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Breaking apart clips causes me to lose audio
Hi there I’m experiencing some weird audio issues with Final Cut Pro X. Any comment on my workflow much appreciated.
I have some footage shot on a Panasonic P2 in DVCPro with 4 tracks of audio. When I import the media to FCPX I often only want one track from the radio mic from an interview. My radio mic’s are always on track one
I see four tracks in the Inspector and I can isolate track one by unchecking the other three tracks. So far so good.
If I then bring that track down to the timeline I can only hear the one track. Great.
But if I break apart the clip and manually delete the three other tracks then for some reason I cannot then hear track one. The audio is still there and I can see the wave forms but no sound? Strange, why does it do this?
Is all audio manipulated in the inspector in fcpx? Should I not break apart clips if at all possible and just get used to working in the inspector?
Thanks
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4 Replies
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There is no reason to break apart the clip in what you’re doing. If you do need to manipulate the audio track separately from the video, expand it or detach it. Break apart is really only if you have multiple tracks that you need to use independently from each other, or for compound clips or storylines you want to separate.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Coming in 2012 “Complete Training for FCPX” from Class on Demand
“Final Cut Pro X for iMovie and Final Cut Express Users” from Focal Press -
I ditto Tom. Don’t break apart your tracks.
In addition to turning audio channels on and off in the audio inspector, once you’ve placed a clip in the timeline, you can “open in timeline” and see your 4 audio channels of the clip. Then you can manipulate the channels separately. You can enable or disable audio channels with the V key, which is exactly like turning channels on and off in the inspector.
While looking at a clip in “timeline” mode, you can also apply different audio levels to each channel, or even create keyframes for each audio channel to “ride” the audio levels.
The controls are all there, just a different way to do things. And not always easier.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com -
Thanks for your responses guys.
I work for Australian news, normally when we file our stories we compress them and send them over the internet (I’m based in Beijing). We normally just export a full quality Quicktime file. 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 Export process the two tracks are still distinct. That means the editors in Australia can split the tracks and re-mix the audio should they need to.
I was previously advised to group the different audio using compound clips then adjust the pan. So how does this tally with your advice not to break apart clips?
Happy New Year!
James
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James,
You don’t need to worry about panning or compound clips. You can use the “roles” that’s built into 10.0.1 and beyond.
https://help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.0.1/#verb71cbcbe
I generally first lay down all of my narration and interviews into my timeline, then work on the b-roll and natural sound pops.
Once all the primary audio (the channel 1 stuff) is in the timeine, it’s a simple matter of selecting the clips and assigning them a role. I call mine “VO”
I then make sure that everything else gets assigned “Dialogue” which is the default role for most things.
When you export your clip, you can export with roles, so that you get VO on one channel and everything else on the other.
You aren’t even limited to two channels. I usually export 4 channels, and put music on 3 and 4.
When your quicktime clip gets back to the shop in Australia, they can reassemble it for air.
I recommend that once you export a clip, that you bring it back into Final Cut Pro X, and break apart the clip to make sure the audio is split up the way you want before you post it. It’s very easy for an errant clip to end up in the wrong channel.
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FCX. She tempts me, abuses me, beats me up, makes me feel worthless, then in the end she comes around, helps me get my work done, gives me hope and I can’t stop thinking about her.Mark Morache
Avid/Xpri/FCP7/FCX
Evening Magazine,Seattle, WA
https://fcpx.wordpress.com
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