Final Cut Pro & BWFs

[Bouke Vahl]

AFAIK, BWF to XML is needed if you want to change the timebase.
FCP reads BWF just fine, but altering the playback speed seems to be hell.

Bouke

https://www.videotoolshed.com/
smart tools for video pro’s

[Ryan Krickow]

Cool, so if there aren’t any speed changes in the film then importing the BWFs with timecode (and metadata?) into FCP will work fine for editing and delivering (in OMF) to post sound? Thanks, Ryan

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Ryan,

FCP reads BWF fine with quite a lot metadata.
But you have to be very careful on what you are doing already during import. FCP 6 does use the current project settings to interpret the playback speed and the timecode. So be very very careful with that. It’s always a good idea to create a project with a setup you need match the easy setup and relaunch Final Cut. Then import all your BWAVs, open the project they should belong to and drag the files over. Final Cut will cache the BWAV settings from the “Import Project” and write to your work project. So if you don’t import all BWFs in one day, this works easily. If they come a day by day you should do this procedure each day.
Another thing with BWAV files, they don’t have a Quicktime Timecode, which is used in FCP to sync clips. You will see a timecode though in FCP with BWAV files, it based on the audio timestamp and is generated on the fly.
If your work includes synching video with external audio you can’t do that by timecode even if you spent money and time to keep cam and audio running running in sync on the set. Same is valid for multiclips and for a certain extend also for subclips.
Be careful when you media manage projects.

That’s why there is BWF2XML. I takes the audio data and puts them into QT wrapper including a matching QT timecode. This is the same process as Log & Transfer for tapeless media.
This way they always will playback with correct speed independent from the project or import process. Furthermore you can use sync by timecode then. In it will be in sync even after a crash of the project.

Regards
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Mark Raudonis]

I’m a happy user of BWF2XML. We’ve done several show with dual system audio. Using BWF2XML has
enabled us to smooth out the workflow and eliminate much of the “guessing” as to what’s going on.

Mark

[Ryan Krickow]

Thanks everyone! So, when using BWF2XML do you convert the BWFs to Quicktime.mov files for editing? If so, is that what you deliver to post sound or to do go back to the BWFs somehow? Finally, what is the file size difference when converting BWFs to Quicktime.mov files? I really appreciate all the help. Ryan

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Ryan,

With QT wrapped BWFs you just deliver OMFs as you normally do – there is no change of original file content as long as you didn’t change (resample etc) anything. With a few little tricks you can deliver audio EDLs which refer to the original files.
Regarding the file size – it’s a few k’s more for the QT timecode.
You also can use referenced QT file which refers to the original BWAVs, but you really have to be sure about what you are doing.

Regards
Andreas

P.S.
At NAB time there will be a new version of BWF2XML which will fully support iXML and even more metadata support which can be used with Final Cut Server.

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Ryan Krickow]

So, if I use BWF2XML to “convert” the BWFs to 4KB Quicktime.mov files (linked to the BWFs) and then I edit with these 4KB Quicktime.mov files when I export an OMF it is going to contain the original BWFs? Would this be a better method than using FCP to batch export the converted files as Quicktime.mov files for editing? Thanks, Ryan

[Andreas Kiel]

Hi Ryan,

You can use the referenced files. But as said – and mentioned quite often here – if you use referenced files, you really should know how they work. Up from QT 7.5.5 it’s bit easier to deal with them.

Exporting the referenced files to OMF is not really an exact mirror of the original BWAV as this may loose some metadata, but regarding the actual sound bytes it’s an 1:1 mirror.
Doing a batch export from Final Cut Pro to Quicktime does pretty much the same if you import the BWAVs into FCP then export the linked channels, re-import and edit from there.

Hope this helps.
Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools

[Ryan Krickow]

Just to confirm… if I convert the BWFs to Quicktime reference (XMLs), load them into FCP, export them as Quicktime.mov files, load them back into FCP and edit with them, the OMF that I export for post sound will be completely acceptable without going back to the original BWFs? Also, in terms of delivery to post sound, what is the consensus on merging/linking clips in FCP and in doing so losing the file name (it ends up matching the video track name)? Is it acceptable or is there a way to keep the original file names? Thanks so much, Ryan

[Andreas Kiel]

Ryan,

If you use Final Cut only then import all your BWAVs with a “fixed” setup of Final Cut Pro. Then export your BWAVs to (self-contained) Quicktime to make the playback speed independent from Final Cut Pro settings.
If you use BWF2XML you can create self-contained QT files directly including an XML with contains the metadata.
From there you can edit as normal.
The OMF will work fine.
The naming doesn’t matter as long as you don’t need an audio EDL.

Andreas

Spherico
https://www.spherico.com/filmtools