Compressing dialogue tracks on FCPX

We are completing our first major project on FCPX.
In FCP 7, we'd export a combined .wav tracks capturing all the dialogue on the episode. We'd exclude music, FX, etc.
We'd them round trip it through STP and apply compression.
IS there a streamlined way to handle this in X?
STeve

That stuff is all handled in the Share menu now.
Not entirely.
This assumes you understand Roles and have configured your project properly and know how to use the new export functions.
It's way too complicated to try to explain here. Use the online help or go googling to look up Roles and how to use them to export audio stems.
If you have access to Larry Jordan's FCPX book, see pages 320-330 or so. It's not something I have been forced to learn how to do yet, sorry. Hopefully someone will be able to help you more directly.

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Why is my dialogue track drifting out of sync?

I have a 5 minute clip 1280x720 - I am using Apple Pro Res 422 and H264 - Clip plays beautifully in the timeline, but when I export the clip as a QuickTime Movie, self contained and NOT recompressing frames, the dialogue track drifts out of sync after 60 seconds. I am approx. half a second out by the end of the clip. HELP!!!

It's a little unclear. What format is the clip (Codec, and audio sampling), and what format is your sequence? If your clip or sequence are h264, that's probably the problem. h264 is not suitable for editing and sources should be converted to a fcp friendly format before editing. Also, all source audio should be 48k 16bit aiff with your sequence audio settings the same.

Managing audio tracks in FCPx

I have a pretty typical situation — I shot video with two audio inputs: lav on the left channel and mic (as a backup) on the right channel. I only want to use the left channel. How do I take the left channel and make it into dual mono with the left channel only outputting equally on both sides?

GGo to channel configurations in the audio inspector. Switch the tracks to dual mono. Select the channel you want, switch off what you dont want.

Separating audio tracks in FCPX

In the previous version I could import footage with two mono audio channels and view / edit them seperately, can't seem to do this in FCPX. I've tried changing the settings in Audio Inspector between stereo and mono but it makes no difference, I never see more than one audio waverform. I can open the same clip in FCP6 and see the channels individually.
Is there a default or a trick I'm missing somewhere .... ?

Thanks guys, I'll try that. The difference between detach & break-apart isn't exactly obvious at first glance - one of the reasons many people (ie me!) are struggling to get to grips with FCPX. I want to love it, I really do ...

How to fade music track in FCPX 10.0.3

I completed one video and succesfully faded out it's background music. I'm starting another video but cannot remember how I did it.
David

I had just left the primary school and started the grammar school at the time you mention.
My headmaster at the primary school had an old Ford Prefect. Around then the body shape changed dramatically from the narrow upright 1930's styling to the modern lower, wider look.

Is it possible to turn off selected audio tracks for export?

Hi,
I have worked with fcp 5 before on a project with two languages. Beside the footage audio, each language had its own audio track which I could turn off for export. It was nice to have all languages in one project, because changes had effect for all languages at the same time.
Is it possible to turn off audio tracks in fcpX for export?
I know that fcpX hasn't tracks anymore, but is there a similar function to serve the same purpose?
I am not a professional editor.

I am blissfully unaware of how production companies work .
The project I am working on is a pretty straight forward instruction video. I will be shooting the video, edit and then have the comments recorded by professionals. In DVDPro I will put them both together.
The magnetic timeline is kind of irritating. I will have to work on the languages one after the other. So once I have a language done, I will probably create a compound clip to prevent the sliding around. That would also make it easier to enable or disable the clips.

5.1 Audio playback with FCPX & iMAC?

Hi,
FCPX, 2011 iMac, 10.7.3
I'm working on a project requiring 5.1 audio panning. I have a 2011 iMac connected to a Yamaha 5.1 receiver via an optical link however I am only sending stereo PCM to the receiver.
Do I need specialized hardware in order to monitor multichannel audio?
If so any recomendations?
Thanks
Brett

