News: Plural Eyes 2.0 out for Final cut Pro X: yes, you need it! Plural Eyes 3 Beta soon!

[Asher Kelman]

Well, a lot of us never intended to become videographers. Well, it's so hard to resist pressing the ubiquitous record buttons starting with one's smart phone and now reach our DSLR's and compact cameras.

So what's so special about another update of a video add on utility for your favorite software, (Final Cut Pro, Media Compose, Adobe Premiere, Vegas Pro or Edius)?

Simple it's the economy! Economy of time and resources. All those little records in one major event share in common the sounds that occurred in a unique sequence. In that is the secret to organizing you clips in a logical sequence. This applies to one event, like a wedding or repeats, like performances of a song or concert.

With Plural Eyes one can use all those 2-10 minute HD video shots taken with you DSLR and any track movie or sound recording of the whole event and miraculously have all the pieces synchronized without need for time code or a clapper to start the process!

The secret to this is the ability of the Plural Eyes software to recognize the audio patterns and so match the sound and then align the many clips and retakes you have over that same sound track.

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"See for yourself how much time, effort, and money you can save when you create synchronized multi-camera videos with PluralEyes. Select your video editing tool and operating system to instantly download a FREE 30-day trial – no contact information required!"


I'm interested in seing how Plural Eyes can help me editing my takes of various scenes in the opera I'm shooting. I wonder how it handles extra information, like a new verse in a song or cuts in the program.

With DNA replication, a base mismatch like that causes a loop of redundant sequence on one DNA strand. I imagine Plural eyes either will get stuck or else has a wonderful solution.

Asher

[Asher Kelman]

I would like to show you a typical screenshots from singular Software, not my own work. I'll add that later on:

Here you can see the clips lined up and below, invoking Plural Eyes:

This works like a charm. I would like to know the limitations and that's what I know I'll find out. After all, what about extra songs in two takes or an extra guitar note?

I guess that before one chooses to synchronize, one has to make decisions on which sound track is the master!

The software license covers two installations not used simultaneously. For example, for just Final Cut Pro of FCPX

PluralEyes® for Final Cut Pro® $149 USD

License Terms: The PluralEyes license allows for the installation on up two computers to enable, for example, the non-simultaneous use on a desktop and a laptop computer.

So if one is also editing on Composer or Vegas, then one has to buy an additional license.

Still, the software is really inexpensive considering all the time saved! Also it put's clapper's out of work which is sad!

Asher

[Asher Kelman]

Length of audio versus video clips!

The DSLR recording time limit issue: the ~ 12 min allowed time limit is no real big issue for events like weddings, as one can start and stop at natural moments of change over in the program. Still the sound recorded separately, say on a Korg MR-1 or a Zoom H4N is likely to cover the entire event.

Well, that's no issue for Plural Eyes. If Each clip has an "in" and "out" marked, then the remained or the sound track, the gaps will simply be removed as the 7D or 5DII or other clips are put in their rights order.

Multiple takes of songs, classical music or a movie scene: Here one might have many 10 minute sessions of the same music. However, the sound is in one long undivided clip. One has to use the razor tool first and break the tape into it's natural segments.

Multiple Performances of an entire show: This is my situation. My job is to record and edit multiple performances of an opera on different days using a Canon Professional camera, a 5DII and various 7d DLRs to get views from various angels for each show.

So first, each performance has to be synched to one time line, either a sound track recorded on the Korg or else the sound track from the Professional video camera.

Then all those projects have to be synched to one sound track, presumably the one with the most parts. So if they cut any parts of the performance, one has to choose as the reference track the one that covers even what has been cut. That way, one can make final decisions based on the quality of all recordings.

Asher

[Asher Kelman]

Plural Eyes 3.0 What does it offer that's new and how do I get it?

Originally Posted by Bruce Sharpe, CEO, Singular Software

The new PluralEyes is more than just an update – it’s a giant leap forward – and video editors are going to notice more than just huge improvements in workflow speed and robustness. We have completely re-thought the PluralEyes design. Instead of preparing and reviewing the data in the editing application, the sync workflow is now done directly in PluralEyes 3.0. The visual workspace highlights the progress of the sync, which provides more useful information and more control. Plus, it’s pretty cool to take a massive sync project and watch the mesmerizing ‘sync spotlights’ dance through it. The speed and accuracy of the sync are simply outstanding."

With the sync and reviewing tools provided by PluralEyes 3.0, the results are faster and more reliable, giving professionals and enthusiasts alike even more time to edit their projects. “Video professionals and artists always appreciate improvements in efficiency, and they’re going to be very happy with this release,” says Sharpe. “We’ve worked closely with our customers over the last three years to create a syncing process that runs quickly and smoothly, and lets video producers of all skill levels get to the fun, creative part of the edit sooner.

So from this it appears that

1. The organizing of tracks to be synchronized, (e.g. multiple cameras and one pristine sound track ) is now in Plural Eyes itself.

2. The synchronizing process is visualized in real time, (that should be entertaining), but now there's an ability to inspect the quality of that process at the end.

The latter, to me is going to be the most significant.

Release Date: "PluralEyes 3 has not been released yet (they are aiming for late summer), but beta testing will be available in a couple of weeks."

Screenshot of Plural Eyes 3.0:

I'd also like to know what tools might exist to deal with any inconsistencies the visualizing software reveals. Maybe that's Plural Eyes 4.0

O.K. I'll try to deal with issues as I can discover them:

Sound lags behind by several frames? What if the video was taken back in the hall from a stage and there's a time delay between the pristine sound recorded at the stage and that on the video? Well all the versions of Plural eyes ignore that. The only thing they do, and do very well indeed, is to synchronize the sound. Singular software CEO, Bruce Sharpe, explains that it's too complicated for PE to correct this and it's anyway a standard function of one's favorite non-linear editing program such as Final cut Pro.

Orphan movie clips? I understand one can try to move them to where they should belong, but that I have to see.

There's a new "toolkit" to deal with inconsistencies and that should be very interesting.

Asher