audio from Protools goes out of sync

[David Scott]

Hi Stephen
Try checking that the bit rate is the same, ideally you should both be working 24bit audio. Pull down the sequence menu, select settings, and check that your audio rate is 24bit at 48hz. The AIFF from Protools should have the same settings (which you can check in your browser). If they are different, remove the audio from the sequence, change the sequence settings to match it, then put it back on – that should fix it.
Hope that works
God bless

David Scott,
Senior Editor,
GOD TV (UK)

[Sean Oneil]

[Stephen Franciosa] “When I drag them onto my 24 frame timeline I get a green bar along the top which I believe is associated with a speed filter. Which would make sense. If these files are dragged onto a 23.98 timeline (a different frame rate) no bar appears.”

This is a new “feature” in Final Cut. Final Cut does not actually know what speed the audio is supposed to be (24.00 or 23.98). So when you import it, it just assumes that whatever your Easy Setup is, that is what speed the audio is supposed to be. This problem also occurs with PAL stuff.

Remove the audio files from your project. Save and quit FCP. Now relaunch and change your Easy Setup to something that is 24.00fps (not 23.98). Now import the aif files. You’ll now see the exact opposite. On a 23.98 sequence you’ll get a green bar, but on a 24.00 sequence it will be fine. Since what you tried is out of sync, I would assume the Pro Tools audio is supposed to be 24.00.

Sean

[Steve Harrington]

Well the Easy setup, solved the issue, but now it seems my audio which has been in the project already has a green bar and is drifting out of sync.

[Sean Oneil]

Do whatever Easy Setup you need to bring one piece of audio in so that it syncs. Once it syncs, export a Quicktime movie with video and audio.

Open that new Quicktime movie in Cinema Tools. You can then conform it to 23.98 or 24.00. Now when you import this new file in FCP, it will be recognized as that framerate no matter what Easy Setup or sequence setting you use.

Sean

[Steve Harrington]

Fantastic, your a life saver. One problem, I have production audio now which has a green bar above it which I cannot remove to reimport. I cant remember if it was like this before my other audio issues started, How can I fix this?

[Steve Harrington]

Fantastic, your a life saver. One problem, I have production audio now which has a green bar above it which I cannot remove to reimport. I cant remember if it was like this before my other audio issues started, How can I fix this?

[Sean Oneil]

[Stephen Franciosa] “I cant remember if it was like this before my other audio issues started, How can I fix this?”

I’m sorry to tell you this but I have no idea. There’s no way to “Remove Attributes” in this case unfortunately. When I first discovered all this odd behavior, I sent feedback to Apple.

All I can suggest is maybe try to make it offline, change Easy Setup, save quit and restart FCP, and then reconnect the media.

Sean

[Steve Harrington]

Well thanks a lot anyway. It was driving me crazy.