DR-40x audio out of sync? With a separate video source

[ukvamos]

Hi, so I am a DJ for the first time the other day I recorded my set. Used the DR40x as audio and DJI Osmo Action 5 as video.

I am having issues with sync as in the sound I believe slows down or speeds up at points to put out of sync. It’s not noticeable really to listen back audio only. But say if I put the video and audio together and sync them then I skip to 25 mins down the line the audio is out of sync.

I used the 4 track mode but couldn’t use the ext input as there was no output from decks so just used the internal mics. The quality was great but like I say it just out of time meaning I can’t really use for full set video and even clips would be annoying to sync up.

Believe I used 48k WAV I tried importing into my DAW Ableton to clean up with a master and used same settings then exported.

I also then tried to match my premiere settings to the audio see if that helped but not sure it did.

Just wondering if this is something people have experienced and can help with or not would really appreciate it.

Also ran off the batteries if that helps

Thanks
Dom

 

[Phil Tipping]

Welcome to the forum Dom. You will always have sync issues with multiple devices if they are not synchronised. Free-standing machines have their own sense of time, typically a built in oscillator based on a crystal, so it depends how accurate that is in absolute terms, and then how much it's affected by temperature, voltage etc. It may even vary from machine to machine. Imo it's just luck how much different systems will drift against each other.
To compensate for this, you need either a connection between them which carries sync signals. One device is configured as the time keeper (master), and the other is the time follower (slave). You could also use a completely separate master device and connect all other devices to it as slaves. There are many posts in this forum which discuss using MIDI connections for sync, but there are other methods depending on the device.
Bottom line is if your devices do not have sync inputs & outputs then you will have to resort to lining up the audio/video inside an editor. It can be tedious depending on how bad the drift is, but if you tackle it section by section, it can be doable.

 

[-mjk-]

All you can do is to cut the video into smaller segments and re-sync at the start of each clip. This issue is why directors sometimes call for a "rolling slate" in the middle of a roll.

If you must have sync, then you need devices that can jam a timecode. The DJI stuff can, but you'll have to check the Tascam manual for that.