David St. Juskow
July 14th, 2011, 09:03 AM
I've been cutting professionally with FCP for a long time, but have never seen this. Here's the setup:
Feature documentary started years ago on FCP 6. Because of the multiple parties involved, we're still on 6.0.5- no problems in the 3 years cutting. Finally have pic lock. I export an OMF of our 82 minute sequence for the sound mixer. We're at 44k, 24-bit audio, drop-frame, 29.97. The footage is a combination of 720/60 HD (EX-1) and up-scaled DV (PD-150.) Plus a score given to me as 48k, 16 bit wav files. He's on ProTools- the music and effects sync up perfectly to the reference quicktime (with TC burnt in) but some (not all) of the SOT's are slightly out of sync. We can't figure that one out, but time is short, so he slips all the weird SOT's into sync manually. Not the best solution, I know, but we are short on time.
He sends me a temp / test mix embedded in the reference quicktime. I extract the audio from that reference video and convert it into a 48k .aif file. When I cut it into the sequence, it starts fine lined up to the 2-pop, but is 4 seconds and 2 frames out of sync by the end of the film. Huh? I try converting into different formats, nothing helps- the sound track is 4 seconds longer somehow. However, when I import the reference video on it's own, THAT remains in sync when I lay it over my sequence- both video and audio (even though that's the same audio track I created the .aif file from- the one that drifts!) When I cut JUST the audio track from that quicktime (which has been compressed into an mp4) it is perfectly in sync.
Again, time is short but it seems like there must be some odd setting that is off. When he sends me the final mix as both a stereo AIF file and as 6 surround mono tracks, everything is drifting again by 4 seconds, no matter what I try.
We're about to give up when we try importing the same exact files into the same exact project, but on someone's laptop. And, guess what- that same audio file cut into the same sequence is now in sync. On my quad processor tower, out of sync. On his, in sync.
Now, yes, these are different machines- I'm on a G5 still, he's on an intel laptop, much newer. But still- why would that matter even in the slightest? Neither of us have any external device connected that might affect sync- like a audio slave clock, digital deck, etc. Same software, same project, even same external drive- but on one computer, it works, and the other is off.
Any ideas? We thought it might be a drop-frame / non-drop thing at first, or some weird mismatch... but it all seems irrelevant when we have 2 contradictory machines. Web searches so far reveal nothing.
thanks!
Feature documentary started years ago on FCP 6. Because of the multiple parties involved, we're still on 6.0.5- no problems in the 3 years cutting. Finally have pic lock. I export an OMF of our 82 minute sequence for the sound mixer. We're at 44k, 24-bit audio, drop-frame, 29.97. The footage is a combination of 720/60 HD (EX-1) and up-scaled DV (PD-150.) Plus a score given to me as 48k, 16 bit wav files. He's on ProTools- the music and effects sync up perfectly to the reference quicktime (with TC burnt in) but some (not all) of the SOT's are slightly out of sync. We can't figure that one out, but time is short, so he slips all the weird SOT's into sync manually. Not the best solution, I know, but we are short on time.
He sends me a temp / test mix embedded in the reference quicktime. I extract the audio from that reference video and convert it into a 48k .aif file. When I cut it into the sequence, it starts fine lined up to the 2-pop, but is 4 seconds and 2 frames out of sync by the end of the film. Huh? I try converting into different formats, nothing helps- the sound track is 4 seconds longer somehow. However, when I import the reference video on it's own, THAT remains in sync when I lay it over my sequence- both video and audio (even though that's the same audio track I created the .aif file from- the one that drifts!) When I cut JUST the audio track from that quicktime (which has been compressed into an mp4) it is perfectly in sync.
Again, time is short but it seems like there must be some odd setting that is off. When he sends me the final mix as both a stereo AIF file and as 6 surround mono tracks, everything is drifting again by 4 seconds, no matter what I try.
We're about to give up when we try importing the same exact files into the same exact project, but on someone's laptop. And, guess what- that same audio file cut into the same sequence is now in sync. On my quad processor tower, out of sync. On his, in sync.
Now, yes, these are different machines- I'm on a G5 still, he's on an intel laptop, much newer. But still- why would that matter even in the slightest? Neither of us have any external device connected that might affect sync- like a audio slave clock, digital deck, etc. Same software, same project, even same external drive- but on one computer, it works, and the other is off.
Any ideas? We thought it might be a drop-frame / non-drop thing at first, or some weird mismatch... but it all seems irrelevant when we have 2 contradictory machines. Web searches so far reveal nothing.
thanks!