selecting entire “tracks”

[Bill Davis]

They aren’t called anything because they’re an abstract in X. You can call them lanes or tracks if you like, but they don’t actually exist. So it’s up to you.

Instead of tracks X organizes assets in terms of Roles. Anything in any position can have any Role. When you use the Timeline Index to target a Role, ALL the clips that have that role property are highlighted in your story lines regardless of what “fake track like level” those clips reside on.

If you want to get really fluent at X, you have to get your brain out of seeing things in terms of horizontal “stripes” and start to see them in terms of the metadata relationships applied to them (which is what Roles are)

It’s not only more flexible in practical use, but it pays huge dividends both now and (I suspect) in the future, since traditional “tracks” can only communicate useful data to the the world outside of the NLE if you make sure that EVERYTHING in the track is in the exact same category.

In X, you can use any category for anything in any position.

Embrace it and it will free your thinking about timeline element positioning.

Force it and yourself to conceptualize exclusively in STRIPES and you’re buying comfort at the expense of flexibility, IMO.

If you’re bound and determined to select a “track” then I guess you can create a role called “Track One” and apply that to only the clips on that level. But the conceit will fall apart the moment that one of the so called clips skips down a level to make room for another element that has been pushed towards it.

So it’s a generally bad idea.

FWIW.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Craig Alan]

Bill,

Seriously?

I’m asking if there is a fast way to select an entire layer.

I’m asking how to assign a channel of audio a role.

If I import a days shoot from a b-roll camera, I can import it with the keyword “3-14-14 b-roll”. The fact that I integrate those clips with a-roll clips from a different date doesn’t mean I can’t sort them by 3-14-14 b-roll. I assure you there is nothing about X being a database program that stops the ability to select a layer or track in the timeline. In fact, FC does not let you just drag your clips anywhere in the timeline window. They must be in or or connected to the primary and must be on a layer. In other words there are still tracks. Different rules for those tracks than in legacy but tracks just the same.

FCP X uses a linear timeline and the top layer dominates just like it does in every other NLE.

Channels of audio are not any different in FCP X than they are in any other program.

I need to select one. That is what I’m asking.

Right now if I want to select an entire layer I need to command shift and then apply the lasso. Then I loose my degree of zoom and my playhead position and its additional mousing which I would like to avoid if possible.

Period.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Robin S. kurz]

They ARE tracks in the case of multicam actually. You simply need to open the multicam with a double-click and anything you apply to any one angle is applied to every instance of that angle in the edit. Including audio/roles. They are recursive.

[Craig Alan] “Right now if I want to select an entire layer”

What is “a layer”??

Since I don’t actually know for what purpose you are trying to select an angle (if that’s what it is), that’s the best I can offer. Then there is always the Timeline Index Window that you can use to filter/select anything in the timeline quickly and easily.

[Bill Davis]

[Craig Alan] “I’m asking if there is a fast way to select an entire layer.
“

No. Because the fact that a bunch of clips is on an arbitrary and totally temporary “layer” in your storyline layout is inconsequential and NOT recognized by X.

Again, X is a “trackless” construction. It has no fixed “lanes” outside the primary storyline. All the relationship creating is done via keywords and Roles. If you can’t get this, you will needlessly fight X for the rest of your time with it.

As Robin points out, in the Multicam construct – since the entire point is to establish a relationship between possibly discontinuous content that beings to a single family – (the ANGLE family) – then there’s sense in having something that behaves like tracks. This is necessary because ALL multicam work MUST by definition HAVE angles. You might imagine that they should build “AUDIO TRACKS” in a similar fashion. But stop and think about that. X, unlike most NLEs does not REQUIRE it’s audio to be in separate lanes. That’s because the default X clips combine audio and video in sync. So X clips can maintain EMBEDDED audio to the advantage of the editor (no loss of sync possible) That means you can work in an X storyline where there IS audio, but absolutely NO distinct audio tracks visible at all. A great example might be music video where the original performance track can be embedded and the only thing the editor has to think about is Video – which can be placed above and below the Primary to suite sophisticated compositing needs.

See, the function that tracks have in a old school timeline is taken over by Roles in X and is MUCH more powerful and flexible since it allows the magnetic timeline to do what it needs to do without ever being concerned that the avoidance of a clip collision (or a dozen of them) will EVER screw up the editors expectation of what they THOUGHT was a track. Release thinking about “tracks” – they’re obsolete in the sense of X. Roles are the more flexible and more powerful replacement.

