How To Sync Audio And Video For Your Project
Have you ever watched a video where a person’s dialogue doesn’t match up with their actions? It’s really painful to watch. If audio is off by even a fraction of a second it can become so noticeable that it immediately breaks audience immersion in whatever they’re watching.
But how does this happen? Surely you just have to hit record and everything works automatically, right? Well… not always. Depending on how you approach whatever you are filming, the audio can be recorded separately. This happens a lot on film and TV sets, for event coverage and even for YouTube content. It depends on the setup and the level of production.
Either way, you’re here for one thing, you need help syncing your audio and video! You’ll be glad to know you’ve come to the right place as I have three methods to help you out.
Before we go any further here are the three methods
Auto sync in Adobe Premiere Pro
Manual sync
Using Third Party Software
Chances are that one of these methods will fix up all of your unsynced clips! So let's get right into the solutions!
Auto Sync Video and Audio In Premiere Pro
To make this as easy and painless as possible for you, let's start with the most easy (and free) solution on the list, using Adobe Premiere Pro’s auto sync feature to align your audio and video.
1 - Begin by adding the video and audio clips that you want to sync up onto your timeline. If you have multiple video and audio clips then separate each of them onto its own track layer
2 - Highlight all of the clips on the timelines, right click and hit synchronise
3 - Make sure that the synchronise point is set to ‘Audio’, hit OK and allow Premiere Pro to work it’s magic!
If everything has worked out properly, all of your clips should now be synced up. If it didn’t work as you had planned then you may need to fine tune it by using the next method.
Manually Syncing Video and Audio
If Premiere’s auto sync function lets you down then it’s time to go old school. Be prepared to do a LOT of fiddling around with this method. Hopefully when you began filming you either used a start or end slate on your clips to get the audible ‘clack’ of the clapper. If you didn’t, then you will need to pay attention to the mouths of your talent, or any other noticeable audio cue to try and sync to.
1 - Begin by looking at the waveform of your audio on your footage and audio clips. Try and move them as close as possible to synchronise them. Look for large noticeable spikes like a clap from the talent, a start or end slate, or distinct words or sounds from your subject.
2 - Once you are close to syncing your clips you may need to finesse it by right clicking the timeline numbers and ticking the ‘Show Audio Time Units’. This will allow you to move clips by microseconds instead of frame by frame to really hone in on the most accurate sync.
This method is much more involved and can take hours if you’re unlucky enough to not have any distinctive sounds to match up with. If you’re trying to sync up footage of someone talking then try and listen for words that have strong plosive sounds. Words that begin with the letters p, t, k, b, d, and g (like pet, dog, touch, etc) are great words to listen out for as they not only sound distinctive but also have associated mouth shapes that you can look for in the footage too.
Using Third Party Syncing Software
If you haven’t had any luck using Premiere Pro to auto sync your clips and doing it all manually is taking far too long then it might be time to look elsewhere for your solution. Enter Red Giant’s audio and video syncing software, PluralEyes.
This is where I almost exclusively sync up my footage and audio clips these days as it is incredibly easy and very reliable. Even for short clips that Premiere would struggle to sync up. It does cost a pretty penny though, so I would only recommend getting this if you’re really stuck with syncing up your footage or you plan on having a lot more shoots in the future that will require you to do so.
1 - Organise your footage and audio into folders using your file explorer. Each folder will be a different track in Premiere after you import it
2 - Drag and drop your folders into PluralEyes. Wait for it to analyse it all.
3 - Push ‘Synchronize’ and watch the magic unfold
4 - Choose export timeline and save it as a Premiere Pro XML
5 - Open Premiere Pro and import the XML file. It will import all of the footage, audio and the synchronised timeline!
