This is a variation on the basics of multiclip setup and editing in FCP. Normally, it’s just a simple matter of selecting two or more video clips, syncing them using T/C, audio or video hits common to all the tracks, then creating a multiclip. The trouble with this is that during the editing process every time you change video angles the audio source will change as well because the “audio follows the video”. You can choose to change only the video angle and leave the audio unchanged to a track previously selected but this still leaves only one track of audio in your completed multiclip edit. This is not good if you want to have the audio mixed from all your different cameras that you used at your original shoot. This is a huge advantage for wedding and dance recital videographers who need all the audio for the final mix. Here’s how to do it:

In the FCP sequence I drag the media from all the cameras into their own dedicated video and audio tracks and sync them all using a common audio hit or a camera flash, whatever you have available. Each time one of the cameras changes a tape it’s another sync job with the other two cameras in the FCP timeline. Once everything is synced then go back to the beginning of the sequence and match frame each camera one at a time. Each time you do a match frame the master clip for that particular camera comes up in the viewer. Mark your in point in the viewer and do this for all the cameras. Once you have all the in points Cmd-select those master clips in the browser to highlight them all. Then go to the Modify menu and choose: make multiclip.

All this time while you’re doing the match frame for the cameras the playhead shouldn’t have moved at all in the timeline. Create a new track for video and 2 new audio tracks and drag the new multiclip from the browser (change the track destination first) into the canvas and choose Overwrite. Now you have a perfectly synched multiclip on top of the other camera tracks. Mute the multiclip audio and in multiclip preferences set it up so that each time you change angles the audio changes angles as well.

The other advantage of doing it this way is that you also have the audio tracks from all your cameras available. Edit your multiclip until you get to the next camera break (tape change) and then repeat the match frame workflow and create the next multiclip. And so on until your edit is complete.

Happy multiclipping!

Go to Audio/Video settings in the Final Cut Pro Menu. Click the capture presets tab, highlight the one you usually use, duplicate it then click on “edit”. In the capture preset editor window rename the preset and make sure you have something like “32K” audio instead of “48K” so you can keep track of it. In the Quicktime Audio settings you can choose “first 2 channels” and “second 2 channels”. Leave it as first 2 channels for now. Change the format to 32 Khz 16bit 2 channels. Click OK to close the Capture Preset Editor window and click on the A/V Devices tab. Click the Options tab to the right of the Audio drop down menu. Change the settings from 48Khz to 32 Khz, 16 bit to 12 bit and 2 channels to 4 channels.

Make your first video/audio capture to get the first 2 channels. Rewind the tape and open up the Capture Preset Editor window again. Change the audio to second 2 channels and do another pass, this time disabling the video capture in the log and capture window so you only capture the audio this time.

NOTE: if you’re monitoring your audio with firewire only you’ll still hear just the first 2 channels in your speakers even though you’re capturing the second 2 channels. Rest assured that when you’re done the 2nd pass you’ll have your audio from channels 3 and 4.