Cassette tape audio into FCP?

NEVERMIND - I guess I had to have a clip in the timeline for it to work.
Thanks!

I had to have a clip in the timeline for the voice over to work.

Similar Messages

  • Importing cassette tape audio to FCE HD

    I would like to archive some cassette tape audio recordings on my computer - Is it possible to use FCE HD voiceover feature to do this? It would save me the trouble of purchasing a separate sound software program.
    If so, I'm not sure how to go about doing this...
    in terms of hardware, I have my tapedeck, iMic, audio cables that connect the tape dec and iMic.
    In the voice over menu, my options are built-in audio with internal microphone only or DV audio. I do have a DV converter, but it's not just for audio. This is where I get lost... any suggestions?
    Thanks!

    EVEN MORE INFORMATION!
    I think I have found the cause of the problem.
    The dodgy files were recorded on WireTap Pro - though they playback perfectly in iTunes, Sound Studio etc. etc.
    I have tested AIFF files recorded in iTunes etc. and they playback correctly in Audacity.
    It appears that for some reason WireTap Pro recorded music is not compatible with Audacity. Yet WireTap Pro audio which has been imported into iTunes can play perfectly when opened in Audacity!
    Most perplexing.
    Ian.

  • Using cassette tape audio with Final Cut Pro & DV footage

    I am trying to use the audio from a cassette tape as part of a concert soundtrack. There were lots of sound problems during the concert, and afterward one of the sound guys gave me the audio cassettes he recorded of a church Christmas concert. I digitized the audio cassette using ProTools 7 at 48kHz and it sounds great. Problem is kind of what I anticipated - even if I synch a single note to absolute accuracy, the audio "drifts" out of synch where at the end of a 5 minute clip, the "end" is off by 47 frames. Even if I try and synch up shorter sections, there is still some drift.
    I have a soundtrack from my DSR-250; it was not possible to get a feed from the soundboard. I tried adjusting the speed/duration of the audio cassette track - everything lines up better; the sound is still off.
    Any hints, recommendations, advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    The reason behind not being able to sync the audio from the cassette with the video (thanks for the accurate answer, javabob!) is that audio cassette recorders are not speed controlled during recording or playback like video or DAT tape is. No tape will playback at the exact same speed twice do to many factors, including relative humidity, tape stretch, machine wear, etc. Which is why standard audio cassettes aren't generally used for this type of thing.
    -DH

  • Best way to get 3/4 inch tape material into FCP?

    I have several 3/4 inch tapes I would like to edit on my FCP system.
    I can only Capture through firewire.
    Is it better to transfer the 3/4 material to DVD or create QT files?
    (I can create the QT files on an Avid Adrenaline)
    I need to keep the material at the best quality.
    Thanks.

