TC was in sync to the CH2 TC. I then exported an OMF of my audio at 23.97, and then imported it back into their 23.976 session and everything stayed in sync. Hope it helps, but it doesn't sound like you had CH2 TC with that camera. There never was a drift in our situation, just the numbers were off, and made syncing difficult. Doing this gave us the right numbers. and syncing 3x as fast, if not more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
curleysound Posted June 12, 2007 Author Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 I think I'm off the hook on this one, and it's (once again) an editor who'se got his rig set up wrong, but I'll likely find out today. To sum up, I was never given a good explanation of what "It won't sync" actually meant, but I know I did my part right, and the post super was confident that everything should be working too, and said he would take the reins from here. Unless they call me back, I should be good. Tom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlie Parra Posted June 12, 2007 Report Share Posted June 12, 2007 Hi Tom, Sorry to jump in late on this one. Basically what everyone here is posting is correct. They should be able to sync on the 00 frame (start of ech second). The only thing I would add is to use a Slate when ever possible. They can, at the very least, fall back on the stick clap to sync things up. Best Regards, Charlie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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