Confusing Audio Issue

Hello!

I'm a complete idiot / novice when it comes to final cut but usually I get by without incident. however I'm totally lost on this - if anyone could explain it in the most dumbed-down way possible I'd greatly appreciate it.

I filmed my band playing along to one of our tracks from various angles on two different cameras, so I could do us a cheap and easy music video. when I imported the files into final cut and played them back they seem completely fine, but as soon as I move anything onto the timeline, the audio suddenly pitches down, and from what I can tell the clip seems to slow down slightly too but I'm not 100% sure on that last part. It wouldn't be a problem as I'd just be using the original track for the audio anyway but, when I try to manually sync it up they'll be in time for some parts and then gradually fall out of time on every clip, so I think they may have been slightly slowed too.

I know there's some issues depending on import settings and such, but why would they appear totally fine on playback in the libraries in final cut but then suddenly change on the timeline itself? have I missed something completely obvious?

Seriously no one? I really need to find an answer, did I not explain it very well?

What are the video properties? Frame rate? Audio 44k or 48 k? What are the settings of your project in FCP? Give us as much info as you can to be able to help.

you used iPhones for recording? …

Yes, most likely has something to do with different sampling rates (44.1kHz vs 48kHz) and frame rates.

Most cameras record audio as 48kHz while the standard for CDs is 44.1kHz.

More information needed!

What settings did you set when you imported the clips? Were all the clips originally at the same frame rate?

None of this should be a problem because FCP should transcode everything on import so it all just works... but it might help to show where the problem is.

Likewise, importing audio at 44.1k should not be a problem because FCP converts to 48k on import.

It does sound very like a frame rate mismatch.

"Likewise, importing audio at 44.1k should not be a problem because FCP converts to 48k on import."

Nope, not automatically.

Explaining how in FCPX might be helpful for the guys...