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Exporting 5.1 audio for Compressor AC3
Hello,
Currently, to make a surround sound AC3 files, I export every speaker track from FCP as individual quicktime movies and in compressor I drop these into the “Add Surround Sound” pallet and add the Dolby Digital 5.1 preset and encode.
I wanted to know if I could just export a single multi-track quicktime movie from FCP, drag it into compressor and add the Dolby preset.
My only concern is- what should the track order be in my FCP sequence? Does anyone have any documentation on this?
Currently, my tracks are always set like this:
Track 1: Left
Track 2: Right
Track 3: Center
Track 4: LFE
Track 5: Left Surround
Track 6: Right SurroundThe Dolby Digital Professional 5.1 preset orders the tracks as “Audio Coding Mode: 3/2 (L, C, R, Ls, Rs)” The LFE track is left as a check box option- “Enable Low Frequency Effects”
So, basically, it is unclear to me how the quicktime movie’s track ordering should be in order for it to be properly allocated for 5.1 AC3 encoding.
From the “Audio Coding Mode” listed in compressor’s inspector, my first guess would be that the FCP sequence’s track order should be:
Track 1: Left
Track 2: Center
Track 3: Right
Track 4: Left Surround
Track 5: Right Surround
Track 6: LFEBut I would like to hear from somebody with experience or find some documentation that explains the process clearly. Unfortunately, I am unable to preview my final ac3’s and I don’t know of a way to view the waveforems of an AC3 (if anyone knows how to do that, I’d be able to check my final results and do some experimenting)
Thank you for your time and any input on this.
-Jack
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7 Replies
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Jack,
I honestly don’t know the track order as Compressor interprets the six files from a single QT. However, Compressor was really designed to work with the six separate 5.1 files that would be handed to you by a mix facility, so I would keep using the “Add Surround Sound” pallet if I were you. However, you might be able to check the results of what you are trying to do in Sound Track Track Pro, at least in terms of a visual check.
Meanwhile, I’m a bit confused by your workflow. Are you saying that you’re creating this 5.1 mix in FCP? Please explain that if you will.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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Our quicktime movies are recorded with 6-tracks of audio through AJA’s VTR Exchange. Then I edit them in FCP with the track order I listed.
I then export each track as it’s own quicktime movie. So, I’ll have quicktime movies named like:
SHOW1_L
SHOW1_R
SHOW1_C
SHOW1_LFE
SHOW1_Ls
SHOW1_RsThen I drag those to the compressor pallet
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But you’re not mixing your 5.1 in FCP, right?
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los AngelesPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.
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There isn’t a standard for track order, which is why it is better to assign mono tracks to their correct channel on the ac3 encoder. I haven’t tried putting a six track file into compressor but it might let you assign source tracks to encoder channels.
You can export aif files instead of quicktime which is lightning fast and much smaller without a video track.
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In FCP 6 there is an automatic setting for 5.1 audio track configuration. I note that some tracks are set to -3db whilst others are at 0db and LFE is set to none db!
so to follow your protocol of exporting separate mono files would these now have incorrect level settings?
or do you set them all to 0db?
thanks – drPETE
Pinewood Studios, UK
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Tip: Add an .ac3 extension to the filename if Compressor does not allow you to add it to
a job. -
[Michael Gissing] ” I haven’t tried putting a six track file into compressor but it might let you assign source tracks to encoder channels. “
Hi Michael,
In FC (Sequence setting > Audio Output) there is a 6 Channels Preset for Surround.
Rafael
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