Audio out of sync

I am working on a documentary film, and some of the original footage was shot with a canon mini dv tape camera about 6 years ago. I have a Sony DSR-11 that is connected via firewire to a MacPro Quad Core with 32 Gb RAM running the latest versions of FCPX and Lion. I have previewed the tapes on a Sony broadcast monitor that is also connected to the DSR-11. The tapes are fine although they have some code breaks and "dead spots". I have used "import from camera" in FCPX with mixed success. As often as not the imported video has out of sync audio, which I know is not the case with the original raw footage. What seems to be happening is that I launch FCPX and que the tape to where I want the import to begin and start the import. That imported video is usually fine. If I then que to another place on the tape and import again, that import has the audio problems. The only way I've found to work around the problem is to quit FCP and relaunch and then start an import from the second location on the tape. I have tried just importing the whole tape but when it reaches a "dead spot" with no data the import stops and a new import starts but it always has the audio out of sync. That's why I went to the manual approach. Am I missing something? Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong? Could use some advice because this workflow is a pain.

Sounds like a bug. If you have FCP7 you could use that to capture the footage and then import to FCPX?

Ian.

Hmmm...I don't have FCP7 but I do have FCP6 installed on an old Power PC. Maybe that's worth a try. But that's not really the ideal solution:(

This is no bug. When you capture DV tape over FireWire and the tape has time code gaps, audio can get out of sync. I have seen this issue with any NLE I have ever worked on. That's why legacy FCP has an option you can select to stop capturing and create a new clip every time there is a time code gap in the tape. FCP10 does not have such an option, and it probably will never have it.

So you have different options:

1. You duplicate the tape to create a new and correct tape with continuous time code.
2. You capture the tape in legacy FCP and you create a new clip on each time code break.
3. You capture the tape in FCP10 and you stop at every gap, then you continue capturing after each gap.

FCP X actually does it automatically.

If you have QT Pro 7 you can capture directly inside QT Player.

@ronny courtens
I recently transferred several HDV tapes from a Canon camera using import from camera. All of them except for 1 produced one single clip (approx 59 minutes) which was the complete tape. One of them, however, produced (3) separate clips. I assumed the tape must have had a TC break and FCPX began a new clip, since I simply started the import and came back an hour later to find it completed and 3 clips sitting in the event browser. All clips were fine and had no audio issues. Maybe I got lucky here, or maybe HDV imports differently, but it appears that FCPX did indeed create three separate clips from that one tape triggered by something. Any thoughts are appreciated.

The NTSC-DV and HDV tapes I've done so far all use the auto-start/stop detect.

But the most common culprit is mismatched sample rates. Your camera has to be. Set to record audio at 48kHz, or you'll get sync drift.

Well, one of the tapes that imported as a single clip was an hour long, but indeed was started and stopped more than once during that recording. It contained scenes from a morning goose hunt and then had clips taken that same evening. Any ideas why that would have not imported as 3 or 4 clips?

That's a great idea! I do have QT Pro 7 but didn't recall that I can use it to capture directly. As to the other comments regarding FCPX creating a new clip after it encounters a TC change or "no data": I agree that FCPX will automatically create the new clip but what I'm experiencing is that those subsequent clips are the ones that are out of sync. It's as if the computer is losing it's place or something when it starts to create the subsequent clips. I'm "guessing" that the success you've had importing from the camera is just that: you're camera is directly connected thru USB perhaps??? In any event I'm going to try using QT Pro 7. Thanks for all the feedback.

Besause all in all, FCP X tape capture is just plain buggy. I've stopped using it because of the inconsistent buggy behaviors.

rberchin wrote: I'm "guessing" that the success you've had importing from the camera is just that: you're camera is directly connected thru USB perhaps???

When I capture VHS tapes for clients I run my deck thru a grass valley bi-directional converter which feeds the computer via firewire. This has always worked fine for me. I do 15 to 20 conversions per month.

When I captured using HDV, I fed the camera via firewire directly to the computer. So, even though my audio remained in sync, the clips that were created made no sense to me as to why they split where they did. I'll have to chalk this up to BenB's comment about tape capture being buggy.