How do you sync audio and video now that PluralEyes is in maintenance mode?
Most editing software can now line up separate sound and picture by their audio waveforms, which is the job PluralEyes did. Group the camera clips with the sound recording and choose to sync by audio. Timecode is used when it is there, and a clap at the start of each take makes sync easy to check by eye.
For years PluralEyes was the answer to “my camera and my sound recorder were never connected”. You gave it the clips and it lined them up by their sound. Maxon has since put PluralEyes into limited maintenance mode, so editors who relied on it are looking for where that job lives now. In most cases, it lives inside the editor you already use.
Syncing by sound, step by step
- Keep the files together. Put each camera’s clips in its own folder, with the sound recorder’s files beside them.
- Use the right microphone as the reference. The recorder’s track is clean. The camera’s own microphone is only there to line things up.
- Group by audio. In your editor, select the clips that belong together and choose to sync or group them by audio.
- Check the start and the end. Play a moment from each. If a take lines up at the start but slips by the end, a device was recording at a different rate, and that clip needs a fix before you cut.
- Name the sound. Label each microphone on its own track now, so you know which voice is which when you mix.
When sync by sound struggles
- The camera recorded no sound. There is nothing to compare. A clap, or timecode, is the fallback.
- The same sound is in two places. Music playing in two rooms can fool a sound match into lining up the wrong moment.
- Very long takes. A camera that stops and starts gives you several clips to line up, not one.
Habits that make sync easy
- Run timecode to every device when you can, even if you also sync by sound.
- Clap at the start of each take, in view of every camera.
- Leave each camera’s own microphone switched on, even when it is not the sound you will use.
How B/side handles it
In B/side you select the cameras and the sound recorder and group them. On every plan, each angle lines up by the sound it shares with the others, with no clapperboard or matching timecode needed. Cameras that stop and start become one angle, and the sound recorder carries every microphone by the name the sound mixer gave it.
On the Production plan, bSync lines up every angle by its sound and also by its picture, so a camera that recorded no sound still lines up. When the two answers disagree, you see both and the angle is marked for you to check.
When something else is better
If your project is already open in another editor, use its own sync by audio. Most current editors include it, and moving software for this one step is rarely worth it.
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