Waveline docs

Install

Download Waveline from the download page. On a Mac, drag it into Applications; on Windows, run the installer. The Mac app runs natively on Apple silicon and Intel. Nothing needs an account or an internet connection.

Add your footage

Drag folders onto the window, or click Folders (or Add folders at the top). You can add:

• One folder per camera or recorder — each becomes a device.
• One folder for the whole shoot — Waveline looks inside and makes a device for each camera folder, even when they sit inside crew or card folders (Shooter 1/A7S III/Card 1).
• Camera cards as they come — Sony PRIVATE/M4ROOT/CLIP, Canon DCIM, BRAW, R3D and DJI folders are understood.

Waveline only reads your files. It never moves, renames or changes them. Reading the same folders again is instant, because what it learnt about each file is remembered.

Devices and tracks

The Devices list on the left is your track order: drag a device up or down to change it. Click a name to rename it, click the badge to switch between camera and recorder, the eye to hide it, and × to leave it out.

Sync

Press Sync. Waveline makes a sound fingerprint of every file, then compares clips that were recorded around the same time. As matches are found you'll see clips slide into place on the timeline. A wedding of several hundred clips usually takes a few minutes; the second time it's much faster.

What the colours mean

• Blue — camera clip locked by sound.
• Green — recorder audio.
• Yellow — worth checking: a weak match, matches that disagree, or a clip that overlaps another from the same camera.
• Red — no sound to match. Placed by the camera's clock, or at the end, depending on your choice.

Separate parts of the day that don't connect by sound become shoot blocks, laid out in the order they were filmed.

Review and fix clips

Turn on Show only clips to check and press N to jump to the next one. Press Space to play, and choose Listen to: Camera, Recorder or Both. With Both, a clip in sync sounds like one; an echo means it's off.

To fix a clip, select it and nudge it with ← → (one frame) or Shift+← → (ten frames), or drag it — it snaps to the best sound match nearby. Press L to lock it. Delete takes a clip off the timeline; ⌘Z / Ctrl+Z brings it back.

Export

Open Export and pick your editor:

• Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve — an FCP7 XML file. In Premiere: File › Import. In Resolve: File › Import › Timeline.
• Final Cut Pro — an FCPXML file. Double-click it or use File › Import › XML.

You get one track per camera and recorder, in your device order, with each camera's sound linked to its picture. Options in the same menu:

• Matching timecode — every camera gets the same timecode, ready for a multicam clip. Only the timeline file is changed, never your media.
• Split channels to mono — each channel of a multichannel recorder gets its own track.
• Correct drift — recorder files whose clock ran fast or slow are re-timed to match the cameras. The corrected copies are saved in a Waveline drift-corrected audio folder next to the timeline.

Clips without a match: Waveline asks whether to move them to the end or keep them in place by the camera's clock.

The Premiere Pro panel

Install the extension from the download page (on Windows it can come with the app installer), restart Premiere Pro, and open Window › Extensions › Waveline. Then:

1. Choose your clipsClick Timeline to use the clips in the open sequence, or select clips and bins in the Project panel and click Project panel. You can also choose folders on disk.
2. Sync and reviewEverything works as in the app: live sync, preview with sound, nudging and locking clips.
3. Create the sequenceChoose Export › Create sequence in this project. A new synced sequence opens in your timeline.

The panel and the app share their memory of your footage, so footage you've synced in one is instant in the other.

Saving projects

⌘S / Ctrl+S saves a .waveline file with your folders, device names and order, export options and the whole sync. Open it later to carry on without syncing again. If a drive is unplugged, Waveline tells you how many files are missing.

Licence and free trial

Every feature is free for 14 days. The button at the top of the window shows how many days are left. After the trial, Sync and Export need a licence key; you can still open and look at your projects.

To enter your key, click the trial button (or Settings › Licence › Manage…), paste the key that starts with WL1- and click Activate. One key works in both the app and the Premiere Pro extension on that computer. Activating needs the internet once; after that Waveline works offline.

Computers: Waveline Suite works on 2 computers, Lifetime on 3, Suite Unlimited on any number. To move to a new computer, choose Settings › Licence › Remove licence from this computer on the old one. If you can't reach the old computer, just activate on the new one: Waveline lists the computers using your licence so you can remove one. Monthly plans get a new key by email each month; it keeps the same computers.

Settings

Open with ⌘, / Ctrl+,. Choose dark, light or system theme, the accent colour, track height, what to do with unsynced clips, default export options, and clear the preview cache when you need the disk space.

Cameras and formats

MP4, MOV, MXF, MTS, AVI and the usual audio files (WAV, BWF, MP3, AAC, M4A). H.264, HEVC (including 10-bit 4:2:2), ProRes, XAVC, BRAW and R3D (sound from the R3D or its proxy). Split recorder takes such as ZOOM0001_Tr1.WAV are grouped as one take. ARRIRAW and Canon RAW are not supported yet.

Keyboard shortcuts

Troubleshooting

A clip is red even though it has sound

Its sound didn't overlap with anything else — for example a camera that only filmed during a gap in the recorder. Keep it in place by its clock, or drag it near the right spot: it snaps to the best match.

The end of a long take echoes

That's clock drift. Turn on Export › Correct drift and export again.

Only sound appears in my editor

Make sure the camera folders were added as cameras (blue badge), not recorders, then export again.

The Waveline panel isn't in Premiere's Extensions menu

Quit Premiere completely, run the extension installer again, then reopen Premiere. The panel needs Premiere Pro 2022 or newer.

Something else went wrong

Choose Export › Something went wrong… to save a technical report (numbers only — no file names, no footage) and email it to support@example.com.