—-

I’m asking how to assign a channel of audio a role.

The smart way is to let X auto assign the role when you initially import your assets. X already makes good guesses in that it auto assigns roles to what is obviously Music and Dialog, Titles, etc. You can make that MUCH more precise and useful if you learn to pre-categorize your assets prior to import. There are a bunch of YouTube clips on how to do that. Your workflow will depend on how consistent you are with your import processes. Of course, you can go back and batch re-ID things at will. If you’ve failed to do that and need to refine the metadata inside X, you can apply or re-apply (and create or re-create) roles metadata in the Timeline Index or in the Browser via the Roles popup in the Info Tabs.

One point I should bring up, is that it seems to me that most of the issues you’re facing are typical ones for someone coming to X from a tradition of other NLE operation. And that’s that you’re conditioned to do all your important editing work AFTER you bring your clips onto “the timeline.” – Let me suggest that this is faulty thinking in X. The smarter way to approach X is to spend as much time as possible in what comes BEFORE you work in the storyline. Focus HARD on Import, the Event Browser, and Tagging, and pre-trimming and pre-working your assets BEFORE you even create a project and your first storyline. And Roles assignment should happen HERE – prior to any storyline work. That’s how the X workflow is designed. If you’re assigning all your Roles in a storyline – you’re working too late in the flow for maximum efficiency.

Roles are flexible, agile, and in a word, great. But you have to explore them and learn why.

____

FCP X uses a linear timeline and the top layer dominates just like it does in every other NLE.

To a point. You’ve probably noticed that unlike the traditional “linear timeline” you can now “stack” video above audio and audio above video. Again, the whole “fixed tracks – audio down here video up there” thing is NOT required by X. Plus if you put a long clip at a level currently occupied by one or more other elements, those other elements will MOVE up or down to avoid destructive clip collisions. Essentially, X IGNORES tracks in a way not like any other popular NLE. So what’s the point of following the rigid notion of a “Track” if a thing you put on “track 8” might end up on 7, or 9, or 11 – without consequence to the editor? It’s it MUCH smarter to just start understanding that the element ITSELF has been assigned the Role of Dialog – and because of that can be located, grouped or isolated at the whim of the editor based on that NOT TRACK BASED tag?

BOTTOM LINE.

You do not yet have enough time and experience with X to have fully stopped thinking like a traditional editor yet. There is nothing wrong with this. And every single editor coming from traditional NLEs to X has to make this primary journey at their own rate.

All I can tell you is the faster you stop thinking in “tracks” the more rapidly you will find the power of the trackless modes that are built into X.

This must be the hundredth time I’ve typed this into this forum – and I suspect I will type it a hundred more time in the coming years.

The WORST way to learn X is to try to figure out how it does the things you USED to do in earlier NLEs.

Learn what it IS. NOT how it doest the things you used to do before you had the new tool.

Simple as that.

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Craig Alan]

[Bill Davis] “No. Because the fact that a bunch of clips is on an arbitrary and totally temporary “layer” in your storyline layout is inconsequential and NOT recognized by X. “

Yes it is. If I apply the keyed effect on a clip in a timeline. What b.g. will it include in the key? If I connect a clip on a layer above the primary and play the sequence what will show up in the viewer when I reach that clip? If I move the clip under the primary instead, what will play?

I can also do what I am asking in terms of selecting what I am calling a track or layer by shift-z and then lasso. But it would be nice to have a way to do this more easily.

Yes I need to get better at assigning tags, keywords, roles upon import and before I start my edit. That said I think X is designed to modify and augment these at any point in the work flow. The index is attached to the timeline not the browser. Color correction is done with clips in the timeline. Audio mixing is done in the timeline.

I am not at this point trying to get X to behave like legacy. I am just trying to learn how to apply what I want to accomplish in X. I had created a multicam timeline of a three camera shoot of a music act. I was using it to further my skills in X. I chose camera A as my sole audio and used the angle editor to select clips on the fly. It was a blast. Had fun. But then I started working with it. I used the transform tool to fix framing. I applied a key and selected a b.g. It was a very good learning project because there was a lot wrong with the shoot. Somewhere along the way the A cam audio got changed into a mix of all three cams. So I wanted to select entire tracks and enable or disable the selected channels and or 2 of the 4 mono channels of the A channel.

Now I did learn along the way, and you pointed this out above, that the easiest way to do this (but perhaps not other adjustments if I was using a mix of all these channels) is to collapse the audio, select the entire timeline and select the two mono channels (A CAM) that I want active.