    OK, I'm back now. Let's get to the first part of your question... and some tips.
    To start with let me clear up some semantic errors that I may have inadvertently created. When I say "up-rez" I'm not talking about it the way you would use the term in print production and Photoshop. I was using the term "up-rez" as a more generic term meaning a general improvement in picture quality and upgrade of color space.
    Now, to the improvement I have seen by taking my DV source material into a sequence using PhotoJPEG 75% or DVCPRO50 codecs with a 4:2:2 color space.
    First, as a baseline, to all of my DV clips in the timeline I add the "4:1:1 Color Smoothing" filter as the first in line, and the final filter is always "Broadcast Safe" set to the lowest preset of "100" or "Extremely Conservative." If I use any color correction filter I always use it after the color smoothing and before "Broadcast Safe." Unless it works better using a different order, but this is where I start. However "Color Smoothing" is almost always the first filter.
    It is the "Color Smoothing" filter that provides the extra chroma data that is used by the 4:2:2 codec to "improve" the color after rendering. Now understand, this is an interpolation process. The computer is guessing at what the extra color data should be. But in most cases where my goal is to provide "pleasing color" the computer usually makes some pretty good guesses.
    Especially if you use color correction to remove any exising color casts from the clips in question. If you have a definite color cast in your original clip, you may find it necessary to color correct that cast out, then add the Color Smoothing, and then do your "primary" or "balancing" color correction by adding that filter a second time in the list to get things to look right. Confused yet? Don't be - if you have a good calibrated video monitor, then you can really trust your eyes a lot more than you might think. The point is, if you present the "Color Smoothing" filter with reasonably good color when it looks at the DV clip, then it will do a good job of "enhancing" your color after you render with a 4:2:2 codec.
    Oh yeah, make sure your rendering quality level in the "Video Processing" tab of the sequence "Settings" is set to the best you have. FCP 4.5 and FCP 5.x differ slightly in how they word this setting, but the intent is the same.
    So that's how I "improve" the color of a DV clip by taking it into a sequence with a 4:2:2 color space. I hope I explained it clearly enough.
    BTW - Nattress suggests using PhotoJPEG 75% over DVCPRO50 for content that comes from an analog capture. He says that an unintended but positive consequence of the "lossy" compression in the PhotoJPEG codec is to remove some of the latent analog noise from the video during final rendering and encoding. I had my doubts about this at first since the specs would suggest that DVCPRO50 is the best way to go. But after trying it out I must say that Graeme is dead-on with this. A lot of the minor video noise in the luminence and chroma that comes in with the analog video is removed pretty cleanly when you look at your final rendered digital video. So once again we learn that Graeme Nattress is "The Man."
    The truly scary thing is that among his peers in the community of this forum, Nattress is only one of several similar intellects. This forum is a gold mine for all of us FCP users. Nattress, Shane, Sheffield, and all the rest who I am probably making mad because I forgot to mention them -- wow! We couldn't afford to take classes from all these guys, and here they give it all for free. I hope everyone appreciates the value of the resource we have in this forum. I certainly do. Belated and future thanks to all you gurus out there.
    Anyway, back to your analog capture issues. Here's some tips from my own experience. When doing my initial capture from analog via the A-to-D converter...
    1) I always find I need to boost the saturation levels a bit. Use a vectorscope to keep track of this, but my analog source material always seems to come in 20 to 25% light in the chroma value. Boosting the saturation setting a little bit in the convertor fixes this.
    2) I know I'll get some arguments about this one. In my ADVC-300 I have a "Sharpening" setting, with "0" being no enhancement, "-100" being totally blurred, and "+100" being totally sharpened. I find that adding a significant amount of "sharpening" to my capture settings really improves the quality of the analog input without leaving a lot of visible and unpleasant artifacts in the picture. So I always add between +15 and +35 of sharpening. Usually +25 works best so that's where I start.
    Now, understand that I find this completely counter-intuitive after my years of experience with digital image editors and scanning software like "Photoshop" and "Scantastic," and the generally complete uselessness of the vanilla "sharpen" tools for sophisticated image enhancement. But for some reason, with these tools in this environment, "sharpening" works wonders.
    The way it looks to me when I compare the "before" and "after" by switching the inputs on my video monitor is that the "after" picture looks like someone properly backlit the scene. The entire effect is to give that look of 3D depth to the picture that still photographers call "snap," and that I was taught to try to achieve by the guys who taught me TV lighting. When used in a subtle and appropriate fashion, the effect of this "sharpening" filter is stunning. But this is a matter of personal taste. To my eye the sharpened picture looks better, but you may disagree. Like I said, it's a matter of taste.
    I must add that I am unable to duplicate these results by adding FCP's sharpening filter to an already digitized clip. This says to me that either you need to sharpen before digitizing, or the sharpening algorithm in my Canopus ADVC-300 is way better than the FCP filter. I don't know which it is, but I really don't need to know, practically speaking. It's practical results we are after here, so I can live with the mystery.
    3) Always go back to the earliest generation of analog source tapes you can find. If this means re-editing the program, then be prepared to do it if max quality is your goal.
    In 3/4-inch U-matic format (and especially with 1/2-inch S-VHS or lesser formats) the difference in picture quality between a third-generation dub and a second-generation edit master is immense. Look at the degradation of edge definition and the increase in noise between the generations. It's huge. It's even more striking if you compare the first-generation master tapes with a distribution dub or duplication master.
    Conversely, don't even waste your time if you have a fourth-gen or later distribution dub. If you are dealing with a late generation tape source, then none of our digital and computer editing or enhancement wizardry will matter a hoot. Garbage in equals garbage out. So if you really care about quality, be prepared to go back to the earliest generation tape you can find, even if that means re-editing the program from the first-gen shooting masters.
    OK, that's all I have for you right now. Please post any additional questions or any comments you have on my missives and I'll be glad to get into this further - at least until you suck me dry of usable info.
    Let me leave you with this. It's funny how viewers don't seem to mind poor video quality when watching a late-gen dub on a VHS player. But when you offer them a DVD, they expect to see feature film or broadcast TV quality, and if they don't see something close they won't watch the program with the same degree of receptivity.
    In my experience, picture quality really matters in its effect on the communication process, and that's why we should all take it seriously. Worrying about quality is not a purely technical exercise important only to technicians. Poor audio and poor video quality will negatively impact the communication process. That's why we care about quality.
    After all, it's our business - the COMMUNICATION business. That's the perspective I try to maintain in my work.
    Good Luck in your endeavor. Please let me know how it works out. My e-mail address is in my posted profile.

  • AVCHD and 5.1 audio into FCP 6.01?

