2 Qs on TC Slate and Slo lip Sync

[Marco Naylor]

Hello everyone, Hope you are all having a great week.

I have 2 questions...

1. Can someone give me a break down on how to jam sync with the following... I am using a tascam HD-P2 field recorder and a Dencke Ts3. I am hearing different things from from all around, and want to see if there is anyone who has used this set up or similar and which way to get the best results.


2. If I wanted to shoot in Slo Mo and have the lip sync be correct with the normal speed sound, like in a music video, or the other way around have the footage sped up and have the lip sync follow normal speed, like in the movie chopper, is there a formula on how to do this. From what I have gathered, I need to export the sound file out either at a faster or slower rate, so the actor can follow it, and all depending if I want slo mo or the undercranked look. but how do I know by how much?

Thanks in advance

C. Bill

[Tom Visser]

I use Pro Tools to export my audio file to a different sampling rate. If you happen to open a 24/48 file in a 24/96 project within ProTools, it will be half speed. If you open a 24/96 file in a 24/48 project within ProTools, it will be double speed. Sound Devices Wave Agent is a good utility program and metadata editor. It also allows you to set the sample rate of a file (but not actually change the file itself). So for example, you could change the sample rate of a 24/48 file to 24/96 and when you play it back on the HD-P2 at 24/96, it will be sped up to double speed.

The tricky part... I normally recommend that we shoot at 23.976 or at 29.97 fps. If you are shooting at 48 fps, there will be a slight mismatch with the audio and video speeds. It might not be a big deal if you talking about a relatively short length, but to be technically correct, you should correct for this time difference. If your recorder allows it, I think that you have to adjust the clock... some recorders allow you to do this, others do not. My Nagra, for example, will allow a .1% pull up or .1% pull down so I can run 48 KHz for 23.976 / 29.97 fps or 48.048 KHz for 24 / 48 fps. Your slate only supports the standard frame rates, so you should set it to the "base" frame rate you are working with and the editor will have to modify the timebase in post.

If you wish to do any multiplier in speed that is not double or half, it gets a bit trickier. Triple, third, Quad, and quarter speeds should also be reasonable.