How to create an audio mix down on Left channel and effects only on right channel

[Jeremy Garchow]

You would need to assign an effects role and a reporter role to your clips in the timeline. You can select a bunch of clips in the timeline and adjust the Roles in the inspector all at once, no compound clip needed.

Export your movie and choose “Mulititrack quicktime” under the “Roles As:” drop down.

Assign both roles to the first channel and make it a mono output. That will be your mixed channel.

Assign the effects role to the second channel, and make it a mono output. That will be your effects only channel.

Here’s what it will look like, I just have Music and Dialogue selected, so it may look slightly different on your end depending on the name of the Role:

multitrack.png

[David Mcwhinney]

Hi Jeremy

Thanks so much for your quick response
It worked perfectly
FYI I am from Belfast Northern Ireland and a senior non linear editor at Aljazeera English in Washington DC
Been in the business 34 years , working worldwide for BBC, CNN and EBU
Been using FCP from version 2
Trying to spread the word to my doubting colleagues about the power of FCP X
Interesting to see that BBC in UK are adopting FCP X for their news gathering
Once again many many thanks
All the best
David

[Michael Sanders]

David,

One thing that’s worth checking is what happens if you play the file out. If I remember rightly you would get a mix of both audio channels.

You still need to Pan the channels L and R if you were to send this down a line.

Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Michael Sanders] “David,

One thing that’s worth checking is what happens if you play the file out. If I remember rightly you would get a mix of both audio channels.

You still need to Pan the channels L and R if you were to send this down a line.”

That would be the other way to do it. Pan all channels left, duplicate the effects clips only, and pan that set right, and export. Even in that situation, you play it back without doing anything to the audio, you’d get a mixture of the two channels.

The way outlined earlier creates a dual mono file without duplication. You can turn on or off the channel you need or don’t need. There’s no real reason to pan.

Jeremy

[Michael Sanders]

Or pan the VO L and have the effects panned in the middle…. Which can be very quickly done using roles and the inspector. Just remember to se roles at the start of the edit.

I say this as some stations still like voice on L and effects and bites on the R so that they appear that way on the desk in the gallery.

Michael Sanders
London Based DP/Editor

[Jeremy Garchow]

[Michael Sanders] “I say this as some stations still like voice on L and effects and bites on the R so that they appear that way on the desk in the gallery.”

I guess it’s semantics, but if the file is marked stereo, the method I outlined earlier will also achieve what you are saying.

If you export with the method I outlined earlier, reimport that file, and change the audio to “stereo” the mix will come out left, and effects are on right. Similarly, if keep it dual mono and pot down channel 2, you get channel 1 only, pot down channel 1, and you get channel 2 only. If you keep both pots up and pan the mixer left and right, you get separate channels. It is six of one, half dozen of the other.

The first Role goes to channel 1, the second Role goes to 2, and you don’t have to readjust your whole timeline to do it. That’s one of the great things about FCPX, and no tracks. You can get multiple outputs from the exact same timeline, and not a whole lot of fuss.