Audio Syncing Issues!

Hi there, I am having troubles syncing audio to video automatically in FCPX. I am recording on a Canon 60d 1080p 25fps and using a Zoom H1 recording MP3 for audio. My project settings are 1080p 25p stereo 48kHz. The footage from my camera is H.264 and when i try to sync the audio in FCPX it is always slightly off and results in an echoed audio track. When i process the video using MPEG Streamclip, exporting it to Apple Prores 422, the audio syncs seamlessly, however this takes ages and produces files quadruple the original's size. Please Help!

If you are recording your audio to the H1, then you have a separate file for that when you import. If you select the video file and the audio file together (holding Command as you select them) you should be able to go to the top menu under clip, and select "synchronize clip". This should create a new clip that contains audio and video.

Not sure if this is what you were trying and still having problems or if you tried to just stack the two clips up in the timeline.

Have a look at this tutorial:

www.everydaytutorial.com/2012/02/17/fina...audio-automatically/

This is what i have been doing, but with the H.264 clips its always a little bit off.

So are you saying you can do it successfully with other clips that are not H.264? If that is the case, perhaps there is a bug in fcpx with regard to that. Are you using the latest version of fcpx and your OS?

I'm sure if you stack the clips, and expand them, you should then be able to align the audio and video. I know that's a hassle, but I have not tried synchronizing with H.264 clips so depending on your answer to the first question, that may be the only alternative.

mtbtimr wrote: Hi there, I am having troubles syncing audio to video automatically in FCPX. I am ... using a Zoom H1 recording MP3 for audio.
When i process the video using MPEG Streamclip, exporting it to Apple Prores 422, the audio syncs seamlessly

i just check the website of the zoom h1 and it can record in pcm. record in pcm in future projects. you throwing away quality by using mp3. though fcpx can handle mp3 much better then fcp7 did (you had to render the audio every time), fcpx like any other nle doesn't really like mp3. transcode your mp3 audio to wav or aiff. on import also let fcpx check for audio problems. in my experience this made syncing results a lot better.

there is no need to transcode your canon material to prores just for syncing. though, it's recommended for editing.

Exactly, never use mp3 when you record your own video. It's NOT a professional codec, it's an Internet delivery codec, and very super high compression. PCM (AIFF) is what you want to record. It will sync with your H.264 DSLR original footage just fine.

Yes, ProRes makes larger file sizes, because H.264 is super compressed and eats up tons of system resources to playback. ProRes playsback easier, fewer dropped frames, syncs to audio easier, and when you Export, it will transcode much, much faster.

FCP X will sync clips more reliably based on the quality of the audio, also. How clean is the audio from both your video assets, and your audio-only assets?

Thanks heaps for the info, i will definitely play around with the different codecs and see which combinations produce the best results. The key thing for me is time as i enter quite a few 48hr film making competitions so i really have to minimize total render time. It may turn out that the amount of time it takes to convert the clip to prores out of the camera is worth the reduced final rendering times... Will report back