Best practices/workflow in syncing multiple audio tracks to a clip

Question

Hello
Master Collecition CS5
I have a couple of webisides that I'm editing.
Each actor had their own wirless lav microphone recording to an external audio system that recorded wav files.
And the camera was also recording audio.
We also had a clapboard that marked each scene. The camera and the external audio recording system all captured the clapboard information.
I am replacing the camera audio with the wav tracks from each lav microphone.  For the most part when Actor "A" speaks I use Actor "A"''s lav wav. amd when Actor "B" talks I use Actor "B"''s wav file.
The timeline is already fine tuned and I don't want to have to extend the beginning of each video clip on the timeline so that I can sync it with the clapboard.
I've tried a number of tricks including a separate sequence just for syncing up sound.  But it doesn't seem really practical or time efficient.
I was thinking that maybe I should be syncing up the clips in soundbooth.  I see that when I right-click on an audio trick I am given the option to "Edit in Soundbooth".
Would incorporating Soundbooth into my work flow speed up the audio syncing.
I hope I am being clear!
Thanks
Rowby

Answer 1

I personally wouldn't mess around with copying and pasting timecodes. Yes, that'll work, but it's going to take more time than is really necessary to accomplish what you need. This is how I'd do this, though note that it's going to require some manual effort, no matter what:
In your sequence, move the CTI to the in point of your clip's audio portion; make sure the track that that clip is on is targeted. Hit the M key, which will match frame the clip and load it into the Source Monitor. Don't double-click the sequence clip to load it; you need an independent reference (e.g. the original master clip) for "measurement" purposes.
In the source monitor, press O to mark an out point before you move the CTI. Now, move earlier in the clip until you get to the clapboard, and park the CTI on the frame where the "clap" happens. You could also toggle over to waveform view to make this easier (I've actually mapped Composite Video to F3 and Audio Waveform to F4 on my keyboard to make this a quick and easy toggle). Mark an in point (I key), and take note of the in-out duration in the lower-right corner of the source monitor; it's the white numbers. For this example, let's say those numbers read (for a 29.97fps clip) 00;00;05;00, or five seconds.
With that number in mind, load up the matching audio-only clip into the source monitor, and move the CTI to the "clap" which you should see pretty clearly in the waveform. Once the CTI is postioned, you need to move the CTI forward the number of frames/seconds that you noted above... minus one frame. So, on your numeric keypad, type a "plus" (+) and the digits 429, or 4 seconds 29 frames (obviously this will depend on your sequence/source frame rate; one second less one frame in a 23.976 timebase is 23 frames, etc.). Once the CTI is positioned, hit the I key to mark an in point, and then drag the audio to the sequence; hold the Alt key and drop it onto the audio portion of the clip you're replacing. This will map the original audio's in point to the replacement audio's in point, and maintain the duration of the original sequence clip.
The reason you need to go one frame less is because when you mark an out point on a clip, you're actually placing it at the "end" of the current frame you are viewing, not the "beginning." You can see this in action if you park the CTI at a given frame and mark both an in point and an out point without moving the CTI; you end up with a selection duration of 1 frame. As such, you need to offset this duration when backtiming and then applying the duration to the replacement clip. It'll make sense after you do it once.
I know that sounds like a lot, but I was just trying to be as detailed as possible. Hope it helps...