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Buses/submixes in FCP7?
Hi, I’m an Assistant Editor who’s familiar with most basic tasks in FCP, but do most of my creative (more advanced) work at home on Vegas 8.
However, for compatibility I bought a Macbook Pro recently, and am trying to translate all of my Vegas knowledge into FCP7. (I have the full FCS3 suite)
Now so far so good, and it’s been a pretty painless transition, but I’m now working on an experimental five minute short, and one thing that is bothering me is how FCP handles audio.
I realize Soundtrack Pro is intended for all of FCP’s more serious audio needs – of course. Makes sense. But the problem is it seems FCP does not even have any support for buses or submixes AT ALL? I’ve been trying to read up on this, and the closest mentioning of “Buses” I could get in FCP’s manual was mentioning how FCP’s buses don’t function like regular audio buses, and only are used to map audio hardware to FCP.
I just want to do some very basic audio in FCP – run a Reverb bus I can send off a lot of audio clips to. It’s an experimental film where the sound design is crucial, so it’s just inefficient to send off the sequence to Soundtrack Pro, as I’d constantly be going back and forth as I experiment with ideas. (It’s a stream of consciousness style piece)
Now I hope I just missed something obvious, and there is a way for me to have an entire channel linked to a plugin? Maybe FCP uses a different name than bus?
Any help is greatly appreciated. The FCP experience has been pleasant otherwise, and I’d hate for such a basic thing to get in the way of how I’m used to working.
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14 Replies
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[Roger Matthews] “Now I hope I just missed something obvious, and there is a way for me to have an entire channel linked to a plugin?”
Nope. You have to use Soundtrack Pro for this. You can copy/paste filters to different clips, but you will quickly see how annoying that is when you need to change something. You can nest audio tracks and apply a filter to this nest, but the same thing applies.
Soundtrack Pro does have a conform feature that tracks changes.
Jeremy
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You read right. FCP doesn’t support what you are trying to get it to do. SoundTrack Pro does all this… Vegas is actually famous for it’s audio workflow, it’s the one thing it does better than FCP I think. But Soundtrack does as much or more actually. You’re wanting to change the video after you’ve worked in SoundTrack? You are aware you can conform a soundtrack project to changes in FCP? It’s in the file menu in STP near the bottom.
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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LOL… great minds. That conform feature really does work well…
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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Oh! Thanks Jeremy, I didn’t know about Conform. I’m guessing I can’t bounce back my work in Soundtrack Pro to FCP (which would be perfect, really), but at least I can instantly see my work in Soundtrack Pro without bouncing files around? That at least is more efficient.
I won’t be able to play around with it until later, but do I have the workflow about right? Thanks for the quick response, too!
Nope. You have to use Soundtrack Pro for this. You can copy/paste filters to different clips, but you will quickly see how annoying that is when you need to change something. You can nest audio tracks and apply a filter to this nest, but the same thing applies.[
Indeed – I was searching on the forums here, and the nesting was the closest I got. Just did not seem like a useful solution.
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Thanks as well for the quick reply, Jerry! I will play with Conform tonight after work.
It is nice to hear someone say nice things about Vegas – when I talk to people about it they scrunch their face and go “What’s that?”, haha.
But yes, my goal is to change the video after working in Soundtrack, so this Conform sounds promising. STP just handles plugins a lot better than FCP anyway, so I’m relieved that there may be hope for me after all!
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I’m still working in FCS2 (hopefully things have improved in 3), but I have one mantra when working in Soundtrack Pro: “SAVE OFTEN” because it seems to crash frequently any time you try to throw anything complicated at it.
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Augh, it was crashing the first time I was playing with it two nights ago! I thought it was just my setup, but I will keep a watchful eye on it.
(Like I learned how ‘Send to Compressor’ is a no no for complicated projects)
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Not only is their no sub bussing in FCP, their isn’t track based plugins, only clip based.
FCP is only designed as an edit tool that fortunately can finish picture for broadcast, although round tripping to Color is recommended. Audio finishing definitely requires an external program. Personally I use Fairlight Xynergi for this work and do it after the edit is locked off.
Historically, Vegas was developed by the people who made Sound Forge so it is no surprise that Vegas has good audio facility.
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If STP is unstable, post this in the STP forum here on the COW for sure.
But if you didn’t do a “clean install” of FCS, you need to do things that way first. fur shur.
Unless it was a brand new Mac…
Jerry
Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann
8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX Cinema Displays
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Huh, well last night I played with Conform in STP, and now STP isn’t crashing anymore. Must have been a bad night for the system ;).
Thanks everyone for your input – Conform (under very basic testing) seems to work wonderfully! I have to say I’m pretty impressed – it’s not 100% as efficient as my Vegas workflow, but it is perhaps 90%, and certainly makes my project very doable now! I’m definitely liking using STP so far, and I feel more at home with the FCP suite now. It handles plugins so much better, for one thing.
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