How to Manually Sync Audio in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab

This article covers features which are only available in Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab.

Silverstack XT and Silverstack Lab offer functionality to manually sync audio clips to video clips.

Basic Principles: Audio Sync with Slate Markers

The process of manually syncing audio in Silverstack is divided into two basic steps: matching the according audio clip to a video clip, and subsequently syncing the audio and video clip at the right position.

The basic idea of the sync at the right position bases on the functionality of setting slate markers in the video and audio clip. By setting slate markers the user defines a sync position in both audio and video to be used to link the audio and video clips. Silverstack will automatically align the video clip and the according audio clip at the specified positions.

The article will describe in detail how to set the slate markers in the UI of Silverstack to attain a sync at the intended position as well as how to move the sync position if needed.

The counterpart of the manual sync is the automatic sync based on timecode that is available in Silverstack Lab. You can learn more about automatic audio sync in Silverstack Lab in the article “How to Automatically Sync Audio Based on Timecode in Silverstack Lab“.

Manual Audio Sync: Step-by-Step

Overview

  1. Have all needed assets available in the Silverstack Library (audio and video clips have to be available for playback).
  2. Open the video clip you want to manually sync audio in the Silverstack player and go to the frame you want to set the video slate marker (e.g. the frame where the slate visually closes).
  3. Open the “Audio&Color” panel in the lower center of the UI and switch to the audio tab (or hit the “QC” UI Layout button in the toolbar).
  4. Add the fitting audio clip to the current video clip by clicking the “+” button in the upper right corner of the audio panel
  5. Browse to the position of the audio clip you want to set the audio slate marker and hit the “Slate a+v: Video + Audio” button to set the slate in the video and the audio at the current position of the playheads.
  6. Click “Add Clip” to add the audio clip as external audio to the video clip and sync at the position of the slate markers.

Please note: You can also set audio and video slate markers independently and in any order.

In Detail

1. Register All Needed Assets in the Silverstack Library

Make sure to have the video clips and their according audio clips registered in the Silverstack Library. Learn about audio clips in Silverstack in the article Audio Clips in Silverstack.

2. Open the Video Clip You Want to Manually Sync Audio With

Fig.1: The video clip at the slate position.

Fig.1: The video clip at the slate position.

Move the video clip to the frame the slate goes down. If no slate is present you can choose any other significant position you want to sync to.

In this example the slate will be set in the next steps together with the audio slate. It is also possible to already set the video slate at this point. Read more about “Relocating Slate Markers” in the according section below.

3. Open The “Audio&Color” Panel in the Lower Center of the UI

The audio panel can be opened by clicking the “Audio&Color” button on the right side of the toolbar. Make sure to show the audio panel (see Fig.1).

The right configuration for adding manual audio clips can also be achieved by clicking the “QC” UI layout button in the toolbar (you can learn more about UI layouts in the article “UI Layouts: Quick Configurations for the Silverstack User Interface“).

4. Hit The “+” Button in the Upper Right Corner of the Audio Panel to Add an Audio Clip

The “+” button in the upper right corner of the audio panel opens a popover that lets you select an audio clip that should be added to the video clip:

Fig. 2: Choose an audio clip to be added

Fig. 2: Choose an audio clip to be added

 

Fig. 3: The "Add Audio Clip" popover in detail

Fig. 3: The “Add Audio Clip” popover in detail

Select the intended audio clip from the “Audio Clip” dropdown.

Move the playhead of the audio clips to the position you want to set the audio slate to. Click the button  to set both, the audio and the video slate at the positions of the according playheads.

The button   will set a slate only in the audio clip.

Please note that a video clip that has an external audio clip assigned to it will in any case contain a slate marker. If the slate marker is not specified it will be set to the current playhead position of the video clip and will accordingly be used as the sync position.

6.Click “Add Clip” to add the audio clip as external audio

Now click “Add Clip”. The specified audio clip will now be added to the video clip and all tracks will now be available in the audio panel. The video and audio clip sync at their slate positions.

Fig. 4: External audio in the audio panel

Fig. 4: External audio in the audio panel

Multiple Audio Slate Markers

When adding one audio clip to more than one video clip, it is possible to set an individual audio slate maker position for each video. This allows you to sync each video to different positions on the same audio clip, e.g. if there are individual claps for each camera or if two takes are recorded on the same audio clip.

If you open the “Add Audio Clip” popover for one audio clip that is already synced to another video clip, the first (already set) audio slate marker is automatically restored in this view for your convenience.

 

Relocating Slate Markers

Audio

You can relocate the audio slate marker for an external audio clip by opening the audio tracks playback panel. That can be done by clicking the play button  that can be found on the left of the track name labels in the audio panel:

Fig x: The audio tracks panel to listen to a single audio track

Fig 5: The audio tracks panel to listen to a single audio track

Move the detail indicator (red box) to a new position and click the button  to set the audio slate to the position indicated by the playhead in the detail view at the bottom right of the popover.

Video

You can relocate the video slate marker within the cue points section of the User Info tab of the right bar:

Fig.5: The video slate marker is a special cue point in the cue points section

Fig.5: The video slate marker is a special cue point in the cue points section

Move the playhead of the video clip to a new position and click the “set video slate” button  in the cue points section of the User Info tab. Alternatively you can use the shortcut Ctrl + Cmd + Enter to set the video slate marker at the current position of the playhead.

Please note that the video slate marker is a special kind of cue point. You can remove the video slate marker like removing a cue point. In case of external audio existing you will not be able to remove it as a video clip will with external audio will always have a slate marker. Learn more about cue points from the article Metadata Handling: View, Organize, Add and Filter Clips.

Removing External Audio Clips

External audio clips can be removed by clicking on the gear menu in the header bar of the external audio clip:

Fig. 9: Remove an audio clip from from inside the gear menu

Fig. 6: Remove an audio clip from from inside the gear menu

  • Remove: Removes the audio clip attached to the video clip.
  • Reveal: Reveals the audio clip in its audio bin
  • Mid/Side: Select the channels that should be used for mid/side stereophony

Audible Frame Stepping

When stepping through a video clip with audio frame by frame with the arrow keys you will be able to hear audio for every frame.