I am going to pre-emp the next question by describing something that most will gladly ignore:
How to create a 5.1 surround audio file...I hope this workflow is accurate
This should clear the room...:-)
Creating 5.1 Audio for surround sound is mostly about getting to grips with Logic Pro…not for the faint hearted.
Bringing the mixed bounced audio into FCPX is the easy bit at the end…
Another approach may be to bring 6 tracks into FCPX and do the mix there…
but I have never tried it so I will describe the Logic approach.
if anyone finds any problems here or mistakes please let us know…geoff
This workflow is for a Motu 828 audio interface,
(other multiple input and output interfaces maybe similar…) using Logic Pro.
Logic is a very complex app but I will describe here a quick intro
to mixing your audio, by doing a simple test with software instrument tracks.
The workflow is very similar for audio tracks in Logic, instead of creating the 6 software instrument tracks ,
create 6 audio tracks and drop your sounds onto them.
You will need:
Motu 828 or similar, 5 speakers and a subwoofer and a 5.1 amplifier, Logic Pro.
Attach your speakers to 5.1 amp and connect to Motu, connect Motu to Mac via firewire…(others maybe USB)
turn it all on.
Openi audio midi setup In Mac from Finder >Applications > Utilities >audio midi setup > Audio devices
RMB in left column over Motu 828, in input tab select "use this device for sound input" same for output…
change Format to 48000hz, I use analogue at the moment.
configure speakers for surround while you are there, button bottom right corner of window…
(optional) changeLogic to 64 bit in Finder >Applications:
click Logic app icon once and cmd+i - uncheck open in 32 bit.
Start Logic
Start a new empty Logic project with 6 software instrument tracks and Output Surround.
in Logic:
File> project Settings > Audio Sample Rate 48.000khz , Surround Format 5.1
check Logic prefs > audio are output and input to Motu.
Check Logic prefs general>caps lock keys is enabled
Check Mac System prefs > Sound are also seeing Motu as out and in.
in Logic:
Notice the Channel strips on the bottom left of the screen, the left one is the track input and the right is overall output.
To test the system do the, although you can create audio tracks and drop your files onto them if you want when you have got a working system.
Select track 1, and in input channel strip click Setting and choose an instrument setting e.g. World>Caribbean>drums
(The right hand channel strip is output and we don't need to add any Setting to that just yet)
enable record in selected track 1 - ctrl+R or click little 'R' button in track
put caps lock on, on Mac keyboard (MKB)
notice floating window representing a MKB
type on your Mac keyboard ASDGFGHJDGHJ hear the music?
turn off the caps lock keyboard by turning off caps lock key on MKB
This is a cheap and easy way to make any amount of sounds without buying a midi keyboard,
and works with thousands of preinstalled instruments.
Record some music:
Go to the start of the timeline, start recording by either hitting R (if caps lock off) on MKB or
pressing the eighth button in the row to the left of the centre bottom panel, (the last button in the transport controls section)
Play some sounds on your MKB (with aps lock on)
Hit the space bar to stop recording.
Select each track and add a new instrument by holding down the Settings button and choosing from the many options.
Record something on each track/instrument.
In the track input channel strip double click the surround icon - a circle with a dot. This makes a bigger surround control for the track.
The placement of the sound can be controlled from here as can the amount of LFE (subWoof) for each track.
If you have your speakers setup correctly you will be able to move the sound all around the room and to the centre.
Leave the LFE in the middle for most instruments usually…the Bass maybe more…:-)
Double click each surround icon in each track…they are all independent.
save…not auto save here
Bounce:
Click the bounce icon top right Logic window
Save as destination and name 5.1mySong.
check PCM uncheck all others, select PCM Destination line to see options to the right
Below left check start and end times, offline, normalise = overload protection only
To right File format etc.: AIFF, 24bit ,48khz ,interleaved ,dithering none, surround bounce,
click Bounce button at bottom of this window.
Find the file and drag it into iTunes
In FCPXproject with properties surround sound- audio pan mode none:
find the file…
drag it to the timeline…
play the timeline and notice the 6 tracks in audio meters
export as H.264…or your favourite.
play the movie check audio coming out of all speakers
Done…take a break

Seperating audio files with two simultaneous tracks

hi,
we did some after recording, whereby we recorded a fresh dialogue track over the top of the original movie file, so we now have avi files with video and TWO audio tracks playing at the same time...
How do I go about separating the audio in Premiere CS2?
Thanks heaps in advance!
Leo

hi again,
thanks for those quick replies John and Bill (yes i was wanting to take one of the audio tracks and kind of double-it-up, so that the re-recorded layer replaces the original layer and becomes stereo)...
I actually just found out how to do it... using your helpful "fill left" hints...
for anyone else who is looking to easily use just one audio file...:
just go to the sound effects panel and under the 'stereo' tab there's an option called 'fill left' and 'fill right'...
just like you mentioned!
thanks again so much!

Best Way To Add Stereo Plugin To 2 Mono Tracks

i have acoustic guitar on track 1 and 2 . panned left & right.
i want to put 1 stereo uad neve comp on guitars. but not from a bus because i don't want to deal with pdc. so i want to add it to the track. i know i can bounce but want to avoid a bounce. so how would i add 1 stereo uad plug to a track but have both mono signals go through it.
thanks

Check it out...
If you normally work with Universal Track Mode "On", turn it "off" while you track vocals.
Audio menu>Audio Hardware & Drivers>Universal Track Mode
Make track one a stereo track, by clicking on the circle at the bottom of it's channel. This will cause track two's channel to become blank... because it is now being controlled by track one.
If you put a UAD stereo compressor on track one, it will be compressing both tracks one and two.
The downside of this, is depending in how much elaborate routing you have in your autoload, or current song, UTM set to off might cause some problems, but if you have a pretty simple set up, it should work without a hitch.

