Tarsier:

This lock clips to markers thing does seem to be a huge limitation / I typically export my final stereo audio from Sonar and Import into premier / but you're right locking the clip seems fundamental - Has anyone asked the Cakefolk (e.g. Ron K) about this as feature seeker?

-D

tarsier
Have the filmmakers send you a video file if they can. Quicktime Sorensen 3 works well, or motion jpeg, or mpeg. And get 2 pops at the beginning and end. As long as the two pops always line up, you know you are in sync. A 2 pop is a 1 frame long 'beep' 2 seconds before the program starts, and 2 seconds after the program ends. 1 kHz, -18 dB FS sine wave. (the actual level will vary depending on the studio. Could be -20 -24 or anything really...) 2 pops are lifesavers--if you know nothing else about the file just make sure you get the 2 pops.

Having them burn a timecode window into the video file will help as well. And make sure that you know what frame rate you're going to be dealing with and sample rate, usually 48kHz, and if you have to deal with pullup. Sonar can deal with just about every frame rate you're going to encounter. Hopefully they're not shooting HD at 23.976 fps which Sonar has yet to support.

Sorry for the necro post ... but I found notes from your post in my 2pop folder and just completed some tests on a 2 hour long video
with footage shot at 23.976 and it appears that as long as I don't render video out of Sonar ( 4.0.2 )
( not that I tried ... no reason to ... I just export audio from Sonar and import the audio back into Vegas )
then the audio lines up perfectly, all through the 2 hour video.
I used a 2pop at front and end.

Here's the whole process of the test.
The footage was of a pocket watch (macro ... so the face and hands fill the whole HD screen) running from 5:28:00 AM to 7:29:16 AM.
The second hand on the watch snaps between seconds as opposed to sweeping.
1) Render the 23.976 footage out of Vegas, along with the audio of the 2pops, at 24FPS and import video with audio into Sonar after setting Sonar to 24FPS.
2) Drop markers exactly on the front of each 2pops, and at exactly 6:00:00 and 7:00:00 of the video, as in exactly when the second hand clicks to exactly those times.
3) Record a sharp snare hit, (midi with Storm Drum) exactly at the 2pops and the 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock markers and adjust the midi notes to the exact time that the markers are on, by right clicking on the note and setting the ticks.
4) Export the audio from Sonar and import the audio back into the 23.976 Vegas project.
5) Expand the timeline in Vegas and examine the location of the snare hits in relation to the 2pops and the markers in Vegas showing 6 o'clock and 7 o'clock.
They are so close ... amazingly close ... that it couldn't possibly matter.
They might be off by a few samples, but they're all consistently off by the same very small amount.

The test before the above, I had Sonar set to 30fps nd, and the audio was still close enough after getting it back into Vegas.
26 samples was the farthest off for the last 2pop in the incorrect test at 30FPS.

So the point is ... Yes.
It's perfectly doable and very easy.

tarsier
One thing to watch out for is that Sonar has no ability to lock clips to a timecode location.

Disclaimer: I didn't read everything in all these posts.
 
In X1 or 2 they added the ability to lock audio/clips to time rather than bars and beats. You can also lock automation. And I believe you can also lock automation on buses, but I remember having a buggy experience with it in X1 (I think). Maybe it was fixed in X2. I don't remember trying to lock envelopes to time on a bus recently. I have locked them in tracks and that works fine.

In the example above, why is the pop ahead of the start?  I would have thought the pop would be at the exact start.  Obiovusly showing my syncing ignorance here...
 
Important because i will be syncing something soon.  Mine is simple but I still want to get it right.
 
Thanks.

The music may start abruptly or a fast transient. Then having a sync pop right up against that is silly and it will need to be removed before the music cue is mixed. The music may fade in also. The pop sound needs to be well clear of any music and 2 seconds is an agreed standard. There is usually silence between the pop sound and the start of the music.
 
So if a music cue starts at say 24:14:05 (min/sec/fr) The sync pop will be at 24:12:05. A composer can also trim up his cues so there is no dead air before the pop. ie the clip starts right on the very leading edge of the pop itself. Then post audio mix guys can take in a whole lot of music cues and some DAW's such as Pro Tools allows you to assign a time code to the start of every clip. The music cues start points or visual hit points simply subtract 2 seconds from those times to get the pop times.  Then the pop start times can be allocated to clips. They then all jump out and into the right position pretty quickly. The same could apply to Foley sound effects too.
 
When a music (effect)  cue is laid into a soundtrack it is easy and faster to simply slip edit the pop away especially when it is 2 seconds further back. Still easy to do when the arrangement window is zoomed out for any reason.