# One clock for picture and sound

Edit / Sound / Music and mix. Checked 2026-11-13.

Every sound lands on its frame, and stays there when the edit is re-timed.

- Use when: Code-rendered video with typing, counters or many cues.
- Phrase: one list of event times drives the animation, the key presses and the sound cues
- Page: https://directorchair.ai/sound/one-clock-for-sound
- JSON: https://directorchair.ai/api/sound/one-clock-for-sound.json

## Watch out

- In a 59-second 3D film one file holds the time of all 50 typed characters. The screen, the keys and the click track read it, which is why a key drops on the frame its letter appears. (practitioner; Director Chair notes on A Blender film from one request (Riley Brown, Claude Fable 5.2))
- Name each sound cue by its event, not by a time, and print every cue's offset from its beat: more than one frame is a bug. (practitioner; Director Chair notes on Motion graphics with Claude (Rourke Heath) (how his free skill does it))

## Prompts

### Any chat model

```
Give me a sound brief: what to record or pick, where it sits on the timeline, the levels, and what to check before export, for a short video about [your product], for [your audience]. The technique is one clock for picture and sound: every sound lands on its frame, and stays there when the edit is re-timed. How it works: one list of event times drives the animation, the key presses and the sound cues. It is right for: code-rendered video with typing, counters or many cues. In a 59-second 3D film one file holds the time of all 50 typed characters. Name each sound cue by its event, not by a time, and print every cue's offset from its beat: more than one frame is a bug. Be concrete: numbers, seconds and settings, no theory. Ask me one question first if something you need is missing.
```

## Goes well with

- Prompt bar: https://directorchair.ai/effect/prompt-bar
- Cut on the beat: https://directorchair.ai/sound/cut-on-the-beat
- Voice-over written to the cut: https://directorchair.ai/sound/voice-written-to-length

## Source

Own words from Director Chair notes on A Blender film from one request (Riley Brown, Claude Fable 5.2) and Director Chair notes on Motion graphics with Claude (Rourke Heath)

Text CC BY 4.0, Director Chair (directorchair.ai). Reference clips and their card texts belong to their makers.