7 min read
Multitrack audio in DaVinci Resolve: clip attributes, linked groups and Fairlight routing
Resolve can handle eight track production sound beautifully, as long as you tell it what the file is before you sync.
Resolve is generous with multichannel audio compared with most NLEs, but it makes one assumption that catches everyone: it decides how a clip's channels behave at import, and changing that later can invalidate work you already did.
Clip attributes come first
Select the audio clips in the media pool, right click, open Clip Attributes and set the audio format to multiple mono tracks with the correct channel count. Do this before syncing. Change it afterwards and the linked clips need rebuilding, which means redoing the sync map on affected takes.
Track names from the recorder
When the WAV carries an iXML track list, Resolve can show boom and lav names rather than generic numbers. If the names do not appear, the metadata was probably stripped by an earlier conversion. Inspecting one original file tells you immediately whether the names exist in the source.
Syncing and linked groups
- Select audio and video clips, right click, Auto Sync Audio using timecode.
- Use waveform only where timecode is absent or unreliable.
- Choose the append option so the original camera audio stays available as a reference.
- Spot check three takes across the day before trusting the whole batch.
Fairlight routing
In Fairlight, each source channel can land on its own track with its own fader, EQ and processing chain. Build a dialogue bus, an effects bus and a music bus early. Editing into a routed session is far quicker than reorganising three hundred clips later.
The preparation that removes the friction
Splitting poly takes into named mono stems before import bypasses clip attributes entirely. Resolve sees ordinary mono files, names them from the filename, and the timeline reads clearly from the first import. Keep the poly masters archived, and split working copies in the browser at the offload.