    Hi-
    I'm trying to import and transfer AVCHD video and the associated 5.1 audio from a Panasonic HDC-SD1 AVCHD camcorder into Final Cut. The picture comes in fine, but when I try to import the audio, the Log and Transfer window downmixes the audio to stereo, and there's no way to get the program to import discrete tracks. I've tried ProRes and the Kona codec, no go either way. Any ideas?

    The audio is already encoded in 5.1 AC3 Dolby Digital.
    You can't edit the encoded stream in FCP or Soundtrack.
    You need to import the audio and decode to 5 channel aiff files
    using something such as the free mAC3dec
    then add the 5 separate files to the timeline.
    Figuring out what track is which channel may be difficult.
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac3dec/
    Of course you will lose quality because Dolby Digital is highly compressed
    and is meant only as a delivery format, not an editing format.

  • Recording audio into FCP

    Hello, a quick question / request for advice.
    I'm a novice FCP user and I have a Sony HDRXR105E HD handycam camcorder. The camcorder does not appear to have an input jack for a microphone.
    I think that means that I would have to buy a separate digital recording device, then record the audio during (say) an interview, and then sync the audio to the video on FCP.
    Does anyone have a recommendation for a good digital audio recorder that works well with FCP?
    Thanks

    Double System Sound is becoming more and more of a topic with the DSLR HD capable cameras, but they do actually have a TRS-mini input. There are many workable things you can use from MiniDisk to MP3 recorders and more. I've sync'd MiniDisk recordings by the old and simple method of a loud (and visual) clap - which you must do for every take, and in some instances I use flash or any other thing possible to sync up my recording.
    If you continue to use a "double" or second system for recording sound, remember that an important aspect of making that audio file ready for easy use in FCP is to save it (convert it) to 48k if it is not already. Most devices that are not expensive pro devices record in 44.1k (44,100 samples each second) so you have to export that file from an audio application that is capable of saving it at 48,000 a second.

  • How to correctly import .mts into FCP with full 5.1 audio

    Well, I've found a couple of solutions to this so far. I'm not sure if this qualifies as a stickie, but it might be useful to others as well.
    Getting the audio from new consumer video cameras, for example my Sony HandyCam, which have 1080p video, and 5.1 surround sound audio into FCP can be a bit tricky. The hard part is the audio. FCP will import the camera's .mts files fine using Log and Transfer, but the audio is mixed down to stereo.
    This solution was posted over at Ken Story's FCP boards:
    http://www.shedworx.com/hd-information/surround-sound
    Although I haven't tried it, it looks very good.
    I actually tried the following method, using Parallels (i.e., some form of Windows):
    I used TSMuxer in Windows to demux the .mts files. I then used BeLight which is a front end GUI for BeSweet **(you have to download both, and drag both the BeSweet application and the azid.dll file into the BeLight folder before you run). This separates the resulting .ac3 file into 6 mono .wav files.
    I then just imported them back into FCP and all was well.
    The advantage of this method is that it's free, but the major disadvantage is that it only runs in Windows, so you have to have a PC or emulator. So next time, I'll likely give VoltaicHD a spin.
    Hope this helps anyone trying to do the full import to FCP

    Oooof! Does this mean that we have to do this procedure, using VoltaicHD, for each and every one of the ~1750 clips with 5.1 surround I have from my trip to China? Perhaps I misunderstood, but it looked like this process was a one-clip-at-a-time process?

  • Recording cassette tape to iMac

    Hi there!
    I am trying to convert a cassette player into digital form through QuickTime.  Whenever recording it sounds great except for an annoying echo.  Any tips on how to alleviate this??
    Thanks!

    Right now I am plugging a cassette tape player into my iMac using a 3.3mm audio cable.  I'm plugging it into the "Line In" port.  I am then hitting play on the tape player and recording a new audio file in QuickTime.  I've also tried this in GarageBand.  In both programs the audio sounds pretty good except for an annoying echo.  I'm hoping there is a way to eliminate the echo.
    Thanks!

  • Cassette Tape to itunes

    I would like to put my old cassette tape collection into itunes and then burn CD and also add to my ipod .
    Any suggestions on the best way to do this ?
    R. Addis

    Try http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/mac - it's free. I've used it to import a fair amount of vinyl & cassette into mp3 format. You can record the whole cassette and normalise the volume. If you have the patience you can also identify the extent of each track & export them one at a time, otherwise you can simply leave the tracks joined together as Side 1 or Side 2.
    tt2

  • CONVERTING and IMPORTING .VOB files into FCP?

    Hi.
    I made a dvd of an old vhs tape of mine using a Sony consumer vhs-->dvd component.
    Haven't had any trouble in the past using MPEG streamclip to convert .vob files and import into fcp (from dvd's NOT made on this particular machine) --but for some reason, this dvd doesn't seem to contain those files.
    The icon of the dvd appears as a folder on my desktop with a small red circle on it.
    The dvd plays fine on my G5, but the folder appears to be empty when opened.
    I'm stumped.
    Anyone?

