Exporting 8 channels of audio for iTunes

[Matias Canelson]

You can set a new role for each audio track, then in the Share Master File settings window, set the roles as multitrack quicktime movie, it will create a quicktime movie with 8 audio channels.

It would be great if you fill a feedback form to Apple about this.

—
MatiasCanelson
http://www.canelson.com.ar

[Paul Figgiani]

Scot,

This is how I would do it:

Export your 5.1 audio mix as a multichannel file. Do this using Compressor, like this:

Next, import that multichannel audio file into your 5.1 FCPX Event and add to Timeline. You should now have 7 audio segments in Timeline (L, R, C, LFE, LS, RS, and multichannel file).

Here is how I assign Roles:

Now you are ready for export. So Share/Master File. Set Export up as follows. Of course this is specific to how I named my Roles:

You’re telling FCP to export the Six Channel Mix and include the Multichannel asset as a stereo pair.

Take a look at the resulting file attributes:

Multichannel:

Stereo:

Here’s the 8 channel file in Audition:

That should do it. There may be a better way. It’s how I do it …

-paul.

[Scot Walker]

Thanks, Paul!!

I haven’t assigned any roles and it would take a lot of time to go through a 113 minute feature and assign roles, so couldn’t I export out just the audio as a 5.1 and then just the audio as a stereo mix and bring both of those in, lay them down in the timeline, assign the roles Surround & Stereo, export it as you stated with roles?

You are a life saver. Thank you for your time.

Scot

[Paul Figgiani]

so couldn’t I export out just the audio as a 5.1 and then just the audio as a stereo mix and bring both of those in, lay them down in the timeline, assign the roles Surround & Stereo, export it as you stated with roles?

Yes. This should work. You’ll need to pull in a stereo mix and each mixed down surround channel as independent mono segments. Then assign your roles, assemble, and export as I described above.

-paul.

[Scot Walker]

Paul,

Where is that dialog coming from where you say “Here is how I assign Roles:”? With the channels listed?

Thank you so much for your time.

[Paul Figgiani]

Scot,

Happy to help.

What I’m showing you in that snapshot is the Roles view in the Timeline Index. It’s to the left of the Timeline. There’s a button located at the very bottom left of the FCPX UI (next to the Project Library button) that will toggle it’s visibility.

The Index is displaying predefined custom roles that I created for the channel assets. Do you know how to do this? (Modify menu/Edit Roles). Once you create them, there are various ways to assign them to your clips …

-paul.

[Scot Walker]

Thanks, Paul.

Yes, I’ve gone through Role training and I understand how to create roles and sub-roles and I now know that your screenshot was the index with roles and you create sub-roles 1-L, 2-R, etc.

Right now, I have a 113 minute feature in my timeline and I have video clips with audio embedded, synchronized clips, and just audio files imported of music or dialog that has been cleaned up in Audition. All of these have the default role of Dialog right now. So I have Video and Dialog as my two roles.

So when you said “You should now have 7 audio segments in Timeline (L, R, C, LFE, LS, RS, and multichannel file).” that’s where you lost me.

Thanks

[Scot Walker]

I’m sorry, I actually have the following roles in my project – Video, Titles, Dialogue, Music, Effects. So I need just a bit more explanation of how I get from there to your two Roles with sub-roles. Thanks!!

[T. Payton]

Please excuse my jumping in here, but here is a couple of alternative ways, instead of assigning roles for each element in your mix.

1) Take your entire feature and make it a compound clip. You’ll want to create a new event to house this compound clip since it is in effect going to move your project to be housed in an event.

or

2) export your movie (or just the audio) as is with surround sound and then reimport into FCPX .

Then with that compound clip or complete clip export on a timeline, change your audio settings in the inspector for the compound clip to be mono channels for each. Then assign roles to each.

Then when you export as roles (as noted above) add a mono channel for each subrole and then a stereo mix at the end.

Obviously you’ll want to create a test of this that is short so you can confirm your workflow.

——
T. Payton
OneCreative, Albuquerque

[Paul Figgiani]

Ok.

You exported your 5.1 mixdown, yes? What I would do is open that file in Audition. In the File Inceptor – right + click on it and press “Extract Channels to Mono Files.” Then save those out individually.

Back in FCP X – Import the Multichannel file and the 6 individual surround files. That is the 7 files that I am referring to.

Then append the 7 files into a copy of the original project. Of course you would first need to remove all the previous instances of the audio files.

This is what the Timeline should look like:

Once you are set up as above, you can follow my original instructions and export your 8 channel file.

As far as the custom Roles, after creating them – assign them by selecting each new clip that you imported into your Event. There is a Roles Popup located in the Info Pane in the Inspector. You want to do this *before* you append the clips to the Timeline.

You with me?

-paul.