Easiest solution for editing video with many audio tracks

I'm working in Resolve 18, and I've synced ~ 6 audio tracks to the video. The problem is all those audio tracks cause chaos on the timeline. But I need them for the sound mix at the end. Is there anyway to just consolidate all the audio tracks temporarily for the edit and then revert them all back to individual tracks at the end of the edit so the sound mixer has everything?

Also because I'm dealing with hours of footage, sometimes there's less or more than 6 audio tracks and I'd rather not have to manually adjust each clip. Is there a setting to automatically adjust all the tracks into one stereo track? Or is there another simple solution? Thanks

I would approach this by just making the audio tracks smaller so they take up less room.

Did you try using the cut page to edit?

Is there anyway to just consolidate all the audio tracks temporarily for the edit and then revert them all back to individual tracks at the end of the edit so the sound mixer has everything?

You can select the clips and create a compound clip. Once you finish you can decompose the compound to get all the individual clips back.

Is there anyway to just consolidate all the audio tracks temporarily for the edit and then revert them all back to individual tracks at the end of the edit so the sound mixer has everything?

You can select the clips and create a compound clip. Once you finish you can decompose the compound to get all the individual clips back.

This sounds promising, How do you make a compound clip?

This sounds promising, How do you make a compound clip?

Select the clips, right click and select "New Compound Clip...".
You can decompose it later by right clicking -> Decompose in Place

This sounds promising, How do you make a compound clip?

Select the clips, right click and select "New Compound Clip...".
You can decompose it later by right clicking -> Decompose in Place

Is this a common workflow for this seemingly very common problem? Multiple audio tracks on one video track. Seems like every reality show, every television show, and every film faces this dilemma often.

So I suppose I'll just sync audio via timecode, then make a compound clip and at that point name each clip the scene and take?

Perhaps I'll do that across all the clips at the beginning of the edit?

Seems like a good way to do this. But I'm surprised there's not a commonly known, industry standard way of doing something that must come up very often.

I have the same problem.
My approach has been to create an Adaptive 9 track where 9 is the max number of channels I have in all my audio clips.

I’m now editing with just the one Adaptive 9 track in the timeline and it’s bliss.

I hope things will work ok later when I try to send the audio out to sound post. If I were doing it myself in Fairlight this wouldn’t be a concern.


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I have the same problem.
My approach has been to create an Adaptive 9 track where 9 is the max number of channels I have in all my audio clips.

I’m now editing with just the one Adaptive 9 track in the timeline and it’s bliss.

I hope things will work ok later when I try to send the audio out to sound post. If I were doing it myself in Fairlight this wouldn’t be a concern.


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My solution is to begin a project by simultaneously creating a compound clip of each take and renaming the clip the scene and take number. This kills two birds with one stone. Then I rename the original file that same name, in the event that I later need to find the original clip, but I've found that even when you decompose a compound clip it retains the name you've given it. This seems to be an easy simple solution. But I'm no expert.

That does sound pretty simple and easy.
I was considering compound clips but didn’t explore that route. Not sure what the pros and cons of the two approaches might be.

I can say that I like the flexibility of using clip attributes on any clip to tweak what channels I’m hearing. But maybe you can edit the compound clip as a timeline to adjust this in a similar way?

PS I’ve been using clip labels plus metadata and setting the label to %scene%angle-%take.

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That does sound pretty simple and easy.
I was considering compound clips but didn’t explore that route. Not sure what the pros and cons of the two approaches might be.

I can say that I like the flexibility of using clip attributes on any clip to tweak what channels I’m hearing. But maybe you can edit the compound clip as a timeline to adjust this in a similar way?

PS I’ve been using clip labels plus metadata and setting the label to %scene%angle-%take.

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can I ask, how do you adjust the adaptive settings. I've attached a screen shot of my clip attributes page and can clip on a track and find the adaptive setting but all the other tracks remain? How do I implement the solution you use. Because I can see myself wanting to adjust the levels in some clips later.

Screen Shot 2022-08-08 at 12.44.32 PM.png (349.15 KiB) Viewed 698 times

OUTSIDE the timeline I added an Adaptive 9 and deleted the mono tracks. I did this to a group of selected clips.
I then mapped the channels I wanted to hear.

In retrospect I wonder if it would work to just change the first mono track of clips INSIDE the sequence to an Adaptive and delete the other mono tracks. Then map as necessary.

Also change the sequence tracks from mono or stereo to Adaptive.

The other tricky part is hearing to the sequence. It seems to be hardwired for mono, stereo, 5.1, or 7.1. I think you can use a plug-in to try and mix from multiple channels to stereo or mono but it doesn’t look like that’s well supported. Or at least not documented.


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