Audio editing in FCPX

[Charlie Austin]

[Andy Field] “the “give me FCP X or hit the road” crowd is so invested in other’s validating their choice they seem to need to make everyone else either wrong or luddites for not agreeing with them.”

That may be true of the “give me FCP X or hit the road” crowd, but not everyone who likes using X is in that camp. Some are professional editors, who use and are familiar with variety of NLE’s, that actually like using FCP X.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard for the “X is bananas and unsuited for proper editing” crowd to understand.

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Herb Sevush]

[Charlie Austin] “Except that you can do an audio only overwrite, just like any other NLE. Ya know, with detached audio. “

Just a question by a non-user who always works with detached audio: when you work with detached audio does FCPX provide sync indicators so you can easily maintain sync, just like any other NLE?

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Charlie Austin]

[Herb Sevush] “Just a question by a non-user who always works with detached audio: when you work with detached audio does FCPX provide sync indicators so you can easily maintain sync, just like any other NLE?”

Nope. Because it doesn’t go out of sync unless you move it out of sync. If need to be reassured it will never go out of sync don’t disconnect it, or comp it to the pix. But you knew that right?

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Joshua Pearson]

No it does not which is a huge flaw… i’ve work with sync OFF for my entire editing career (well, not in the days of u-matic tape editing) and never had a problem, especially with the help of the sync indicators… but without them i am loath to detach audio… not to mention that, as someone mentioned earlier how in 7 audio clips can get far away “down the tracks as you stack video clips… its the same in X when you detach audio!… if there are 5 layers of audio below your video clip, when you detach the audio it drops down as if pulled by gravity to the bottom… seems to me it would be more convenient if when you detach audio from a clip in the storyline it should “hug” the storyline and remain just under the original clip… i find myself scrolling down to find the clip and pull it back up so it sits under the timeline…

[Herb Sevush]

[Charlie Austin] “Nope. Because it doesn’t go out of sync unless you move it out of sync. If need to be reassured it will never go out of sync don’t disconnect it, or comp it to the pix.”

So your argument is that if you want to do an audio only overwrite, just disconnect the audio. But if your worried about the audio ever going out of sync, don’t disconnect the audio. So what if you want to do audio only overwrites (something every editor does routinely) and you worry about audio inadvertently going out of sync (something every sane editor does.)? Use another NLE, I guess.

For someone like myself who always edits using disconnected media, advising someone to work in a timeline without sync indicators is like advising someone with a sore throat to gargle with nitro glycerin. Unless you’ve got something better to offer, then Aindreas’s comments on this issue are still valid.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf

[Atilio Menéndez]

I agree it’s bananas. Just like removing a perfectly functional, often used command from a context menu (“break apart clip items”), or not including others where it perfectly makes sense (right clicking on the small exclamation mark which appears on an event name where there’s offline media in order to… well… guess what). I guess/hope it’s just due to sloppiness.

But I don’t think this in particular is due to “restrictive decisions apple took in the design of the timeline”. I mean, there is really no reason why the overwriting could’t be done, or why the “muting” couldn’t happen automatically. To be fair, one drag and a keystroke is all it takes for the muting, but still it’s quite silly. X is specially exasperating due to the mixture of great features and ridiculous mistakes and omissions.

[Charlie Austin]

[Herb Sevush] “So what if you want to do audio only overwrites (something every editor does routinely) and you worry about audio inadvertently going out of sync (something every sane editor does.)?”

Are you implying I’m insane? 🙂 I’m not arguing anything. I worry about things going out of sync as much as anyone. In X, I just make sure the connections are in the right place and forget about it. It’s second nature now. Like many people here, I’ve been editing in NLE’s with sync indicators for close to 25 years. My timelines are often very complex. I thought not having sync indicators was an issue when I first picked up X. Now I don’t, because it isn’t. would it be a nice option for those who are used to using them? Sure.

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Steve Connor]

[Charlie Austin] “Are you implying I’m insane? 🙂 I’m not arguing anything. I worry about things going out of sync as much as anyone. In X, I just make sure the connections are in the right place and forget about it. It’s second nature now. Like many people here, I’ve been editing in NLE’s with sync indicators for close to 25 years. My timelines are often very complex. I thought not having sync indicators was an issue when I first picked up X. Now I don’t, because it isn’t. would it be a nice option for those who are used to using them? Sure.
“

Sorry Charlie, that’s too much like an informed opinion, it can’t possibly be correct

Steve Connor
Mellowing slowly

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Joshua Pearson] “but without them i am loath to detach audio..”

So don’t detach audio, instead use the audio with the video, but keep it underneath the primary.

Shift-f to match frame, q to add as connected, drag it underneath the primary and use it as an audio clip.

This way you a have synced audio and video to whatever clip you are working on.

You don’t need sync markers as everything is in sync with itself if you need it.

You can always change the stacking order to prioritize what video is available, or use a composite mode to send a layer to the back.

Could this process be better? Sure, but X does work if you work it, and it doesn’t work like track based editors. Perhaps I’m insane, I don’t really care. I’ve stopped worrying about it.

[Herb Sevush]

[Charlie Austin] “I worry about things going out of sync as much as anyone. In X, I just make sure the connections are in the right place and forget about it. “

OK, that sounds reasonable. So first you disconnect it, then you make sure the connections are in the right place to keep it in sync, then what if you want to move it out of sync for some reason – disconnect it again I guess — then what if later you want to have part of that clip back in sync with video again ??

I’m not being facetious here, I go through this workflow dozens of times a week, audio being in sync, then covering it with B-roll, then changing later to having some of it still be in sync to video as I break up the B-roll as I refine the edit, and all of this with the ability to do audio only overwrites at any point – the idea of doing that without sync indicators “seems” insane, but then again I’m willing to learn a better way, I’m just not willing to learn a purely different way without it being a better way.

Herb Sevush
Zebra Productions
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nothin’ attached to nothin’
“Deciding the spine is the process of editing” F. Bieberkopf