Need help exporting DMME tracks - ASAP!

I'm exporting a show for a client and the distibutor needs:
- Dialougue on track 1
- Mix on track 2
- M & E on tracks 3&4
I'm no audio genius by any means and I have the audio output setting for my timeline set-up for 4 track output:
- Track 1 Mono
- Track 2 Mono
- Track 3 & 4 Stereo
My questions are......
One, is this correct?
Two, my Dialogue track is stereo and both L & R are assigned to Track 1. Does this screw up the stereo. It sounds like it would to me.
Three, if the above settings are correct, then which channel set-up do I choose in Compressor to make sure the audio stays on the right tracks. (example: Should I choose 4.0 L R C Cs or 4.0 L R Ls Rs)
I could really use some help on this one. Thanks.
Also I am am running:
Mac Pro Intel Dual 2.66
10.4.10
FCP 5.1.4
Compressor 2.3
If that helps at all.

1. How are you printing?
I'm using one of the Adobe PDF Export Presets: High Quality Print.
2. What are you using to determine the line weight?
What do you mean? I talking about the stroke size.
3. Have you tried opening the PDF in Illustrator to see what the reported line weight is?
I've tried it now and it looks just fine! Just like it was supposed to! All the line weights are correct.
4. This might just be a limitation of your printer or printer driver.
I don't think so. I have never had this problem up until now!
I'm starting to think it has something to do with some Acrobat preferences settings...

Compression, limiting, final gain control. Which order do they go in??

Hi
Im fairly new to mastering a track. Ive been getting into it the last couple of months. Just learning and practising.
I got my track eq'ed up just right in logic, i have then bounced. Ive imported my audio mixdown back into logic. I now want to master my track. Is there any particular order to apply compression, limiter and final gain plugins?? Ive tried compressing, then limiting, this sounds real good. Is there a limit to how many mastering plugins to put on?? Ive heard if you compress, then limit, then add a final mix enhancer, that this is a good way to go.
Sometimes after ive compressed a track, bounced, then added a limiter to the compressed audio track, that when certain sounds come in in the mix, the volume falls for for a split second. Is this to do with eq, or do i need to tweak my compression and limiting??
I know there are many ways to go down the mastering route.
Share with me some of your different ways that you mix and master a track.
Cheers
digi

*EQ
*Multi Compressor
*Exciter/Enhancer (if needed)
*Stereo Imaging (if needed)
*Loudness Maximizer/Limiter
*Multimeter to check Correlation/Spectrum

Automatically compress iTunes music on Nano?

I have recently upgraded my iPod Shuffle (1st Gen) to a new Nano (2nd Gen) and discovered that I no longer have the option to automatically compress music in my library when it is copied to my iPod... at least I can't find the option.
I keep my music in ALL format which means I can only fit about 300 tracks in 8GB if not compressed. The iPod shuffle had an option to automatically compress synchronised tracks to AAC (very nice feature) which appears to be missing in iTunes for the Nano.
Am I just missing this feature or has it been excluded on the Nano?
Cheers.

Thanks william, but that is the general preference for importing into my library. I want to keep importing as ALL and just have the sync'ed tracks converted to AAC... the shuffle had this option.
Thanks for your reply anyway.
Rod

Questions on Handling Multi-Channel Audio

Hi there,
I'm an Editor at a news shop that has been running FCP 7.0.3 for a good length of time now. Everyone loves it, I love it - however I understand it is becoming dated and eventually we will need to upgrade to a new NLE if we want to stay up to par with latest codec support for new cameras and simple process enhancements (64bit, background rendering, etc.)
FCPX is one of several options we're trying out, and I have been toying around with the Trial version, seeing the workflow, cutting VO/SOTs and Packages on it.
The 'new' workflow does not bother me at all, I think there are a lot of enhancements that come with X, despite it seeming foreign to the FCP7 loyalists like myself. However, one thing I'm not quite sold on (or understanding of) yet is multichannel audio. So I'd like to ask a few questions regarding that if anyone would be willing to loan some tips. As a preface here's how we handle audio:
Ch1 - Wireless audio (stick mic, lav)
Ch2 - Shotgun mic (usually for natural sound)
Ch 3 / 4 - Usually copies of 1/2 but at Auto volume.
1.) Is there a quicker way to make detached / split audio channels a default state?
- I understand that I can take a clip and detach the audio, and then after that, take it one step further and expand the tracks to see all 4 audio tracks on the timeline. However, that doesn't seem like a very efficient way to go about viewing all 4 tracks (or at the very least the 2 main tracks) if I need to select all and take 2 actions to see them.
2.) What is the best way to 'bring in' only the channels I want to the timeline?
- Right now the best method I've found has been to select the clip in the browser, deselect the Audio channels I don't want in the inspector, and then make the necessary edit. Maybe in theory I could Select All clips in browser and globally change active tracks? I equate this to disconnecting A/V tracks in FCP7. Is this the best way to handle this?
3.) Is there a way to designate channels for export?
- Since there aren't really any 'tracks' in FCPX, it's hard for me to understand what audio goes where on the way out. Usually on our exports, Ch 1 will be dialogue (reporter track, sound bytes, etc.) and Ch 2 will be nat sound. This makes it easy for editors to re-cut from previously edited elements. How do I even go about assigning this? Do channels keep their position (ie. if I dropped in Ch 2 audio from the camera, does that simply NEED to export to Ch 2 on the output?)
That's about it - although if anyone is particularly passionate about the subject I'd also ask what they think about how all of this - if this is an audio workflow that when learned, can be better... OR if you feel it is a step backwards from other NLEs like FCP7, Avid, etc.
I would appreciate any and all answers regarding this. Thanks for your time!

