What should have been a simple job is frustrating since as soon as I have grouped 3 cameras by inpoint, 10 minutes later one of them changes a tape or pauses his recording and so it all goes out of sync.  It is also annyoing that I have to re-sync up as my MC max media clip duration is 30 mins, so I also have to re-sync every 30 minutes anyway.

I could lay them as 3 separate vision tracks in sync with a DVE shrink, but I have created 3 different multicam groups synced by inpoint as a preferred solution (call them start middle and end groups).  Trouble is when I load middle group into source window to carry on from where start group went out of sync, the record monitor keeps referencing the start group.  I have found ways around it, but it is all about matching by eye, which is tricky given the cam shots and bad sound.

Its not hard to get right on site (if you cant genlock, help me with time of day timecode for a start!!) , but tricky to fix in the edit.

Is there a simpler solution in post guys?

D

maybe you could do it like that:

edit all clips into one big timeline, use one video track for each camera, and move the clips until they are aligned perfectly (use audio waveform as a guid, then finetune by echo elimination). now solo each track in turn and export it, so you have a full length clip of each camera. finally sync and group these clips instead of your original clips.

i'd really like the option "sync by position on timeline" when grouping clips... maybe it's already possible, but if, i haven't found it yet - surely it's not mentioned in the manuals.

Thanks for the idea Mc.

What I did find worked was creating ever new groups (as tapes were changed or clips ran out) and then doing a replace edit (red arrow), based on matching outgoing timecode of the camera you are on in your seq and FROM THE MANUALLY SYNCED latest group SOURCE you have created.  Then when you dig into this new seq chunk the multicam function tracks the new clip.

Very bitty, but when its been shot by muppets, what can you do!!!!...

D

"i'd really like the option "sync by position on timeline" when grouping clips... maybe it's already possible, but if, i haven't found it yet"

Do you know, I think I used to have that on a Sony 9100 edit controller, 10 years ago.  I think it was CTRL + Sync Point and it would then pull all your sources into line, based on the relationship reference you had stored between the tapes in the VT's.  Progress ehh?

D

I guess if only I understood auxiliary timecodes (and how to change/set them), this would be a lot easier... but fortunately most of my multicam footage is shot by students rather than muppets, and they know their teacher's going berserk if they ever stop the cam without a very good reason.

(ok, actually I never get loud to my students, I just let them cut their shows themselfes once and all of a sudden they _understand_ why I insist on continuos takes... *g*)

LOL - well trained students are the way forward!

I'm not sure that changing or adding a 'clean' aux timecode would help (even if it is possible to do this after capture) as I cant see how it would fix the stop start relationship between the 3 cameras in this instance.

I've always thought that this was for a film editing function in Avid?  They add aux timecode to the TK transfer reels?  Guessing some here mind!

D

IMHO, multicam is much easier with TOD code.

If you have cameras that do not allow TOD code, then one could possibly use an external TC generator, record TOD LTC on an audio track of each cam, then use Read Audio Timecode to convert that audiostream into AuxTC metadata and use that for syncing, grouping, etc.