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Creating Split Tracks for Export, plus problems with audio settings and export.
Hi there,
I just started my first proper project using Final Cut Pro X yesterday and boy what a mistake! I work in news and I have very strict broadcast deadlines. I decided to cut a News Feature on FCP X as I had two days rather than the normal one and I thought I’d have time but I was SO slow I almost had a nervous breakdown. In the end I had to bail halfway through the edit and finish on FCP 7 or I wouldn’t have got my piece finished in time. Problem is I now need to do something first thing tomorrow morning and I don’t know how to do it. I’m not in the office so I can’t play around. I will endeavour to work it out tonight but I hoped one of you kind souls could point me in the right direction.
Normally when we file our stories we compress them and send them over the internet (I’m based in Beijing). We normally just export using Quicktime conversion from FCP7. Before we export we make sure that we only have two tracks of sound. We put all the voiceover and interviews on one track and all the background sound on the other track. We pan the voiceover to left (-1) and the background to the right (+1). This ensures that when FCP does a mix down as part of the compression process the two tracks are still distinct. That means the editors in Melbourne can split the tracks and re-mix the audio should they need to.
I have half of my sequence finished in Final Cut Pro X and I need to achieve the above scenario with this first half. I’m pretty sure I could work it out but I don’t have time to as I have to have this done tomorrow morning. If anyone can help I’d really appreciate it so I can go in to the office tomorrow and haver a head start working this out.
A significant related problem is that when I exported the original sequence today and sent it to Australia, the editors in Melbourne couldn’t hear the audio. I’m pretty sure that it was because I had the audio set to ‘surround’ on my ‘project’. They are not working on Apples (not sure what) in any case no Audio. In the end I had to send the audio separately as an AAC stereo file. I’d like to be able to send the whole thing tomorrow rather than vision and audio separate
The problem is whenever I changed the audio settings to Stereo before export, it would knock out the sound on several clips. The clips in which it knocked out the sound were clips that I had selected ‘break apart clip items’. I did this because I had four tracks of sound and only wanted track 1 (the radio mic) this worked fine but every time I tried to change the audio settings of the project to stereo in the sound settings then these clips would loose sound so I had to use surround setting.
So to summarise how do I export this sequence in stereo without loosing the audio on these clips that I have broken apart? How do I re-organise the tracks so that I can pan one whole track left and one whole track right. Is this even possible in Final Cut Pro X? Any help much appreciated, thanks
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8 Replies
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James,
Sorry you were having trouble. The solution to this is fairly straightforward and you’ve got a couple of options:
Option 1. If your picture is locked:
1. Like you said, make sure you mix is set to stereo, not surround. Modify the project settings to do this.
2. Finish your edit and create Compound Clips for your VO and another compound clip for your Background Audio.
3. In the Audio tab in the inspector, set the VO Compound clip to pan left, and the Background to Pan right and export. Like this:
Option 2. No picture lock:
1. Set mix to stereo (see above)
2. Select all your VO tracks using the timeline index. Filter for audio, and then perhaps apply a search to get just what you need.
3. With those selected in the timeline index, hit command 2 or press tab until the timeline is selected. Then in the inspector audio tab, set the pan to stereo and then left.
4. Repeat for background elements.
5. Export.Also check out this thread for more info and a video. https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/100#3944
As far as not being able to hear the audio, that is odd, but sounds like a phase cancelation issue. Removing the surround should hopefully fix it. But since you are splitting the channels on export it and effectively making two mono mixes you’ll hear the phase cancelation in your monitors before you export.
