The most traditional way to sync audio with video is using a slate or a clap. To do this in Premiere Pro we will be syncing via in point
To sync you are going to be creating multi-cam sequences, these will be single camera sequences that behave like a clip and preserve your original media.
Syncing with a Slate
- Select your audio and video track and scrub through till you find the slate clap and drop your in point.
- Hold down command and select both clips. Right-click and select “Create Multi-Cam Source Sequence”
- In the “Create Multi-Cam Source Sequence” dialog box, select “In Points” as your Synchronize Point. Select “Video Clip Name +” for the naming convention and add “Syncs” in the text box so you know that this new sequence is a sync. Be sure that “Move source clips to Processed Clips bin” is unchecked
- The new multi-cam sequence will be created in the Premiere Pro project manager, Move this new sequence to the Syncs Bin to keep things organized.
- Next, choose which audio track you want to use. Control or right-click on the multi-cam sequence, hover over “Modify” and select “Audio Channels”.
- Before you bring the clip into your sequence, pick which audio track you want to use with “Track Targeting” I only want to use track one so I will make sure that only track one is highlighted blue.
What if you don’t have a slate but you recorded scratch audio? or you are using a camera and audio recorder that is timecode enabled? Premiere Pro can still sync those as well.
If you didn’t slate but you recorded scratch audio you can sync via Waveform analysis which looks at the scratch audio from the camera and compares it to the audio from the recorder to sync the two up. It’s accurate as long as the audio is clean on the camera.
Timecode is pretty magical every frame recorded weather in camera or on the audio recorder is given a unique address, time of day plus frame count (HH:MM:SS:FF) Premiere Pro will look a the timecode from the audio and the timecode from the camera and sync them. You can even batch sync a whole days worth of media into individual syncs all at once!
For more information on syncing audio with video in Premiere Pro check out our YouTube page.