PluralEyes Alternatives: How to Sync Audio Now That It's Gone
PluralEyes stopped getting updates in 2023. Here's how editors sync camera and recorder audio now, from the tools in your editor to standalone apps.
I’ve been editing video for a long time. I had PluralEyes from the very beginning of the DSLR revolution, back when every shoot meant a camera with terrible sound and a separate recorder with the good stuff. PluralEyes took that mess and lined it up. Drop in the clips, press Sync, go get a coffee.
I relied on it for years. When Maxon stopped developing it, I kept the copy on my computer and kept using it. It still worked, so why change?
Then I had to wipe my computer, and I couldn’t get it back.
So I went looking for a replacement, like a lot of editors have. Here’s what I found, what each option is good for, and what I ended up doing about it. The short version: I built one. I’ll be upfront when we get to it that it’s ours.
What happened to PluralEyes
PluralEyes came from Red Giant, which became part of Maxon. Maxon stopped selling perpetual licenses in November 2021. In early 2023 it put PluralEyes into “limited maintenance mode”: existing users could keep using it, but there would be no new features. Toolfarm, a plugin reseller, reported that it would be discontinued completely on February 1, 2024.
Maxon’s advice was to use the editor you already have:
“Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer all natively include syncing sound by waveform.”
That’s true. It just isn’t the whole story.
What a replacement has to do
PluralEyes earned its place on a lot of computers for a few reasons. Whatever replaces it should do the same:
- Sync a whole shoot at once. Not one clip at a time.
- Match by sound. No timecode, no clap.
- Tell you what it couldn’t match. A wrong sync you don’t notice is worse than no sync at all.
- Get you back into your editor. A timeline or synced clips you can open in Premiere, Resolve or wherever you cut.
Keep those four in mind as you go through the options.
Option 1: The sync already in your editor
If you only have a few clips, start here. It’s free with the editor you already own.
- Premiere Pro: Merge Clips and Synchronize can both use the audio to line clips up.
- DaVinci Resolve: in the Media page, select your clips and choose Auto Sync Audio, Based on Waveform.
- Final Cut Pro: Synchronize Clips, with “Use audio for synchronization” turned on. Apple notes that some recordings aren’t suited to it and that it can take a while.
- Avid Media Composer: it can sync by waveform too.
For an interview with one camera and one recorder, these are fine. Where they fall down is the thing PluralEyes was best at: a whole shoot, dozens of takes, in one pass. If you’ve tried it in Premiere you’ve probably felt it, and you’re not the only one.
Option 2: Standalone sync apps
Syncaila is the closest thing to PluralEyes still around. It runs on Mac and Windows, with one license covering both. You export an XML or AAF from your editor, sync it in Syncaila and import it back, and it works with Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve and Media Composer. There’s a free tier for small jobs (up to 20 clips), paid licenses for more, and it’s still being updated. If you cut in Avid or on Windows, this is where I’d look first.
Synfren is brand new, launched this fall. It’s Mac only (Apple silicon, macOS 14 or later) and exports XML for Final Cut, Premiere and Resolve. It’s too new for me to say much more, but it’s aimed squarely at PluralEyes users.
Tentacle Sync Studio syncs by timecode, and it’s built around Tentacle’s timecode boxes. If your crew already puts them on every camera and recorder, start there. If you don’t shoot timecode, it’s not the tool for this job.
AudioAlign is free and open source, and lines up recordings by their waveforms. It’s Windows only and more of a lab tool than an editing tool, so expect to tinker. One editor on r/editors said it worked where Premiere’s sync failed on poor audio.
You’ll also see Woowave DreamSync on older lists. I couldn’t confirm it’s still sold or updated, so check before you buy.
Option 3: What I built
Full disclosure: this one’s ours.
When I couldn’t get PluralEyes back, I built the replacement I wanted. It’s called Circle Take, and it’s a Mac app for the kind of work I do most: talking-head shoots, like commercials, testimonials and interviews.
Sync is free. Point Circle Take at the shoot folder. It finds the camera clips and the recorder files wherever they sit inside it, and matches each camera clip to the recorder by sound. No timecode, no clap. Clips it can’t match keep the camera’s own sound and get listed under “Needs a look,” so nothing goes wrong quietly. You get a synced timeline as an XML that opens in Premiere Pro or DaVinci Resolve.
Transcripts are free too. Every take, transcribed on your Mac and timestamped.
And then it does the part PluralEyes never did. Give it the script and Circle Take Pro works out which words belong to the talent and which belong to the room. You get:
- Selects: every clean read from every take, in shoot order, with slates, crew talk, flubs and restarts cut out.
- Lines: every clean read of each script line, back to back, so you can compare deliveries fast.
- A first draft of each spot, built from the best read of each line, with its length checked against the spot length in the script.
- A queue, so you can line up several projects and let them run overnight.
Everything runs on your Mac. Your footage, audio and scripts never leave it.
Here’s what it doesn’t do yet, so you don’t find out the hard way:
- It needs a Mac with Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later.
- Every camera has to record its own sound, even a rough scratch track, because that’s what it matches against.
- There’s no Final Cut Pro export yet.
- It’s in beta. The first time you run it, it downloads a speech model of about 3.1 GB.
The beta is open to anyone. Join it in TestFlight, or read more about Circle Take first.
Which one should you use?
| If you… | Use |
|---|---|
| Sync a few clips now and then | The sync built into your editor |
| Cut in Avid or Final Cut, or work on Windows | Syncaila |
| Shoot with Tentacle timecode on every device | Tentacle Sync Studio |
| Want free and don’t mind tinkering | AudioAlign (Windows) |
| Cut scripted, talking-head video in Premiere or Resolve on a Mac | Circle Take |
FAQs
Is PluralEyes still available?
Not to buy. Maxon stopped selling perpetual licenses in 2021 and stopped development in 2023, and Toolfarm reported it was discontinued completely in February 2024. If you still own it, Maxon support is the place to ask about installers, but don’t count on it running well with current versions of your editor or operating system.
Does Premiere Pro have PluralEyes-style sync?
Partly. Merge Clips and Synchronize can use audio to line clips up, which works well for a few clips at a time. For a whole shoot in one pass, a standalone tool will save you time.
What’s the best free PluralEyes alternative?
Start with the sync built into your editor. Syncaila has a free tier for up to 20 clips. Circle Take’s sync and transcripts are free on Apple silicon Macs. AudioAlign is free and open source, if you’re on Windows and don’t mind some setup.
Can I sync audio and video without timecode?
Yes. Every waveform-based tool here matches by sound, so all you need is for each camera to record some audio of its own, even from its built-in mic.
Does Circle Take work with Final Cut Pro?
Not yet. It exports XML for Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve today.