Introduction
Welcome to a quick tutorial on syncing cuts using SoundXtract in Premiere Pro.
Let’s face it — why do you place beat markers in the first place? You do it as preparation to add clips to the timeline and then change their size and timing according to the markers. SoundXtract can save you this work: it can automatically resize and align clips on the timeline, whether they are already in the timeline or still in the project panel.
Aligning Clips Already in the Timeline
- Select the clips from the timeline.
- Toggle track targeting on the single track that will contain the results.
- Click the Editing tab and select Clip Alignment.
You’re done.
You can also customize the result. To change the ordering of the clips in the timeline, drag and drop items to the desired location in the list — or, if you’re feeling lucky, reorder the clips randomly. Use the Detection tab to change the timing of the cuts, and the Target tab to change the start and end times of the first and last clip in the timeline. For more information about the Detection and Target tabs, refer to the tutorial about Adding Markers.
Similarly, you can place items from the project panel into the timeline by selecting them and clicking the Project Items to Sequence workflow.
Choosing Which Part of a Clip Plays
As you play back the result, you might not like the portion of the video that is being played per clip. This is because the plugin uses the existing in-points of the video or of the project item.
Just so we’re straight: in and out points refer to the start and end times you mark on a video clip to define a specific portion you want to work with. These points help you isolate parts of the footage for editing or exporting without affecting the entire clip.
So going back to my point — if you want to play other parts of the footage rather than the ones that currently play, simply change the in and out points and then apply the alignment.
If you want to play multiple portions of the same clip, first cut the clip, and only then select both resultant clips before clicking Clip Alignment. That way SoundXtract has both of the clips to work with.
Why Clips Land Just Before the Beat
Lastly, if you notice that some clips start a little before the beat or the sound marker — that’s okay.
SoundXtract’s detection mechanism is extremely accurate. It samples the music 100 times per second to find beats and sound onsets, which is ten-millisecond accuracy. The sequence, however, depending on its frames-per-second value, ranges from 16 milliseconds to 40 milliseconds, corresponding to frame rates of 60 to 25. The fewer milliseconds, the more accurate.
So since the markers are more accurate than the frames, it is likely that both won’t show at exactly the same time. You might ask yourself: should I place the frame before or after the marker? The answer is before.
It seems we hear before we see. This is counterintuitive, because the speed of light is faster than the speed of sound. But it still happens, because our brains process auditory information faster than visual information — specifically, our reaction times to sounds are about 20 milliseconds faster than to visual events. Interesting, right?
Hopefully this workflow saves hours of your day. Use the spare time to go to the beach or take a walk. Thanks.
