Using PluralEyes for Premiere Pro

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
2. Sync Options
3. Support

Getting Started

video tutorial

Follow these steps to synchronize a sequence in a Premiere Pro project. The steps are a little different for CS4 and CS5, as noted.

1. In Premiere, create the sequence you want to sync. Put the clips from each camera or audio recorder on their own tracks. Save the project.
2. Start the PluralEyes for Premiere Pro application. (It is a standalone application, not a plug-in.)
3. (CS4) Open the Premiere project file (.prproj) in PluralEyes.
4. (CS5) In Premiere, export the project to Final Cut Pro XML format using the menu item File > Export > Final Cut Pro XML.... Open the exported file in PluralEyes.
5. Select the sequence to be synced from the drop-down list.
6. Choose any desired synchronization options. PluralEyes usually works with no sync options selected, so you can leave them all unselected for now and learn more about them later.
7. Press the Sync button.
8. When it is finished, PluralEyes creates a new XML file and tells you where it is. Import that XML file into Premiere using the menu item File > Import.
9. There will be a new folder in the Premiere project window. Open that folder and find the synced sequence. It has the same name as the original sequence, but with Synced added to the name.
10. Double-click the synced sequence to open it in the timeline. There will be one or more markers in the timeline with names like pluraleyes 000, pluraleyes 001, and so on. Each marker indicates the start of a group of synced clips. If some clips didn't sync, there will be a marker called pluraleyes unsynced.
11. If there are some unsynced clips, and you didn't expect that, this would be a good time to learn about the sync options.

Sync Options

General Strategy for Syncing

First try to sync with none of the options checked. If some clips don't sync and you are sure they should, consider whether the following apply to your project:

1. If the clips in each of the tracks are in chronological order, choose the Clips are Chronological option. This gives PluralEyes more information to work with and it will be faster and more reliable.
2. If the audio varies a lot between the clips, choose the Level Audio option. PluralEyes will do some extra processing to compensate. The results are almost always better but it takes a little longer.
3. If you don't have too many clips, try the Try Really Hard option. This tells PluralEyes to do a lot of extra processing. It can often resolve difficult sync situations but it can take a long time, especially if there are a lot of clips that do not sync with each other. But if you don't mind waiting, try it out.
4. If you know that a pair of clips should sync and you also know some approximate sync points, choose the Use Media Markers option. It is similar to doing a manual sync but is easier because the markers do not have to be as precisely located.
5. Tip: if you lock one of the tracks being synced, then its clips will remain in position after the sync and the other clips will move relative to them. This can be useful if you have already synced some clips and want to add some new clips to the timeline and sync them.

Clips are Chronological

It is common in the workflow for live event recording to record and capture several clips in the order in which they occurred. When they are added to the timeline, they remain in order. If you have arranged your clips in the timeline this way, it helps PluralEyes to tell it that. It can process the clips faster and more reliably, and will ensure that the synced clips remain in order.

If you aren't sure if your clips are in order, do not choose this option because if incorrectly applied it will almost certainly lead to a bad sync.

Level Audio

This option is useful when the audio levels vary a lot between clips. This can happen, for example, in an interview where the on-camera mic is close to one person talking and the audio from the other person comes from a lavalier mic. If you choose this option, PluralEyes will do some extra processing to compensate. It is almost always safe to use this option, but it takes a little longer.

Use Clip Markers

Use this option when you know two clips should sync and you can identify an approximate sync point. A sync point can be one of usual events that are used for a manual sync: a camera flash or other distinct visual event; a short loud audio event; a hand clap; a slate. The difference between doing the sync manually and using markers is that you only need to identify the sync points approximately (to within about 30-60 seconds) and PluralEyes will refine the sync to the exact frame.

To use markers, add a numbered clip marker at the sync point. Give matching markers in the two clips identical numbers. Select the Use Media Markers option and run PluralEyes in the usual way. It will use the markers to determine the approximate sync and then refine it from there.

You can have more than one marker per clip for PluralEyes as long as you name them appropriately. For example, suppose you have three clips (A, B and C) from a music video. B covers the whole song but A is just the beginning and C just the end. You could put two markers on clip B with numbers 0 and 1 and corresponding markers 0 in A and 1 in C. PluralEyes will use the 0 markers to sync A-B and the 1 markers to sync B-C.

Try Really Hard

This somewhat whimsically-named option tells PluralEyes to spend extra time trying to find the sync. It can take 5-10 times as long so you will want to use it only on the most stubborn sync problems or when you are willing to let it run for a long time. If you can tolerate the time penalty, this can be very effective.

Replace Audio

This option is really handy for dual-system audio. You use it if you want to replace the audio portion of the video clips with the audio from an audio-only track. For example, you might have shot video with a DSLR camera and used its built-in microphone to record audio. To get better quality audio, you recorded the audio separately on an external recorder. You want to use just the good external audio in your production.

If this option is selected then PluralEyes will create a copy of the synchronized sequence, which will have the word replaced in its name. In this sequence the audio portion of each video clip will have been replaced by the audio from an overlapping audio-only clip (if there is one). You can start the creative editing process and work with the video clips just as if the high-quality audio was recorded with them in the first place.

Enable Multiprocessing

This option tells PluralEyes to take advantage of all the computer resources available to sync as quickly as possible. It makes things go much faster, but if you want more processing power for other tasks while PluralEyes is running, you can turn it off.

Support

Please visit our support page.

PluralEyes, DualEyes and Singular Software Presto are trademarks or registered trademarks of Singular Software Inc. in the United States and other countries. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners in the United States and other countries.