PluralEyes replacement ?

FcpX sync is messy if the job is not easy. (Like proper Video clip indicated to corresponding audio clip). For a bunch of clips it's a disaster) And that's the case of most shooting sessions an editor receives. Making "one video multicam clip" works better but with the hazzle of useless multicam workflow and all the inconvenients: less control on audio roles... not to mention the bummer with stabilization)

PluralEyes is now forcing us to a costly monthly subscription to a whole range of tools (Red Giant/Maxon)

Woowave is not an option since re-encoding !

what would be an alternative ?

More subscription idiocy. I use PE maybe 3x a year since AV timecode sync is so prevalent across so many jammed devices. Not even going to see what the sub price is going to be because I won't be buying into it.

And yes, FCP sych tech is so cumbersome, frustrating, and juvenile.

I just now checked out the situation and it appears that they are pushing subscriptions but a perpetual license for PluralEyes is still available:

www.maxon.net/en/buy/perpetual

Stu Wart wrote:

FcpX sync is messy if the job is not easy. (Like proper Video clip indicated to corresponding audio clip). For a bunch of clips it's a disaster) And that's the case of most shooting sessions an editor receives...PluralEyes is now forcing us to a costly monthly subscription to a whole range of tools (Red Giant/Maxon)...what would be an alternative ?

Over the past nine years I have shot and edited over 1,000 4k multi-cam interviews, many using FCP audio sync. In general I find FCP audio sync works fairly well even for many clips -- provided the clips from each camera or recorder are batch labeled in Inspector. More recently we use jam-synced timecode, and that makes it somewhat easier.

However -- even with timecode, if the audio and video files are disordered, not named or labeled, and have the wrong creation date/time, it is a big hassle. I've had cases where all the audio files for three-week shoot (inc'l dozens of multicam interviews) were not named or labeled, date/time was wrong, and all stuck in a single folder separate from the video.

In that case I used PluralEyes as a waveform search tool. I would load one camera clip from one interview, then load the hundreds of audio files, then let PluralEyes search for a waveform match. Each attempt took about 20 minutes -- per clip -- for hundreds of clips. When it found the match I would then label the audio file for the appropriate video, then repeat.

In another case several multicam interviews missed the production slate, camera audio was turned off, and camera and recorder time of day was wrong.  So PluralEyes nor any other audio tool could help that. In that situation I had to contact people who knew the subject's voice and appearance, then one by one go through each audio and video file to correlate them.

In cases like this, the production people and their management are not aware of the extreme cost imposed in post production by the slipshod approach. The way to avoid this is providing helpful instructional advice, and if that doesn't work, making them aware of the time and money cost and who is responsible for that cost.

yes, the "disorder shooting" is the first culprit,   slipshod   great word for that

And Plural Eyes, despite of what they claim for their last version (4.1.12) still can't send a proper XML to FcpX. It only works for a few clips... which is odd when you read the error message about DTD validation failing

So... answering my own question, the winner is Syncaila ! Just... perfect. very Fcp oriented ( they even care for Roles) and the XML goes right back to Fcp, Multicams or Synchronized Clips.

Not very fast.