Timecode capture / line up in Final Cut Pro

Have just investigated lining up/ capturing separately recorded audio and picture via timecode in FCP.

In the previous post, the idea of jam-synching was touched upon. Basically, the Field Recorder is jam synched (or forced) to adjust its internally generated timecode to that of the camera (or vice versa). Once this has been done, the physical connection between to the two can be removed for at least a couple of hours without drift. This method has the added benefit that the sound recordist is not restricted to being in close proximity to the camera, as no physical link is required (although it can be useful if the sound op wants to monitor sound coming off camera too, for backup purposes etc.). This method only works in FREE RUN (F RUN) mode which is where the timecode progresses regardless of whether the tape is moving or not and means that the two devices do not have to be started and stopped precisely at the same time.

Any way, a Fostex FR-2 was set to generate FREE RUN timecode and then its timecode output was connected to the Timecode input on a Canon XH-G1 camera. Immediately, the camera picked up the timecode and matched it. The cable was then disconnected and both devices carried on generating their own separate timecode, but precisely in time with each other. A small amount of footage was recorded to both camera and field recorder and it was discovered that it helps if the camera is started slightly before and stopped slightly after the field recorder (more on why this is shortly).

Firstly, the wave file recorded by the FR-2 was imported, via USB, to FCP and because of its BWF (Broadcast Wave File) system, the timecode start and stop times immediately appeared in the "Media Start" and "Media End" columns within FCP. Secondly, the "Log and Capture" window within FCP was opened so that the matching footage from the camera could be grabbed. By Option/Dragging the timecode value in the Media Start column into the IN point within the Logging window (and by doing the same for the Media End column too) an exact capture could be carried out by using "Capture Clip". Once complete, the footage and wave file matched perfectly. By letting the camera start before and end after the field recorder, it is easy to get FCP to capture footage between the start and stop times of the wave file from the field recorder. If this wasn't carried out and the camera started after the field recorder, then FCP would not be able to find the required timecode on the tape.

***Addition (Feb 29th 2008) - the last paragraph discussing lining up the separately recorded audio with the picture from the camera, via timecode is not the best method. A much neater method is to use the MAKE MULTICLIP option within FCP and when asked how to align to audio with the video, simply choose MATCH BY TIMECODE. Once this is carried out, FCP will create a multi-clip with the separate audio perfectly aligned to the picture, regardless of whether it was started before or after the camera (the audio attached to the video file from the camera can then easily be removed from the multiclip). This method is also really neat when aligning footage from a multi-camera shoot to audio recorded on a separate device. If a clapperboard was used to aligned the cameras and audio recorder, IN points could be marked on each of the video files (i.e. at the frame where the clapper closes) and then the matching IN point could be marked on the audio file. By SHIFT+clicking on the same audio file with each of the camera angles one at a time and then creating a MULTI-CLIP and selecting ALIGN BY IN POINT, each of the camera angles will now have identical audio attached to them.