Audio Sweetening with “channels”

[Tony Silanskas]

Thanks Timothy for sharing and taking the time to teach a bit!

tony

http://www.HungryCliff.com

[Dale Robinson]

Timothy, Thank you for the video. Really curious, how did you record the video?

[Dustin Parsons]

Tim may have used iShowU but I recently found a website that lets you record your screen for free without installing anything. https://www.screenr.com/ take a look, it might be something of use

[T. Payton]

I used Screenflow. You can get it on the Mac App Store. But if you mean that high quality audio that is a genuine Logitec Web Cam from Staples. 😉

– T.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Chris Harlan]

Tim! Boy, I got questions for you.

Are you able to use these “channels” to affect audio splits? Could they be rendered separately, like dialog, vo, effects, mu? And can you reorganize those groups to create an M&E track and then re-seperate them?

Also what happens to those groupings if the magnetic track kicks in? Does it break them?

Thanks.

[T. Payton]

Chris,

Can you define audio splits? And M&E? Sorry I’m not familiar with those terms.

Regarding the Magnetic Timeline, audio sweetening is the absolute LAST thing you want to do after the picture is locked. My typical workflow has been to perform draft edits, and then get approval from the client on my “final edit” without audio sweetening or color grading done. Don’t get me wrong I do my best to make the audio sound decent and the frames to be pleasing, but the “final edit” is not where color grading and audio sweetening take place. Once I get the “final edit” approval, then I color grade and then lastly audio sweeten.

However, if you do need to make an edit at this point you would take note of the effects you have added and the level adjustments on the Compound Clip (our channel) and then break apart the compound clip back into individual elements. Edit away, then regroup the clips into a Channel, and then reapply the effects and adjustments. (Note: This is exactly what I would have to do in ProTools and even earlier versions of Soundtrack Pro before reconfirming was introduced, so it is pretty typical.)

I hope this helps,

– T.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Chris Harlan]

Sure T. These are broadcast television delivery terms. I’m mostly a promo editor. One of my many delivery requirements are variations of stems, often as compounded Quicktime files. So, my main delivery would be a fully mixed stereo piece, but I am also required to deliver each type of audio on an individual track, like a stem–so, this, for instance, would be a common 8 channel delivery–1) Dia. or SOT, 2) VO, 3) effects, 4)mono music, 5) M&E (a stereo music and effects mix), 6)Full Stereo mix. And then, if 5.1 were involved, that would take up the next chunk of channels, etc. I deliver some form of this for every project I do, and broadcast shows arrive for me in some form like this. You can see from this issue alone, why FCP X is seen by some as a huge pain in the behind.

As to the mix–you’ve never had clients make changes post-mix?

[T. Payton]

Chris,

I totally understand now. I have sent out spots like that I just never used the lingo.

You can absolutely do that in FCP X. In your Audio Sweetened version, do a select all then hit V to disable everything. Then enable the “channel” you want (again with the V), and Export your Audio for each part (setup a keyboard shortcut for it to make it easy). I doesn’t look like you have the option for mono at the moment, so you’ll need to fire up something to make that mono file.

(Humm. I wonder if I could automate this in Automator…. probably so. Come to think of it, now that these are exported like this you could bring them into ProTools like we did back in the day before OMF. Interesting…)

On the other hand to bring all those seperate elements into FCP X, just bring them into a Bin, or I’m sorry Event. Click all the elements and hit “Clips > Synchronize Clips” it will make a “master” clip will all the video and audio in place. Kinda cool actually.

I’ll go ahead and make another video about this. Hopefully it will help others.

I think FCP X is so much about changing the edit process that the FCP team somehow made it completely devoid of the day to day production duties that we have to do (hence the outrage). Hopefully the FCP team will get their act together soon.

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T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Simon Ubsdell]

Hey, that’s a really nice idea, Tim! I was thinking along the same lines but not going there thinking Compound clips would be as crappy as Nests used to be and hence not seeing their full potential. As it is they are increasingly looking like one of the most powerful aspects of the whole shooting match.

With your sync or VT or SOT tracks or whatever you like to call them you could do something a little more sneaky still and move them up out of the primary storyline (Cmd/opt/up arrow) and then make them into a storyline (Create storyline – Cmd/G). That way you wouldn’t have to step into the Compound clip to adjust the audio edit points. (Annoying that you can’t make a “storyline” in the primary storyline but there’s obviously some underlying logic to this.)

I do like the way guys like you on this forum are plugging away not just learning the software but dreaming up clever workarounds and devising workflows … all the while not really knowing if any of us will be using FCPX at all in a few months’ time.

😉

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com

[Simon Ubsdell]

[Simon Ubsdell] “make them into a storyline”

Oops, got that wrong sorry – I was convinced I’d read in the manual that you could apply filters to storylines (like you can to compound clips) but that’s clearly not the case and it’s daft to have suggested it. Apologies.

Simon Ubsdell
Director/Editor/Writer
http://www.tokyo-uk.com