Multicam editing with 4th angle audio track?
 

I recently shot a live performance using 3 cameras. I brought them into FCP, found sync points, and made a multiclip. The audio from the show was recorded separately, mixed, and bounced to me later that month. The only audio on my cameras were from their crappy mics--of which I used for syncing.

Now, is it possible to add the mixed audio track as a 4th angle, so I can lock the multiclip's audio to it, and just cut between the 3 video tracks? Because if so, I'm doing it wrong. The "4th angle" keeps winding up out of sync on the multiclip, even though all the video tracks are in sync.

Suggestions?

Zack - Let me preface by saying that I do not use FCP and edit on the PC, but it sounds like you are facing a problem that can happen on any platform. This looks to be sync drift, a problem on which there are many good threads. What you will want to check first is that all audio files are set to 48kHz and then run an advanced search using the Search link in the navigation bar above. If you click on advanced search, you can limit results to this fora and when I ran this I found many good threads that may be very helpful. Most likely it is not you doing something wrong but an unfortunate consequence of different "clocks" in the various pieces of kit or variable sample rates recorded. I think we all come across this at some point so good luck on your search and hang in there.

Adding Audio
 

Zach,

I do this all the time try this.

1) sync all your video
2) add audio track to new track and sync to your video
3) Unlock (open apple-L) and drag only the video tracks to a new folder.
4) Select the folder then control click - "Make multiclip"
5) Drag multiclip back onto timeline in track 1.

This will leave your audio completely untouched and allow you to simply mute the tracks you don't want. You will still switch between the three camera angles you have but you will be in total manual control of your audio. In the end I usually delete any audio I don't use just so everything looks neater.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the tips guys. It did indeed happen to be drift...but not in the traditional sense. The mix was from a completely different take, so it didn't quite match up ;)

And thanks Jon, I did that.