Using PluralEyes with Sony Vegas Pro

Table of Contents

1. Getting Started
2. Sync Options
3. Support

1. Getting Started

1. Start Vegas® Pro and open your project in it.
2. Select the events you want to sync, or leave all events unselected to sync them all.
3. (Optional) Add the PluralEyes® button to the toolbar via the menu item Options > Customize Toolbar...
4. Start PluralEyes from the menu item Tools > Extensions > PluralEyes (or by clicking the toolbar button)

video tutorial

2. Sync Options

General Strategy for Syncing

First try to sync with just the Enable multiprocessing option checked. If the events are in chronological order on the timeline (this is the usual case), then we strongly recommend that you also select the option Clips are chronological. If some clips don't sync and you are sure they should, consider whether the following apply to your project:

• If the events aren't in chronological order, but you can rearrange them to be so, do that and choose that option. This gives PluralEyes more information to work with and it will be faster and more reliable.
• 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.
• 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 lot of 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.
• 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.
• Here's a tip: if you lock one of the events being synced, then it will remain in position after the sync and the other clips will move relative to it. This can be useful if you have already synced some clips and want to add some new clips to the timeline and sync them.

Events are chronological

It is very common to add clips to the timeline in the orde in which they occurred. If that is the case for your project, 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 media 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, open each event in the Trimmer and add a marker at the sync point. Give matching markers in the two events identical names. 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 event for PluralEyes as long as you name them appropriately. For example, suppose you have three events (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 named "start" and "end" and corresponding markers "start" in A and "end" in C. PluralEyes will use the "start" markers to sync A-B and the "end" 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.

Allow subframe offsets

PluralEyes is so good that it can actually find the sync to a subframe offset. This can be useful if you want to mix the audio from different tracks because it minimizes phase distortion. But it does cause many of the events to be colored pink, which can be a little distracting, alarming or even misleading. If you don't like the pink, uncheck this option.

Enable multiprocessing

Most computers have multicore processors and a GPU on the video card. Choosing this option will take advantage of the computer hardware to make the processing go much faster. The only reason not to have this checked is if you want to do some other processing while PluralEyes is busy and it is hogging too much of the computer's resources.

3. 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.