    Buy or hire one of these: http://www.grassvalley.com/products/advcprofessionalfamily then you can capture the tape directly into FCP as a QuickTime .mov that uses the DV codec.
    Don't forget to switch the *Device Control* setting in Log & Capture to *Non-Controllable Device* first.

  • Problems outputing audio from FCP into a mini dv

    hi there
    i'm trying to output a video with 2 diferrent audio channels into a minin dv through a camera. everything is fine during output but when i check the tape the audio skips and sometimes sounds a little bit squeaking. i exported everything as .mov and imported back into FCP. so im outputting everything already rendered.
    does any one have an idea why this is happening?
    thank you.

    Could definitely be a problem with the camera, but... the most obvious thing is that your output from fcp doesn't match the format on the camera. Make sure that both are set to 48k 16 bit and that your camera is recording SP.

  • Import video and audio from a dvd into FCP

    Is there an easier way to import video and audio into Final Cut Pro - I am playing it on a DVD player and making a digital tape of it. Then logging and capturing it into FCP.

    Hello and welcome to the forum!
    Yes, there are a few ways that are faster. Have a look at this thread http://discussions.apple.com/click.jspa?searchID=-1&messageID=3465691
    You could use software, such as "streamclip", or import by plugging your camera into your capture device and hooking your capture device into your computer and capturing by non-controllable device settings.
    Good Luck

  • Importing cassette tapes into iTunes

    I may be stupid here, but is there a simple way to get my cassette music library into iTunes? I've got some great stuff from "way back when" and don't want to have to buy the CD's (many probably aren't even available now).
    Thanks!

    This isn't really an iTunes question and you might want to try over at the iMac forums or the OS 10.4 forums. It is more a matter of getting your cassette deck interfaced to your Mac and being able to record the stuff from tape onto the Mac. You may be able to interface directly from the cassette player to the Mac with a patch cord or you might need something like the Griffin iMic to help with hardware and signal conversions.
    Then you need software to capture the audio, clean it up, break it into tracks etc. Some things you can do with iTunes (like breaking up the tracks) but is probably faster and easier, plus the other stuff you will want to do, with a third party application like Audacity (free download).
    Once you get the tracks into the Mac, then it is simply a Drag & drop operating to add them to iTunes.
    Good luck,
    Patrick

  • Importing a cassette tape into I tunes

    Can I import and save a cassette tape into itunes thanks

    You can't import the audio from your tape directly to iTunes you need software to digitise the audio first. One way is to connect your Cassette deck (through the Tape out sockets of your amplifier) to the audio in socket of your computer. On the computer you'll need audio editing software to capture and edit the resulting long file into individual tracks that can be added to the iTunes Library. There are a number of commercial programs for this (I use Sound Studio for the Mac). If want to try out the process first you could try the open source program Audacity which has Linux, Mac and Windows versions at this link: Audacity
    In addition to the software you'll need RCA to 3.5 mm audio plug cables to connect the Tape Out sockets of your amplifier to the audio inputs of your computer. There's a short guide to recording here: How to record from vinyl and cassette to a computer also from the BBC Copying Vinyl Recordings to CD
    If your Mac or PC hasn't got an audio in socket you can have a look at the Griffin iMic which connects to a USB port and comes with some software of it's own: iMic USB audio interface

  • Cassette tapes into iTunes library

    Please can I ask for your advice on the best way to acheive optimum quality when converting/transferring cassette tapes into my itunes library.
    Thank you in advance for your assistance,

    I'm not sure what you need covered here.  Do you already have a mechanism by which you can convert the cassettes to digital files on your computer or are you asking that too?
    Tapes will have hiss.  Some of this is deliberate as Dolby Noise  Reduction technology of the time, some will just be the tape.  Dolby NR is probably best handled at the tape end of things if you make sure you use Dolby filtering on your player for tapes on which it was used originally (you'll only know if it was marked at the time of recording).  If you don't have it you can try using computer filtering.  I did a bit of this with a program called Amadeus many years ago.  It let you sample a bit of the digitized recording which is supposedly blank to get the background noise, then apply it acrosss the whole file.  There's always a bit of risk in doing this because you may have something in the recording that looks like the noise signal but is part of the actual sound.  Audiophiles can have a field day discussing this.
    If you're being really picky, I found I had a bit of noise just produced by my equipment I was using.  I would record a few seconds with no tape playing at all just to see what was being produced by my equipment.
    Audacity is a free audio editor, but I have never had time to figure it out.
    Obviously you are going to want to record your files and edit them in a full-quality lossless format such as AIFF.  I archive mine in FLAC format (you could use Apple lossless too), then create a mp3 or AAC version for everyday use.

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