1. Not a great fan of detaching audio except in multicam clips. Generally I'd suggest using the expand audio components function to access the channels.
2. Yes. Switch off the auto tracks in the browser and only turn them back on for the clips you need in the project. With expanded audio components, if you turn the channels back on they will reappear in the timeline.
3. You use roles for this. I know time is tight for news, but taking a few moments to assign roles to the clips in the borwser, which you can do in globally, will allow you to export with separate tracks.

Suggestions please for Narrator vs Background Music levels

HI Guys
I have recenty recorded some narratIons over some background music
Reflecting 4 weeks later on the recording and how I might have done things diffferently in order to improve things I came to the conclusion that there is not enough distinctiveness to the narrator whilst clashing with the dynamic range of the backgrOund music
Apart from hard limiting no other effects were really used.
How would everyone deal with this problem?
Simply Lower music levels?
Use compression on either or both Narrator and final mix?
Some other approach?
Thanks
Pete

Perennial problem, this. Partly the correct answer depends, believe it or not, on the age of your target audience. The younger you are, the easier it is for you to discriminate between dialogue and anything else (not just music) going on in the background. So if you want to play safe, you arrange that the peak levels of your dialogue track are somewhere between 12-15dB higher than whatever is behind it, because that should do for just about everybody. That said, it's clearly easier to hear through some types of music than others, so if you have made the mistake of having something, say, percussive or even worse, with lyrics then this really does need to be quite a long way down.
But...
My personal take on this is, according to some people, rather harsh, although I think that it's perfectly reasonable; and that is that unless the music is adding something very specific and intentional, it shouldn't be there anyway. So I find the concept of 'background' music to be something of an anathma, I'm afraid. Have relevant music by all means - but then I want to hear it, and don't really want it talked over! FWIW, I happen to know that I'm not exactly alone in having this view either...

Creating 5.1 Surround in Final Cut Pro

Hi,
So I am tyring to figure out the best way to go about building a 5.1 mix to use in a film project that will be put on BluRay.
In my current rough cut in Final Cut Pro 7, I do not have my timeline setup as 5.1 yet since all the dialogue was recorded either in 2 Channel stereo or sometimes mono. I have several spots in the film where I am adding ambient tracks and we also have lots of musical score/songs. All of these are also 2 channel stereo currently.
My basic understanding on how to possibly achieve a 5.1 mix would be to duplicate all the stereo tracks that I intend to use as L/R and Ls/Rs (such as songs, ambience or score) and possibly change the dialogue track from 2 ch to mono and set that as the center channel. But I am a bit lost on how to get anything from the LFE at that point.
I also thought about possibly bringing this project into FCPx and seeing if building the 5.1 might be easier there.
Any suggestions?
Thanks.

Ok, I do have STP and also have Logic Pro. I have used Logic in the past to make my own music, but never for 5.1.
So in my research it seems like I need to setup a virtualized 5.1 in Sys Prefs as a new Midi Configuration. I also found the following items that seem like pretty good and inexpensive route to go:
Focusrite Saffire 24 Firewire
http://www.amazon.com/Focusrite-Saffire-24-Firewire-Interface/dp/B002E2R81G/ref= sr_1_6?s=musical-instruments&ie=UTF8&qid=1376847003&sr=1-6&keywords=M-Audio+fire wire
Logitech Z906
http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Surround-Speaker-System-980-000467/dp/B004M18O60/ ref=sr_1_12?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1376849263&sr=1-12&keywords=logitech+speak ers
Thoughts?

Compressing dialogue tracks on FCPX

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