On: using my itunes music in FCP but need help changing bit rate and so on

[Bret Williams]

Go to the prefs. Advanced. Import. Change it to aif. Set the custom import settings to 48k, 16bit, stereo. Set the import folder to someplace easy like the desktop.

Go back to itunes library window, highlight song, select advanced, convert to aiff.

Go back to prefs and change settings back to aac, etc. for ipod use.

It’s all a real pain in the butt.

Oh yeah,

Don’t steal music. (from ipod packaging. I love that)

[Kevin Monahan]

This is not the way to go about this. What you really want to do is get the ORIGINAL files from CD and encode from that. To take your MP3s, and then re-encode them to AIFF might work, but the sound quality is not going to be as good.

If you don’t have the original audio CDs, and you still have the music rights, then you don’t have a choice. Recompress, I guess (insert sour face here).

And yes, you should not use other people’s music w/o permission

[Bret Williams]

Ditto. And if you have the CD, just copy the files onto your media drive and use ’em directly. Drop them in a sequence and do an “item level” render on them. That’ll convert them to your sequence setting for you using the same process that either QT or iTunes would (qt engine).

[Bouncing Account needs new email address]

[Bret Williams] “And if you have the CD, just copy the files onto your media drive and use ’em directly. Drop them in a sequence and do an “item level” render on them.”

Hey Bret!

Every time someone suggested this method, it always bugged me… and I just figured it out.

It requires using much more disk space and much more time:

You end up using “double” or more disk space because you are copying the full 44.1 kHz CD track onto the disk and then making a full, re-sampled 48 kHz version of the same file with FCP.
It takes the time to make the copy from the CD to the disk, then the time it takes FCP to up-sample it.

Using iTunes only makes a single 48 kHz up-rez file of the CD original (takes it right off the CD, not from the HD) and stores only the 48 kHz on the disk, ready for use in FCP, now or in the future (if you don’t trash the cut after the edit.)

Its not a big deal, but it seems redundant, time-consuming and wasteful of drive space to copy the CD track and use FCP to up-rez, but hey, I’m just an another guy in the edit bay 😉

[Bret Williams]

I feel your method can be tedious, especially if you use iTunes for ipod and it’s intended use. For example, you have to go into prefs and switch encoders from aac to aif, then change it back when you’re done. If you forget those steps, you risk filling up your drive with aif files the next time you think you’re ripping for your ipod.

Plus, my other annoyance is where it saves the files. When I use iTunes for FCP I always change the destination to my project folder or the media drives. I undoubtedly forget to change it back. Then the next person doesn’t mount the drive, iTunes thinks songs are missing, etc. It’s just messy.

Now, if all you use iTunes for is a music library for your editing business, I think it can work great. Set it up, label the songs correctly if they can’t be found on the internet, and you’re good to go.

However if you back up your media after a project, those files might be missed. With my method, I always keep them on the media drive in a expressly marked folder. Also, with my method, if you need to relink a project, all you need is the 44.1 file off the CD to relink. Not the iTunes created file.

And you have to admit, there is little chance of user error. Truthfully, FCP doesn’t even need the 48khz file I generally let it do the conversion on the fly. It’s been doing fine with 44.1 and 32khz on the fly since version 1. It’s just a real time audio effect. I do the item level render if there’s any problem. But since dual g4s I’ve yet to see a problem. That’s what I use. And with the G5s I work on, forget it. Just use the 44.1 off the CD, then do a mixdown before output.