Audio editing in FCPX

[Bill Davis]

[Charlie Austin] “[Steve Connor] “Yes, I certainly am, because I love Apple soooooo much, I’m happy to make my editing much more difficult every day, that’s what us FCP X users do.”

Me too! I have 5 NLE’s available on my system, and I love working in X because it makes everything I do such a chore! It’s terrible, so I use it as much as I can! Because I love Apple!!!!”

Me three.

Actually, I recently sustained a head injury and discovered a new ability to edit telekinetically – and now all I have to do is THINK an edit and it happens!!!

Yet I’m so obsessed with Apple that I refuse to do any telepathic editing at all, and instead use X on a laptop to honor the tradition of religious fanatics who would scourge themselves with corded whips and wear hair shirts in devotion to their beloved deities.

So there.

; )

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Aindreas Gallagher]

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

bzzzt – wrong answer. having to cut the audio of the VA clip completely loose to an unrelated item and losing all sync info is, tragically, a non-starter.

so if you need to write audio over the sync audio for doe reason, then you detach it with a keystroke so you can work just like you’re used to working. And then, if you want it to go back to being self contained, press a key to comp it. Real complicated.

so right – you’re now making effectively a nested sequence to try and regain sync. mmm. that all sounds aces charlie. completely on the ball methodology there.

and see – he said turning to the room of impartial observers in ranged tiered seating looking at the X proponent swinging his arms wildly –

that actually is koolaid territory.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Herb Sevush]

[Jeremy Garchow] “Shift-f to match frame, q to add as connected, drag it underneath the primary and use it as an audio clip.”

As opposed to doing an audio overwrite edit in any other nle. yes, i can see how that’s a great leap forward.

nobody said there weren’t workarounds, just that for something this basic you shouldn’t need a workaround.

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

[Steve Connor]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “so right – you’re now making effectively a nested sequence to try and regain sync. mmm. that all sounds aces charlie. completely on the ball methodology there.

and see – he said turning to the room of impartial observers in ranged tiered seating looking at the X proponent swinging his arms wildly –

that actually is koolaid territory.”

I’ve missed the Kool-Aid references, I’m glad they’re back.

Steve Connor
Mellowing slowly

[Charlie Austin]

[Herb Sevush] “So first you disconnect it, then you make sure the connections are in the right place to keep it in sync”

Not exactly… I cut everything in with sync audio. Generally my sources have split tracks, to which I’ve assigned Roles after importing. So, even if I only need Dialog, I’ll cut it in with DIA and FX and disable what I don’t need. If I change my mind, I just turn it back on, no need to match bach and cut in the “tracks” I now need. Then, while cutting, I expand the AV so I can do J/L cuts if I need to, but audio stays connected.

[Herb Sevush] “then what if you want to move it out of sync for some reason – disconnect it”
In that case, I will disconnect it, and make sure the connection point is on the clip I want it to stick to. If I need to cheat some audio or something, and parts of the cut aren’t directly below the clip I want to maintain sync with, I’ll comp it and connect the comp in the right place. 2 keystrokes.

[Herb Sevush] “then what if later you want to have part of that clip back in sync with video again “

There are a couple ways to do this… Jeremy points out one way which is actually a pretty nice feature. Personally, I’d just match back to the pix and overcut it. Same as if you replaced sync pix with B-Roll in FC 7 and then wanted to get the sync pix back

[Herb Sevush] “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 poin”

same here… I cut everything in, usually roughly as connected, expanded clips then dump to the primary. I cut the B-Roll as connected clips (sometime leaving the sync audio with it, just disabled in case I decide i need it) and get that all roughed out. Fine tune J/L cuts in the primary with expanded audio, do any audio only cuts as connected clips and mute or disable sync audio as needed. If I cheat dialog I’ll either comp it as audio only or with the pix. If the audio part of the cheat extends beyond the video I’ll expand A/V, trim the video portion to length (leaving J/L audio) and close it up. If I decide some b-roll doesn’t work i just delete it and re-enable the original audio. Or enable the B-Roll audio and disable the primary. I pop clips/sections in and out of the primary all the time. Sometimes I’ll assemble B-Roll sections in secondaries so I can add transitions etc, and then dump the whole thing into the primary as a chunk if I want to. Or not. It’s super flexible once you get into it.

And honestly, I really don’t worry about losing sync. And again, as Jeremy says, you could cut *all* your audio with the picture attached so it’s always be there. It’s a really nice way to work. I say that as I sit here cutting in FCP 7 this week. It’s really frustrating. 🙂

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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”~

[Aindreas Gallagher]

fair enough I overdid but listen to this – this below is a solution right? that a casual editor might read? enter mr. garchow:

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.

when I say that sounds crazy, its because I mean that sounds crazy, the fact that composite modes got thrown in for fun there at the end leads me to suspect that garchow is possibly slightly in on the joke here.

Some of FCPX is crazy, wild attempts to ignore the crazy might be characterised as having imbibed a cup of the kool aid. If there was one place to constructively prod apple – this is definitely one of them. PIOPS people. you’d have to think they were still reading this place back then. Although garchow hasn’t forgiven anyone for piops yet.

https://vimeo.com/user1590967/videos http://www.ogallchoir.net promo producer/editor.grading/motion graphics

[Joshua Pearson]

Sorry, while i’m still beating my drum about overwrite editing, it does also seem really strange that you can’t overwrite paste into the main storyline. I mean, come on…

[Herb Sevush]

I don’t doubt that you find this a great way to do your work, but for an “outsider” here’s the thing – you’ve just mentioned connected clips, primaries, expanded clips, comps and secondaries – all to describe something that in any other NLE is done without any of them. I’ll take your word for it that it’s fast and efficient, but if it takes that long just to describe it, I’ll stick to clips and tracks.

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

[Charlie Austin]

[Aindreas Gallagher] “so right – you’re now making effectively a nested sequence to try and regain sync. mmm. that all sounds aces charlie. completely on the ball methodology there.”

A CC is not a nested sequence in the FCP 7 sense. It’s a clip like any other. Master clips in X can be opened and edited. But you go on believing what you will. All I know, is that I am cutting today in the perfectly realized, nicely ordered, beloved FCP 7 timeline. It is awful.

Clunky, inflexible, mind numbingly annoying. But, clearly, according to you, it is much better than X, so I must be doing something wrong. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need some Kool Aide….

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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”~

[Andy Field]

I hear you Charlie……like that “X is Bananas”……tasty…….frankly the only thing that really bugs me is lack of a mixer and audio tracks….I just don’t want another step of roles and exporting etc…..Keywords is great but so is organizing how you like things in bins or reels (mostly reels as I come from old school film beginnings)

a lot of the controls are too small for my aging eyes…the color square doesn’t seem to be much of an improvement over the color wheel….losing the Motion roundtrip was a step backwards…custom window layouts ..as far as i can tell..aren’t doable (may be wrong about that)

Seems sluggish sometimes on even the fastest machines (latest Retina powerbook)

Has great multi-cam — terrific for laying everything in and banging it out quickly

I come from an audio background – many decades in Radio and TV…..and like the tactile “mix while you go” feel of a mixer (even virtual on screen)… everything can’t be solved with a range select…much can finessed with a slow music fill in between breaths and soundbites that is just too fiddle-y with the current just use FCP X sound tools

Other than that – good editor

Andy Field
FieldVision Productions
N. Bethesda, Maryland 20852