A PluralEyes alternative for wedding filmmakers on a Mac

Where PluralEyes stands today

Maxon put PluralEyes into limited maintenance mode at the start of 2023. It said existing users could keep using it, but nothing new is coming, and the product page carries that note near the top.

The best PluralEyes alternative depends on what you are syncing. Maxon's own FAQ points to the sound sync now built into Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve and Avid Media Composer, and for a couple of clips and one recorder that may be all you need. The case for more is a wedding ceremony: several bodies that stopped and started, two lavs, a board feed, a camera across the room, and then the cut itself still to make.

Multicam sync software built for the ceremony and the toasts

In Hailo's film builder you add a folder for each camera, point at the recorder files, and choose what you want back: every angle stacked on its own track over the good audio, a real multicam clip, or a single-camera cut. Up to eight angles go into one multicam. The recorder and lav sync page goes deeper on the audio.

• Lavs and recorders land where they belong against the cameras.
• A camera with no mic is still placed by timecode, when your cameras were jam-synced.
• A camera that stopped and restarted keeps its short takes on its own angle.
• A body that writes eight audio tracks is heard on the track with the room in it.
• Where no recorder rolled, the camera audio fills in, so the timeline has no silent holes.
• If a camera cannot be lined up, the done screen names it, and it still lands on the stacked timeline for you to place by hand.

Then it cuts the films

PluralEyes was a sync tool. In Hailo, sync is the first half of the job. The ceremony comes back cut: Hailo knows the officiant, bride and groom, sits on whoever is speaking, goes to the couple for the rings and the kiss, and waits for a pause in the words before it changes camera. Each part plays from the clearest mic, with each mic brought to the same speaking level.

The toasts get the same treatment with their own presets. Hailo knows who is speaking, changes shots on a pause or a reaction rather than a clock, breaks a long hold while another camera rolls, and catches the couple raising a glass as a speech ends. Both films arrive as real multicams, so every cut is still yours to change, and the same app books the couple and delivers the finished film in a 4K gallery.

A PluralEyes alternative for Premiere Pro, Final Cut Pro and Resolve

Each editor gets a file built for it. Premiere Pro opens a real multicam clip already on a timeline after a one-time macOS permission, Final Cut Pro reads a true multicam straight from its file, and DaVinci Resolve has the whole project built for it, finished with one Scripts menu click on the free edition. The Premiere Pro page covers that handoff in full.

Know the limits before you switch. Hailo's sync lives inside its ceremony and speeches films. It is not a general tool for syncing any project, so a music video or a corporate shoot stays with your editor's own sync, and it does not send to Avid Media Composer. As audio sync software for a Mac, it needs Apple silicon and macOS 14 or later. Manage and Deliver open in any browser, but the footage side needs the Mac.