Final Cut Pro to ProTools workaround

[Oliver Peters]

Both approaches will work with varying results. To go FCPXML from FCP X to FCP 7 you will have to purchase the Xto7 translation utility. FCP 7 can only do OMF. X2Pro only does AAF.

Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Marcus Moore]

The biggest downside to X2Pro alternatives is the lack of Roles support. X2Pro carries your Roles metadata over into the AAF (you can even change the order in the X2Pro app). Meaning when your engineer opens up your AAF in ProTools it will be all nicely organized and named.

My sound engineers love me!

[Darren Roark]

If you need to go to Protools even a few times a year, it’s worth every penny for how much time it saves.

[Mike Bonner]

You can xml out of fcpx into Davinci Resolve (Lite) , then export an AAF out of Resolve.
Free work around.

[Oliver Peters]

[Mike Bonner] “You can xml out of fcpx into Davinci Resolve (Lite) , then export an AAF out of Resolve.”

I would not recommend Resolve to convert for audio. In my experience, the roundtrip does not correctly interpret interleaved stereo versus dual-mono versus dual-mono paired as stereo. I have not seen a successful transfer for audio in the few tests that I tried.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Michael Gissing]

I too considered Resolve as a potential way to get an AAF from a fcpxml. However I have found that to get an xml from X into Resolve to grade I now asked editors to give me one minus all audio as getting the audio tracks into Resolve from X is (as Oliver said) fraught. I prefer to steal a mix track from a reference QT and add that to the picture only timeline prior to grading.

Perhaps this might change. But in the meantime x2pro is the best path. What I find remarkable is how editors whinge at having to pay for x2pro software and that somehow automagically, audio post should be able to sort out the translation. In anticipation of this and the problems with the limited X to Fairlight jobs I have done, I have asked the dev team at Fairlight to look into reading fcpxml directly including converting Roles into tracks. Fairlight can import FCP Legend xmls. Cutting out the intermediary AAF stage would be a joy but until Apple stops changing fcpxml no one is likely to make such a development commitment.

[Nicolas Lunard]

I’ve tried this but can’t import AAF into Protools… The session is empty !

[Oliver Peters]

[Nicolas Lunard] “I’ve tried this but can’t import AAF into Protools… The session is empty !”

Correct. Resolve should not be used to roundtrip audio. To get to ProTools, use X2Pro Audio Convert to export AAF directly from FCP X.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Alan Langdon]

I realise how old this thread is, but I’ve bumped into the same issue, way out here in 2020. And I discovered another workaround (besides the Resolve one which seems to be a no-no)… this one is through Apple’s Logic X Pro. You import the XML into Logic and export to AAF. It seems to work (I am waiting for the sound editor to get back to me on it), although I haven’t found a way to trim the files and only send the used portions with handles, it is simply copying the used files into a folder which I send to the editor.
Any thoughts on this workflow? Much appreciated!

[Eric Santiago]

[Oliver Peters] “I have not seen a successful transfer for audio in the few tests that I tried.”

Trust me I wish I would have known that.
I spent hours trying to figure out how and wasted a whole week in Resolve.
I posted a few things on it.
XtoCC saved my keester on this one.
Went from FCPX feature lenght assembly to Premiere to Avid.
The only caveat is that the audio had to go through Pro Tools before Avid.
I checked the audio in Avid and it was all good.
I chose to copy the media as a whole just in case.