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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy How do I change audio mapping info for a tape being batched in from a FCP timeline?

  • How do I change audio mapping info for a tape being batched in from a FCP timeline?

    Posted by Digiman on July 5, 2006 at 8:11 pm

    My client has cut a shorter version a feature film for his client. The client’s source is a Hi-Def tape with four channels of audio. Ch.1&2 Stereo Mix and Ch.3&4 Music & Effects. He was given a DV tape with Ch.1 Mono Mix and Ch.2 Music & Effects.

    When I recapture his timeline in Hi-Def, how do I tell FCP to grab all four channels and put them in the places that I want?

    Thanks,

    Dan J.

    Martin Baker replied 20 years, 2 months ago 2 Members · 1 Reply
  • 1 Reply
  • Martin Baker

    July 6, 2006 at 1:43 pm

    The short answer is that you can’t – it’s an unusual workflow and there is no built-in feature to do this. If the client had not started editing then the solution would have been to take the original captured file and create a 4 channel source clip by doubling A1 up to A2, A3 up to A4 so you have two “stereo” pairs which match with the original source tape and the online would have just worked automatically.

    However…if the sequence has already been edited then be prepared for a lot of work BEFORE you start thinking about doing the online. Assuming you’ve only got 1 source clip (the previous master of the film) then you would have to create a new version of the DV clip which has two stereo pairs. This is possible within FCP by creating a sequence with 2 x stereo audio outputs, then editing the original source clip onto it so that the A1 audio ends up on A1 and A2 tracks and the A2 audio ends up on A3 and A4 tracks. You would then do a File > QuickTime Export (probably safest with self-contained checked) to create a 4 channel (2 x stereo) source file.

    Then you would need to reconnect this new 4 channel source file to the 2 channel source clip in the Browser. FCP will display a warning that the tracks don’t match, which is fine.

    Next you would need to double the number of tracks in your sequence by adding an empty track after every existing track. Then go through every audio clip that uses A1 as the source, mark the in/out points using Mark Clip, then matchframe back to the source clip (which is now the new 4 channel version), set the track patching and overwrite edit the now stereo clip to the same position as the original mono clip. Repeat with all the timeline audio clips that use the A2 channel.

    Only when you’ve gone through the entire sequence and replaced all the audio, should you venture into the Media Manager and create the offline version for recapturing.

    Martin
    Digital Heaven, London UK

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