Multicam sync
Sync multicam footage without timecode
Use the sound instead. Every camera that recorded audio heard the same moment, so the cameras can be lined up by what they heard. PimCut does that against one shared recording — the song played on set, a field recorder or a board mix — and hands your editing software a timeline with every synced take already in place. No timecode, no clapper, and no footage is uploaded: it runs in your browser.
Drop the shared recording and the camera files. Each file is placed on its own against that recording, so a camera that stopped and restarted comes back as two clips, each in its place. Then open the timeline file in Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro or DaVinci Resolve.
It needs that one shared recording. A camera with nothing in common to line up against is never passed as synced, and a take the machine cannot prove comes back marked for one listen, at its best placement, instead of passing as certain. The beat-matched first cut is built for music today; on other shoots you take the synced timeline into your editing software and cut it there.
- Do I need a clapper or a slate?
- No. The sound every camera shares with the reference recording does the job the clap was there to do.
- What if a camera recorded no audio at all?
- Then there is nothing to line it up by. A camera needs some sound of its own — its scratch mic is enough, as long as it heard the same room as the reference. A camera with no audio track is refused rather than placed on a guess.
- Which editing software opens the result?
- Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve. PimCut writes one timeline file that Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve both open and one for Final Cut Pro, and every synced take opens already in place over the reference.