Let me know anything else, I’ll be glad to help you get this exported correctly.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
Hi thanks for this it helped me out a lot (especially working out these compound clips) although I could still not do what I wanted to (i.e. split the tracks and pan them upon export) because every time I changed the settings to stereo, the clips where I had broken apart the audio from the video (and had deleted three audio channels thereby just leaving the radio mic) lost sound. I tested exporting the video but the export had no sound on those clips. So I had to leave the project in surround mode. I then tried to pan one compound clip right and the other left. The compound clip containing the background sound (all the clips I hadn’t broken apart) worked fine but when I tried to pan the clip with the voiceover and interviews, they mysteriously muted again. So basically all of the clips where I had broken apart the sound tracks and deleted some had problems. In the end I had to duplicate the project and export just the audio from one track in one project and the other track in the other project and send the video separate to the audio voiceover track separate to the background sound. In short a massive ball ache. I’ve now been told by my boss categorically that I’m not allowed to use final cut pro x in the office and that I should have played around with it at home before I tried it at work. Fair enoough it caused us loads of problems. Anyway I’m keen to get to the bottom of this so what was I doing wrong or is it some sort of bug? Any answers appreciated. Should I have started the project in Stereo? Perhaps changing it at the later stage effects those clips. Or maybe I just had some settings messed up but there seems to be very little setting to play around with. If I can’t do this I can’t use FCP X for my needs. Seems crazy but I’m starting to understand what all the fuss was about about upon this release. They better have a goo updates lined up or they will lose a lot of customers me thinks.
James
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Hi James,
[James Bayliss-Smith] “every time I changed the settings to stereo, the clips where I had broken apart the audio from the video (and had deleted three audio channels thereby just leaving the radio mic) lost sound.”
Ahh. I know just what happened. (well maybe) If you panned a few clips left, and then you grouped those clips in a compound clip and then panned that compound clip right you would hear nothing. Panning Stereo Clips will often give unexpected results.
[James Bayliss-Smith] “I then tried to pan one compound clip right and the other left. The compound clip containing the background sound (all the clips I hadn’t broken apart) worked fine but when I tried to pan the clip with the voiceover and interviews, they mysteriously muted again. “
I think that is what happened above. Look at your audio meters. Are they showing levels and then you are not hearing anything (that would be phase cancelation), or if they aren’t showing levels that would be some clip pan setting problems.
[James Bayliss-Smith] “I’ve now been told by my boss categorically that I’m not allowed to use final cut pro x in the office and that I should have played around with it at home before I tried it at work. Fair enoough it caused us loads of problems.”
LOL. Obey your boss.
[James Bayliss-Smith] “Should I have started the project in Stereo? Perhaps changing it at the later stage effects those clips. Or maybe I just had some settings messed up but there seems to be very little setting to play around with. If I can’t do this I can’t use FCP X for my needs.”
It shouldn’t matter. Yes it looked like some of the settings got messed up.
One note of encouragement. FCP X really does work! it’s not prefect, but you’ve just hit a little snag. It happens with any program. I’ll be glad to help you out as much as I can. If you would like we could screen share (ichat) and I could try to help you sort things out. Just send me a private message here.
– T.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
One other thing I discovered, the stereo pan controls in FCP X work like you Car Stereo pan controls. i.e. a Karaoke CD with music on the left and vocals on the right. If you pan left, it would only play the music, and that from the left speaker. Therefore if you imported that Karaoke CD into FCP X, you would need to first need to tell FCP X to make the audio dual mono. Then you could set the pan to left and you would hear both music and vocals in the left speaker.
Does that make sense?
I honestly never did this in FCP 7. I only did panning in ProTools and SoundTrack Pro when sweetening audio, so I have no idea if it is different behavior.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
Hi Timothy, I’ll have a play around with the settings and look at the levels when I get back to the office but I honestly don’t think that was the problem unless Final Cut Pro X was panning my clips without me telling it to. I only panned once I had made the compound clips. Actually with that particular timeline I captured the media from P2 cards using log and transfer in Final cut pro 7. I then decided to use this media in FCP X so I’m pretty sure FCP 7 didn’t pan my clips. Anyway I’ll have another look at this when I’m on my work computer with the timeline in front of me. Thanks for the offer of an iChat let’s see how I get on,
All the best,
James
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Keep me updated.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque -
Hi Tim, I’m back trying to edit news on FCPX and I’m running into these same issues.
If you’ve time please see:
https://forums.creativecow.net/thread/344/6533
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James,
Are you still having trouble? It looks like you had some replies on your other thread. I grabbed some 8 channel p2 footage, and I can make you screencast showing the workflow if you would like. Let me know.
– T.
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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque
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