Is it possible to sync multiple audio tracks to single video

Hi all,

A stupid question, maybe, but I think I'll have to ask it: Is it possible somehow to sync multiple audio tracks to single video?
Imagine the following scenario: BMPCC4K connected to a Zoom F6 (so timecode is aligned) and 4 boom mics connected to the F6, recording on separate files. How do I sync the 4 audio files from the F6 to be perfectly aligned with the video? I need the 4 audio files on separate tracks so I can adjust the panning per each track through the course of the video...

Hi all,

A stupid question, maybe, but I think I'll have to ask it: Is it possible somehow to sync multiple audio tracks to single video?
Imagine the following scenario: BMPCC4K connected to a Zoom F6 (so timecode is aligned) and 4 boom mics connected to the F6, recording on separate files. How do I sync the 4 audio files from the F6 to be perfectly aligned with the video? I need the 4 audio files on separate tracks so I can adjust the panning per each track through the course of the video...

You can select all the files you want to sync, then right click any of them and choose either sync by timecode, or sync by waveform. In both options there is a choice to replace or append. In your case, you should append.

Thank you Ki,

I'd guess this should do the trick - at least is does what I want with the 2 tracks I have in hand!

All your audio files should be the same duration so just sync one file by timecode with your camera file and then add the other audio files to the timeline, lining them up to the start of the synced audio track.

You can select all the files you want to sync, then right click any of them and choose either sync by timecode, or sync by waveform. In both options there is a choice to replace or append. In your case, you should append.

Are you sure you can sync many concurrent audio files to a video track using Timecode? My understanding was as you mentioned, but I think that sync in the bins on the Media Page only syncs one. I have to manually align my other tracks to match the synced audio/video. Not a huge effort but a disappointment.

Everyone wants the feature in DaVinci Resolve on the Timeline to right-click and Timecode sync any number of audio tracks to a video track (or do it in the Media Page). BMD has made no commitment to do this, but there’s always hope that release 17 will include the feature.

[Dwaine Maggart]

You can only sync one audio file PER video file using the Media page sync tools.

I have this exact problem. Recorded 3 seperate files with the Zoom H6 and now I am stuck when it comes to synchronizing and I basicly have to sacrifice the whole purpose of having seperate tracks

Remember you can manually sync tracks in the timeline as needed. Usually that’s an easy option but not ideal.

This thread is old. Version 17 adds the ability to sync multiple audio files per video.

Ah, thanks!

This thread is old. Version 17 adds the ability to sync multiple audio files per video.

I just shot a run and gun job where I needed to record audio with three different external mics. I wanted to sync all three audio files manually to the (too degraded to sync automatically scratch audio on the video file!) video. When I manually synced the first audio file to the video, that worked AOK, but when I then tried to manually sync my other two audio files to the same video file, instead of adding a track (analagous the 'append' function in Resolve's autosync), when I select the linking button after lining my second audio file and the video file up, Resolve OVERWRITES the first audio file that I had synced. I looked in the Resolve 17 manual but the section on manually syncing is silent on how one can sync multiple audio files to a single video file. In short, for a doc shooter (or for dailies in general), having the ready and easy ability to manually sync multiple audio files to a video file, preferably as seperate tracks, is an essential important feature. Moreover, this does not appear on its face to be hugely complicated. If anyone in BMD or elsewhere knows how best to do this in Resolve 17 Studio, kindly point me to guidance. If this has not, in fact been made possible yet by BMD, I kindly request for BMD to design this in to the next round of Resolve updates, as soon as practically possible. Thank you.

Chapter 20 of the Reference Manual goes over this feature Thomas. (Pg. 360.)

Thanks, Jim, but, in fact, I already had read that section starting at p.360 of the reference manual closely and had tried to manually sync multiple audio files to a single video clip but it did not work. Moreover, if you read what starts on p.360 carefully, it is clear that this entire manual syncing section only refers to 'pairs' of files, not real life production sceneriaos where one may be recording the same subject with two or three mics at once and where you want to sync them all up to review and determine which. or which parts of each, will be best to use in your edit/audio edit.

tried to manually sync multiple audio files

I wonder if you need to auto-sync multiple audio files, using either waveform or timecode.

[...]but when I then tried to manually sync my other two audio files to the same video file, instead of adding a track (analagous the 'append' function in Resolve's autosync), when I select the linking button after lining my second audio file and the video file up, Resolve OVERWRITES the first audio file that I had synced.[...]

Exactly. It is strange that you can add Audio to an existing Video / Audio pair with the Auto Sync feature, but not when manually syncing. I created a post here (viewtopic.php?f=21&t=142989) about that and looking at the new posts in the last few days there are quite a few regarding Audio Sync. I hope this is an area they look into in the near future, because there seems to be some interest in more flexibility.

I am amazed at what we can do with Audio / Video Syncing in Resolve already, it´s just that tiny bit more to make it perfect (for now, everyone comes up with new ideas sooner or later, right?)

It seems like it is now with the "sync based on waveform and append tracks" feature -- but is it possible to display multiple audio track names in the "synced audio" dropdown menu in the media page? Right now mine is only displaying one, so I'm having a hard time telling whether another audio file successfully synced until I drag it into the timeline.

Additionally, I have three separate mics, so if it only successfully syncs two, I can't tell which file didn't work since it overwrites the audio filename when it syncs. Any tips for this?

Best I could come up with was forcing the timecodes to match. In other words:

1. Creating a timeline with the same starting timecode as the video I was syncing to
2. Manually syncing the audio tracks on that timeline
3. Exporting the audio tracks so they'd have the new timecode
4. Reimporting the tracks
5. Autosyncing with the new tracks based on timecode

I originally thought I could skip the exporting/importing and just alter the timecode for the audio clips. But because my audio began after my video, it didn't sync properly.

