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iTunes – cataloging audio for use in FCP
Hey, fellow FCP enthusiasts,
I’ve been using iTunes to manage my humongous collection of production music, voice recordings and other fine sounds. The most recent posting I could find about using iTunes in a FCP workflow was in ’07, so I thought the topic is overdue for a revisit.
After years of using iTunes the best I could to track my ever growing collection, I find the newest version is a bit less useful. Certainly the album layout format is really pretty useless, for these reasons:
1. I need to display the file type of the track (AIFF, MP3, WAV, etc.).
2. I need to ditch the album artwork on the first “Album” column, as they take up space better used to display a longer title.
3. What’s the check mark column for? Every single track is checked…
4. Ping is not useful for my workflow at all, and I’m not interested in having Apple snoop into what I listen to, either.OK, so most of these problems are solved if I go back to the basic “song list” display option, except I still don’t know what the check mark represents, and that stupid Ping button shows up even though I haven’t turned it on.
Is everybody still using iTunes for track cataloging, and if not, what ARE you using?
Thanks for your thoughts…
MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.6.4 FCP7
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7 Replies
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Well you are using a program in a totally different way then its main focus. If you don’t find something useful do you want Apple to take it out? But if you took a little time with the manual you would find the answers to your question.
1) Right click on the description header, choose what you want to be displayed (in this case KIND) uncheck what you don’t want.
2) Change the view type to the first button (upper right) List view, no album art.
3) Unchecking the box and that song will not play if you use iTunes as a player
4) If you don’t turn it on it is not doing anything.
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The main question here is — what do FCP users prefer to use to catalog audio?
Is iTunes “intended” to be used to catalog audio within a FCP workflow? I would argue that, yes, it is intended for that purpose because it has those qualities. I would also say that it is intended for the end-consumer of music from the iTunes store.
Again, for anyone reading the forum who actually uses some other software for this purpose, what do you use?
Just looking for people’s preferences.
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I use iTunes. I put ALL my music in there, then I make PLAYLISTS by GENRE, and by composer, and by album. And I also catalog all of my sound effects in there too. When I find what I want, I drag it from there to the AUDIO folder for my project. Rather slick.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
Good to know, Shane.
I use iTunes as you do, and it really is great to locate a track, and drag it right into a project’s audio folder. Due to that fun feature, I loaded tons of stock music tracks and SFX into iTunes.
My interest in other software started after my most recent update of iTunes. I found that some settings had changed, which made a typically fast task into a slight head-scratcher.
Once I put things the way I used to have them, my workflow was pretty much back to normal.
Perhaps it’s all due to Apple’s newfound consumer market, and their desire to use iTunes to gather metrics for their store. I just hope they don’t leave us loyal pro users behind…
MacPro 2 x 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 14GB memory – OSX10.6.4 FCP7
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DOn’t update if it is working! Updates usually break something. I rarely update working stuff.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
[Ann Clark] “Perhaps it’s all due to Apple’s newfound consumer market, and their desire to use iTunes to gather metrics for their store. I just hope they don’t leave us loyal pro users behind”
Hate to break it to you but iTunes was NEVER made with a Pro user in mind. It has always been designed as a “consumer” application. Therefore updates to iTunes are not meant to leave “pro users” behind they are meant to help grow the “consumer” market it is designed for.
If you want to use iTunes to manage audio for editing then here is how I would approach it.
1- Have a completely different iTunes library for your audio catalog then for your regular music.
2- Before adding any audio to the “audio catalog” convert it to a proper editing audio format. For example don’t put any mp3 files into the audio catalog.
3- Don’t add anything to the audio catalog that you don’t already have legal right to use.
4- Use only the feature of iTunes you want or need to use. If you don’t care for things like Ping, or album art work then don’t use them. And there is really no point in complying that they are there.
5- When a new version of iTunes comes out, test it out on your personal computer (not your main editing machine) or on a test boot drive using a test iTunes library (not your audio catalog) If you decide you don’t like it or wont benefit from the new features then don’t update iTunes on your edit machine as it will then update the library file of your audio catalog. Meaning if you want to go back to a older version of iTunes you will have to recreate the audio catalog from scratch.**Hindsight is always 1080p**
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I use FCP.
I have a Proj. called “Audio All” I organize it all in bins by genre/tempo/speed/etc.
When I need music I open the audio proj. along side the proj. I working in. Audition and drag tracks in as needed. Works great for us.
Chris Tompkins
Video Atlanta
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