Add timecode to .wav file in Resolve?

I've got a lot of .wav files recorded on a Zoom F3. The timecode on each file starts at 00:00:00:00. (I have no external TC device to feed TC to the F3.)

Is there a way to add timecode to these files--and specify the starting TC value?

If not, I have a couple of workarounds in mind (exporting clips from a timeline with the proper start TC, nesting clips in a timeline/make a compound clip with the correct start TC, etc.), but being able to add TC in Resolve/Fairlight would be, I think, more convenient for my purposes.

Why do I wish to do this?

For the film I am making I am often recording long audio takes while I go about shooting, usually at some distance from the mic. (All the audio is ambience; the film is a nature film.) I record time of day TC in my camera. I slate with the camera next to the mic in a short take to have a sync point from which the rest of the audio can later be synced to the video. I would love, though, to be able to assign TC to the audio files that then corresponds to the TC from the camera. I could then more easily sync various shots with the audio more easily.

Thanks.

You can modify the clip timecode using Clip Attributes in the Media Pool right click menu.

Is there a way to add timecode to these files--and specify the starting TC value?

The problem is that while you can change timecode on the sound files within Resolve with Clip Attributes, it's not permanent -- that is, it doesn't bake in that timecode change. The only way to do that is to re-render all the audio as broadcast WAV files with embedded timecode.

If you're going to the trouble of using Time-of-Day timecode in the camera, then what you need to do is not use a Zoom F3 but instead use a better audio recorder that does have jammable timecode, or -- even better -- use an external timecode generator and jam both camera and sound to that. Done right, it can hold sync for many hours, certainly 8 or even 10 hours.

Workflow challenges like this are hard, but it often starts with using the right equipment and the right technique at the very beginning. A real jammable timecode recorder is not necessarily complex, heavy, or expensive.

I have a couple of workarounds in mind (exporting clips from a timeline with the proper start TC,

Hey; just as a quick answer, this is likely what I'd choose, I guess...

Now, if you ever do all of your work in Resolve only, the Clip Attributes thing still becomes an option : as Marc wrote, it's relevant inside of Resolve only (meaning the new TC won't be baked in the file properties even after export since it would export the source file which doesn't have this C.A way assigned TC), but you didn't write you're to use another app for audio anyway...

Is there a way to add timecode to these files--and specify the starting TC value?

The problem is that while you can change timecode on the sound files within Resolve with Clip Attributes, it's not permanent -- that is, it doesn't bake in that timecode change. The only way to do that is to re-render all the audio as broadcast WAV files with embedded timecode.

If you're going to the trouble of using Time-of-Day timecode in the camera, then what you need to do is not use a Zoom F3 but instead use a better audio recorder that does have jammable timecode, or -- even better -- use an external timecode generator and jam both camera and sound to that. Done right, it can hold sync for many hours, certainly 8 or even 10 hours.

Workflow challenges like this are hard, but it often starts with using the right equipment and the right technique at the very beginning. A real jammable timecode recorder is not necessarily complex, heavy, or expensive.

Thanks for this. Very helpful. That's what I thought about using Clip Attributes, but had hoped there was something else. Its impermanence might be ok.

As for using another recorder or an external timecode generator: that can be possible for future shoots. I use an F3 because there is occasionally risk of loss of gear (I'm filming a lot in intertidal zones) and I don't want to risk losing my Mixpre, which I can jam to my camera. A typical scenario with my F3 is that I set up the recorder (on a tall fence post embedded in the mud) out on a mudflat while the tide is out, shoot for a while in the area, and then leave as the tide pushes me to shore, returning to get the recorder 24 or 48 hours later while the tide is out again. It's one thing to lose a 300 dollar F3; another to lose a more expensive mixpre! I've yet to lose a recorder...knock on wood.)

With the material that I already have, which is substantial, I can do the route you have pointed to: exporting BWAV files with proper TC. Fortunately, I often don't care about sync, but in certain circumstances I do, so I can be selective about the material that I am exporting/reimporting.

Sam: I do audio work in Fairlight, generally.