Final Cut Pro and Pro Tools integration

[Mark Spano]

[Eric Olson] “Is it easy to transfer .omf files between the programs?”

You can make very basic OMF files from FCP to import into Pro Tools. When you do, make sure you do not have any clips on your timeline that are “inactive” or muted – this is the easiest thing to trip up the import into Pro Tools.

FCP will not import OMF files from Pro Tools without Automatic Duck.

You can import and export OMF files in and out of Pro Tools provided it is either Pro Tools HD with DigiTranslator or Pro Tools LE with DVToolkit.

[Adam Taylor]

I’d seriously suggest you don’t put ProTools and FCP on the same machine.

Digidesign are notoriously slow at updating ProTools when new operating systems are released. They still have not posted a fully compatible Snow Leopard version – what is out is a make do beta version.

I’m so unhappy at the idea of combining the two that i installed a second mac just for the audio mixing! – sounds extreme, but i can’t afford the time chasing down problems due to upgrade incompatibilities.

As for integrating…the files will easily swap between the systems. I export .omf audio and dv quicktimes as a guide track. They import into protools easily enough – assuming you have the DV Toolkit option installed in Protools.

If you can I would recommend you partitioned your hard drive, with a clean install of the operating system on each, then you can have protools on one and fcp on the other. OK you will need to reboot when switching between apps, but if you don’t you will need to be aware that if you update your OS, Protools is quite likely to have problems.

Adam Taylor
Video Editor/Audio Mixer/ Compositor/Motion GFX/Barista
Character Options Ltd
Oldham, UK

http://www.sculptedbliss.co.uk

[Eric Olson]

Thanks for your response. Looks like they have a fully supported version out for Snow Leopard now:

https://www.digidesign.com/index.cfm?navid=54&itemid=40359&langid=1

[Eric Olson]

Thanks for your response. I found this tutorial and it doesn’t seem to mention anything about Automatic Duck:

https://www.ehow.com/videos-on_5618_pro-tools-tutorial.html

[Michael Gissing]

Have a look at Fairlight. They can now import XMLs directly from FCP. The Fairlights run on a Windows PC, the perfect way to isolate an audio system from FCP.

We have two Fairlight Xynergis giganet networked with the MacPro running FCS3 and have no problems transfering file data across the network