Hope there' a better solution to manually syncing multiple audio clips soon (or that y'all discover)
L

I [again] ran into this issue today and might have finally found a solution. It is a little hacky to get there, but that's okay! TLDR at bottom

A little preamble: we shoot dual system, so I have video files with multiple separate tracks of audio (boom, lavs, mix, etc.). Instead of jamming timecode, our setup relies on the on-camera mic or a feed from the sound recorder to give an okay enough scratch track to sync to. But sometimes the scratch track just isn't possible, eg. the recorder is too far away, scratch track is noisy, etc.

I much more prefer to have clips synced in my bins as "standard" video files rather than multi-cam clips (unless we're truly running a multi-camera setup) or other solutions like leaving them as linked tracks in a timeline and constantly grabbing from there.

To achieve this, most of the time "Auto Sync Audio" from the Media Browser in the Edit Page gets me what I want. BUT when the auto sync fails, I'm usually stuck using a multi-cam solution. Every so often I check the forums if there has been any changes to the software or solutions that I hadn't seen, but I hadn't yet found anything. However, just recently I tried a different (and in hindsight kinda obvious) approach. I consider it hacky because I think there should be a way to do this in one step, but if it works then I'm okay with it!

Instructions:

1. In the Media Page, sync ONE audio file. There are many tutorials on how to do this exist, but basically you select your video clip in the browser and move the playhead to the first frame of the slate's closure; then select the "best" audio clip and line up it's playhead (on the right hand side) to its waveform spike at the slate's clap; then finally click on the little 'link' icon in the lower right of the audio area.
   ** Your video clip should now had new audio. This new "merged" clip can be used to sync the additional audio channels (ie. audio clips).
2. Now, as if you had a good scratch track, select the new merged video clip and then command-clicked the other audio clips. Right-click the video clip (with the others still selected) and choose Auto Sync Audio. When prompted, I selected Waveform as the sync method. Voila!
3. Go into the Clip Attributes and change the audio layout to make it work for you. For me, my new layout was 1) Mono: BOOM (linked) 2) Mono: LAV (linked) 3) Stereo MixL (linked) / MixR (linked).
   ** I usually do steps 2 and 3 in the edit page so I can drag the finished synced-clip into a timeline to test my work)

My solution TLDR: to sync multiple audio clips to a single video clip that can't Auto Sync, first sync one audio clip to the video clip in the Media page using the manual sync method; then use Auto Sync to merge this newly merged clip to the remaining audio clips. Adjust your Clip Attributes as appropriate and then test on the Edit Page.

googling a lot about this lately

https://www.reddit.com/r/davinciresolve ... ideo_file/

It is absolutely mind boggling that you can't do this from the timeline level

googling a lot about this lately

https://www.reddit.com/r/davinciresolve ... ideo_file/

It is absolutely mind boggling that you can't do this from the timeline level

You should be able to do this by right clicking on the selected clips, Automatically Align Clips, Synchronize via Waveform? You align them to the Video's audio track.

googling a lot about this lately

https://www.reddit.com/r/davinciresolve ... ideo_file/

It is absolutely mind boggling that you can't do this from the timeline level

You should be able to do this by right clicking on the selected clips, Automatically Align Clips, Synchronize via Waveform? You align them to the Video's audio track.

This is not on the timeline level where you can bin from the timeline after syncing.

Resolve's auto align clips in both the media pool and timeline are often misaligned by a frame-- we need manual solutions because internal camera audio scratch is sometimes ALSO off by a frame when compared to a slate clap on camera.

The way I did it was from the timeline. You can do it from the media pool as well. When you line up via waveform it will never be perfect as sound travels. The best way is by using timecode unless you use a tool such as Auto-Align Post.

https://www.soundradix.com/products/auto-align-post/

You do not understand that what I want from the timeline level is to be able to BIN the clips, and retain all the audio channels when bringing it into another timeline-- are we both clear on that? If so how do you do it, without creating a compound clip from the timeline and then flattening the audio afterwards?

I know you can sync on the timeline level and auto align the clips...

I'm not sure if there are any caveats to this approach, and I'll admit I haven't read through the entire thread, but I just test this and here's what I came up with.

1. Sync your audio to one of the audio tracks
2.place it into a timeline
3.add your second/third audio clip in the timeline and manually sync
4. select the video and all audio channels you want to keep in sync
5. link those clips
6.drag the new linked clip into the media pool
7. now you have multiple audio sources linked to a source media clip as a subclip(the audio channels are reflected in the mediapool audio channels column view)

I'm not sure if there are any caveats to this approach, and I'll admit I haven't read through the entire thread, but I just test this and here's what I came up with.

1. Sync your audio to one of the audio tracks
2.place it into a timeline
3.add your second/third audio clip in the timeline and manually sync
4. select the video and all audio channels you want to keep in sync
5. link those clips
6.drag the new linked clip into the media pool
7. now you have multiple audio sources linked to a source media clip as a subclip(the audio channels are reflected in the mediapool audio channels column view)

step 7- wrong- I just tried this. It functions like a compound clip, only giving you a stereo mix and not the individual track channels.

I linked four channels together and dragged into the media pool-- why don't you try doing the same thing and tell me if you get different results.

video of me trying this

I linked four channels together and dragged into the media pool-- why don't you try doing the same thing and tell me if you get different results.

I do indeed get a different result with stereo tracks. Interesting. I'll keep exploring.

Unfortunately, the only way around this is to use the Edit/Edit Options/decompose compound clip on edit.

It won't show you all the audio channels in the MediaPool, but it does allow you to use multiple linked audio sources from the MediaPool.

yes- you are running into the same issue as me- that you are forced to decompose the track