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8 Channel Audio setup in FCP
Hello saviors,
I don’t have thorough experience with audio in final cut, any help is super appreciated.
I am commissioned to produce a video and export it’s audio with these specifications:Codec: PCM
Sample rate: 48 Hz
Bits: 24 Bit
Channels: 8
Audio limited to: -98 Channels:
01 – Full Program Mix – Stereo Left
02 – Full Program Mix – Stereo Right
03 – International sound – Stereo Left
04 – International sound – Stereo Right
05 – Music and effects – Stereo Left
06 – Music and effects – Stereo Right
07 – Voice over – mono
08 – Interviews – monoCan someone briefly explain how to achieve such a format? or share a link to tutorial?
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7 Replies
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This can easily be done by creating roles. Assigning roles to the audio tracks and exporting an 8 track QT movie.
David
______________________________
The shortest answer is doing.
Lord Herbert
https://vimeo.com/battistella -
I go over the steps for doing this in my tutorial on the Roles feature.
Hope this helps.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Thanks Andy!
But I am using FCP 7. Do you have any tutorials explaining it on FCP 7 ?
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Ah, see this is an FCPX forum. There’s actually a separate forum for FCP7 and earlier questions.
However, to answer you, I don’t have a tutorial, but it’s pretty easy there as well. I’ll try to talk you through it.
First you need to make a duplicate of your sequence for output. Make sure your sequence audio conforms to the specs you listed above (ie: stereo mix on tracks 1-2).
Then, you need to prep your sequence. Hit CMD+0 to open your sequence settings. Go to the audio outputs tab and change the channels from 2 to 8. Make sure that channels 1-6 are set as stereo, and switch channels 7-8 to dual mono (I also remove the -3 downmix that is auto applied as well: click the dropdown and choose 0 downmix). Hit ok to apply.
Then right click each track in your sequence, select audio outputs and assign each to it’s corresponding channel (ie: set track 3 to channel 3). This can be done in the audio mix tool as well.
This method requires that you have already created stereo mixes of your program. If you haven’t you should do that. You can just export your base sequence out as a stereo aiff and reimport into your project. For the mono tracks you can just copy those tracks to 7-8 of your output sequence.
Once you have all your audio in the right place, go to File/Export Quicktime. The resulting QT movie will contain 8 tracks of audio.
Hope this helps.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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Thanks a lot Andy!
I will apply it and post any questions if I have.Thanks again
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What is confusing me is how to import these files as mono or stereomix.
I set the sequence as described. But I got a message saying “the current audio device does not support the number of outputs set in the sequence settings audio outputs tab. unsupported outputs will not be heard during play back” and It’s true. If I added any music/interview sound clips on any of the tracks
I have two questions:
1- When I have audio recorded from the mic attached to a camera it’s always two tracks left and right, how can I merge them into one? by exporting to aif? I did that, and got it out still two tracks, should I be deleting one of them so that I can link it to the channel/audio track?
1- When I added any interview sound on any of the 5th,6th,7th or 8th tracks, I couldn’t hear anything during playback. I don’t understand, please help!
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[salma shamel] “I set the sequence as described. But I got a message saying “the current audio device does not support the number of outputs set in the sequence settings audio outputs tab. unsupported outputs will not be heard during play back” and It’s true.”
Ok. There are somethings about your workflow you haven’t explained which alter what workflow you should be using.
Firstly, you get that message because whatever video/audio output you have set (ie: Firewire) can only output stereo audio.
Your original post said you were going to be “exporting” the project. If you’re exporting a QT file, then follow the instructions I gave you, but only AFTER you’ve finished editing. Those instructions are for export only. If you want to continue editing, your audio sequence settings should be set to stereo, not 8 mono channels because you’ll only ever hear what’s on tracks 1 and 2.
If by “export” you mean, “lay back to tape”, then you need a capture card capable of outputting several channels of audio. You won’t be able to layback 8 channels through the firewire to a DV camera no matter how it’s set up in FCP.
[salma shamel] “What is confusing me is how to import these files as mono or stereomix. “
FCP reads the files exactly as they are on import. If you are importing a stereo piece of music, it will be a stereo clip. If you are digitizing from tape however, you can force FCP to capture audio as either stereo or mono tracks depending on your needs.
[salma shamel] “When I have audio recorded from the mic attached to a camera it’s always two tracks left and right, how can I merge them into one?”
That is probably fixable by adjusting settings inside your camera. Most cameras can record mono tracks.
But if it’s already in FCP, all you really have to do is pan the master source clip to 0, and then only edit 1 track into your sequence.
[salma shamel] “When I added any interview sound on any of the 5th,6th,7th or 8th tracks, I couldn’t hear anything during playback. I don’t understand, please help!
“See my first point. Edit in a stereo sequence. When you’re finished, follow the instructions for exporting a multi-track quicktime.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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