Audio Mixing is Actually Brilliant

[Jim Giberti]

[David Lawrence] “[Jeremy Garchow] “it would be nice to “open the drawer” and manipulate what you need in context, then close the drawer back up with everything inside. Also, the detach function is great, but there’s no reattach. Basically, it would be nice to be able to edit what’s in the compound clip in greater context of the over arching timeline rather than having to “step in” and open the compound in it’s own timeline. You lose the relationship to your timeline (the elements outside the compound clip) a little bit the way it is currently setup.””

I’m having no problem doing this with Break Apart jeremy.

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Jim Giberti] “I’m having no problem doing this with Break Apart jeremy.”

A picture would help, even if the picture are blurred out. Set the timkieline to view names as roles. We won’t tell anyone! 🙂

[David Lawrence]

[Jim Giberti] “I use that technique at times too David and yes the fades stay with the CC if you Break Apart or Open in Timeline”

But only if you keep your CC in a secondary storyline. If you break apart a connected CC with transitions you get this warning:

So I’m assuming you have everything in a secondary, yes?

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
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[Jim Giberti]

[Franz Bieberkopf] “I’d be interested in more info too – specifically how FCPX deals with real-time volume graphing without a mixer (I assume you can keep several volume controls available?)

Also how you might speculate control surfaces might be integrated in future.
“

I’m looking at it this way Franz (being open minded about learning a new way mix great audio even if it’s completely different from my life experience) – At any given time during a complex music mix on a 48 track console (my day to day audio room) I can only focus on one track at a time.

I began to meld my thinking in regard to mixing once I went to a dedicated DAW as my recorder. After a while of doing that, I’m just as comfortable grabbing the track and adjusting it with keyframes and drawing curves (next please Apple) as I am riding faders with automation.

So, in that sense, yes you always have your basic fader/pan strip available in the inspector the moment you click the clip/CC that you want to work on.

There’s no field of faders and knobs to see as an overview, but that can also be very cluttered and one of the reasons that I keep the track list open beside the timeline in DP so I can shut off all those distracting channels when I’m working track by track.

When I begin to create master drum groups, Backing vocal groups etc. I still have to use grouping in DP and then work with the groups as sub mixes and then buss to the master.

So far, I’m doing all of that and it’s faster and more organized and immediately available to me than DP or Logic.

It’s very different, but not bad different. And it’s easy to adopt.

[Jim Giberti]

[David Lawrence] “So I’m assuming you have everything in a secondary, yes?”

In this context yes, the Secondary/CC combination is what’s working.
It’s the only way to create a “container” to edit into unmagnetically and get the benefit of bussing.

[Jim Giberti]

[David Lawrence] ”
Jim, if I understand correctly, it sounds like you’re using the 1 frame gap at the head of the show as the connection/sync point, then connecting compounds to that?

That makes sense, although wouldn’t using secondarys give you a bit more flexibility as far as access without stepping in? I don’t know what the implications would be for audio FX.

Not sure what you mean about attaching to the end of the piece since I’d think this would constantly be slipping sync as you edit. But maybe you’re already locked at this point?”

Exactly David, I’m using both CCs and 2ndries.
In places, specifically the actors ADR, that I want magnetized I leave them and CC them when the edit is done and ready for final mix.

They can stay as CCs because I want them *(likewise the SFX tracks) to reference the Primary, but anything fixed , like a music track I’m cutting to starts out in a secondary connected to the “anchor frame” at the top.

I mentioned the “clip at the back” as the way to start building a visual series of tracks below the primary – an empty frame at the top and end of the edit that you select and Option/G.
This creates an empty container and eliminates the wandering clip issue. If you want to edit clips into is vs say a full length bed – you need to make it a storyline.

So, in my scenario, you use both CCs and Secondaries.

[Franz Bieberkopf]

Jim,

… well, you certainly do seem enthusiastic.

I have to disagree with you about hardware faders, though. I find they allow and enable the user to manipulate more than one track at at time (where in most software you are pretty much restricted to one track at a time) as well as allowing quickly changing focus while you’re listening. Further they provide a record that can be adjusted manually with keyframes etc.

If I’m not misunderstanding you, it seems that FCPX requires a sort of listen / stop and adjust / listen work-flow in terms of volume graphing.

When I get to a certain point with material, I prefer to be listening while I re-actively mix (the “live” mix)(thus the question about real-time volume balancing). I use the FCP 7 mixer for single track work and sometimes a Mackie or Behringer controller.

Franz.

[Jeremy Garchow]

Try detach, David. I’m just curious and haven’t been in front of fcpx today.

[David Lawrence]

[Jim Giberti] “So, in my scenario, you use both CCs and Secondaries.”

Got it. So Secondary Storylines anchored to a gap at the head of the piece used as virtual tracks, and enclosed CCs when ready to mix. This is similar to something I remember seeing in a video here a while ago. The idea was that secondarys with long gaps could be stacked vertically and connected to a gap frame at the program head creating a set of tracks. In the video they used the position tool to move clips to further simulate track-like behavior. It’s an interesting work-around, though I’m still partial to regular tracks.

_______________________
David Lawrence
art~media~design~research
propaganda.com
publicmattersgroup.com
facebook.com/dlawrence
twitter.com/dhl

[Jim Giberti]

[Jeremy Garchow] “A picture would help, even if the picture are blurred out. Set the timkieline to view names as roles. We won’t tell anyone! :)”

Here’s a short portion from the top to give a sense.

I’ll post a close up of the top next.