output dropping frames and stuttering

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs, sync-slippage, or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

[Don Greening]

A quick thing you could try: Go to the render menu and choose: render all>mixdown. This will create an invisible file of all your audio tracks. Then try outputting to tape if that’s what you’re trying to do. Makes a difference. If you make any audio changes after using this command the mixdown track will be automatically deleted and you’ll have to use the command again.

If you’re still having trouble then export a QT movie of your timeline and then import it into a new empty track in a new project. Then use the print to video command: or hit record on your camera/deck and hit play for the timline. That should do it.

– Don