Best way to deal with drift at DVinfo.net

Ben Moore · January 9th, 2012, 12:05 PM

I have an audio recorder (Tascam Dr-40) that is drifting out of sync with my camera's and other recorders.
I have just been cutting the clip every 15 mins and re syncing. Seems like there would be a better way to do this in Premiere?. I tried adjusing the speed, but could not get a number that would make it stay in sync for the full ~1 hour. How are others dealing with this in Premiere?

Thanks
Ben

Kevin Monahan · January 9th, 2012, 12:56 PM

Make sure the sample settings in your sequence match the sample rate in your source footage.

Jay West · January 9th, 2012, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ben Moore

I have an audio recorder (Tascam Dr-40) that is drifting out of sync with my camera's and other recorders.
I have just been cutting the clip every 15 mins and re syncing. Seems like there would be a better way to do this in Premiere?. I tried adjusing the speed, but could not get a number that would make it stay in sync for the full ~1 hour. How are others dealing with this in Premiere?

Thanks
Ben

That's pretty much how I do it, but I do not often work with separate audio recording streams. If you regularly use a separate audio recording device, you might want to look at Singular Software's product "Dual Eyes" which is supposed to be able to correct for drift. There's a downloadable trial version which you should be able to find here:

Singular Software - DualEyes

Note that this is a different product than their "Plural Eyes." Plural eyes lets you pick a point to have various audio and video tracks in sync but, AFAIK, it does not correct for drift. If you check out "Dual Eyes," let us know how it works.

Tony Neal · January 9th, 2012, 02:06 PM

I do exactly the same thing. I use a Zoom R16 8 track recorder for theatre work, and this drifts by about a frame every 15 minutes, although it does vary.

On the Premiere timeline I sync up the 8 audio tracks with the camera audio at the start of the recording and check through the timeline listening for the points at which the R16 audio is starting to drfit from the camera audio, then I zoom into the timeline until I can see single frames and snip out one frame from all of the R16 tracks. Repeat until the whole timeline is in perfect sync - usually takes about 20 minutes for a two hour show.

The cuts in the audio tracks are undetectable, and avoid the need to apply processes to the audio which could result in resampling and a potential loss of quality.

January 9th, 2012, 12:05 PM	#1
Ben Moore Regular Crew Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Vancouver, WA Posts: 190	Best way to deal with drift I have an audio recorder (Tascam Dr-40) that is drifting out of sync with my camera's and other recorders. I have just been cutting the clip every 15 mins and re syncing. Seems like there would be a better way to do this in Premiere?. I tried adjusing the speed, but could not get a number that would make it stay in sync for the full ~1 hour. How are others dealing with this in Premiere? Thanks Ben

January 9th, 2012, 12:56 PM	#2
Kevin Monahan Adobe Systems Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: San Francisco, CA Posts: 191	Re: Best way to deal with drift Make sure the sample settings in your sequence match the sample rate in your source footage. __________________ Kevin Monahan - Support Product Manager—DVA After Effects - Premiere Pro - Media Encoder - Prelude - SpeedGrade - Encore

January 9th, 2012, 02:06 PM	#4
Tony Neal Regular Crew Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Fareham, UK Posts: 160	Re: Best way to deal with drift I do exactly the same thing. I use a Zoom R16 8 track recorder for theatre work, and this drifts by about a frame every 15 minutes, although it does vary. On the Premiere timeline I sync up the 8 audio tracks with the camera audio at the start of the recording and check through the timeline listening for the points at which the R16 audio is starting to drfit from the camera audio, then I zoom into the timeline until I can see single frames and snip out one frame from all of the R16 tracks. Repeat until the whole timeline is in perfect sync - usually takes about 20 minutes for a two hour show. The cuts in the audio tracks are undetectable, and avoid the need to apply processes to the audio which could result in resampling and a potential loss of quality.