I think these started to get messed up when I reedited certain angles for others. Is there a way to reset the A audio as the default after I have already begun the multicam editing? And just for the record, I like multicam in X better than legacy. And although I understood legacy audio tracks better, I fell victim to screwing up sync more times than I care to admit. Even though I passed the certification exam in FCP 6 on my first try, I considered myself just becoming an advanced beginner when I switched to FCP X. And I feel I am getting there now in X.

Next now that I have settled on a b.g. and gotten all the keys to work and masked out parts of the shots I don”t want, I want to match all the clips to a clip that has the color that I would like.

Is there a way to do this – all the clips in the timeline matched to a single clip in the timeline?

Frankly, Bill there is no moment of enlightenment for me to realize that X is a database program or it works differently than 7. I edit and try to get the look and sound I want. If I get stuck, I do a search. If that doesn’t work, I ask here.

Mac Pro, macbook pro, Imacs (i7); Canon 5D Mark III/70D, Panasonic AG-HPX170/AG-HPX250P, Canon HV40, Sony Z7U/VX2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; FCP X write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Bill Davis]

[Craig Alan] “Frankly, Bill there is no moment of enlightenment for me to realize that X is a database program or it works differently than 7. I edit and try to get the look and sound I want. If I get stuck, I do a search. If that doesn’t work, I ask here.”

Then I’m delighted you’re beyond that stage and still exploring and learning. THAT, to me is the real excitement of being an FCP X editor. It’s not that I “know it all” or have anything but appreciation for anyone trying to use the tool to get a specific job done. I have all sorts of appreciation for the learning curve we’re all going through. And if I sounded harsh, it’s probably because over the past 3 years I’ve tried to help lots and lots of beginners and I’m wary of the trap of those who DO try to shoehorn X operations into Legacy thinking. I’m glad that’s not you. You’ll get better faster for the openness.

All I can say is that I’ve been using X since literally day 1. I’m formally Apple FCP X certified in Level 1 and Level 2 and I’m set to take the Professional Post certification exam next Friday. But with all that, there are still plenty of corners of the software with which I’m less than expertly familiar. I have to look up stuff quite a bit – particularly in techniques where my type of editing doesn’t drive my use of this or that function every day.

Plus, the program keeps evolving. It’s been less than 2 weeks since they altered parts of the fundamental structure of how the Library operates. So no matter how much we already know, we’re ALL still learning.

I find that the single most exciting part about the software.

For other’s the evolution can’t happen fast enough.

It sounds like you’re coming along just fine. But you will likely still find frustrations as with your feelings about the “trackiness” of the program. It’s something I don’t even think about any more. But that’s me.

Different strokes and all…

Know someone who teaches video editing in elementary school, high school or college? Tell them to check out http://www.StartEditingNow.com – video editing curriculum complete with licensed practice content.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Craig Alan] “I can also do what I am asking in terms of selecting what I am calling a track or layer by shift-z and then lasso. But it would be nice to have a way to do this more easily.”

Again, for what purpose? Moving? Deleting? There are easier alternatives for either and then you can always simply shift-click in the Timeline Index, which is even easier and faster than Shift-Z and marqueeing.

[Jeremy Garchow]

I’m a little confused as to what you are trying to do too, but it sounds like you may need to use the timeline index, as mentioned.

You can also assign Roles to individual audio components, but that can only be done in the timeline, and not cannot be done in the browser. You need to “expand audio components” to do this, select a component, and adjust it in the inspector.

If you need to reset your audio channel config, you will need to use the timeline index to select the proper clips. You can do this by searching for Role or name, or angle, then select those clips in index (which in turn selects then in the timeline), open the inspector, and make your adjustment.

Hope it helps.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Jeremy Garchow] “but that can only be done in the timeline, and not cannot be done in the browser. “

Erm… actually it can. 😉

[Jeremy Garchow]

You can assign audio roles in the browser, of course, but you can’t assign an individual role to an individual audio component in the browser. You can even select an audio component in the browser to do so.

Here’s what I mean:

This is a clip selected in the browser, (it’s offline as I am not at the office). You can see that there’s 8 channels of audio. I can browse, name, and assign channel config in the browser, but I cannot assign 8 individual Roles to the 8 channels of audio:

If I click on the info tab to assign Roles, I only get the generic audio role:

Now adding that clip to a Project and expensing audio components allows me to assign a Role to each component.

Here’s the whole clip autoselcted by playhead:

Here’s multiple Channels selected (please note inspector):

Here’s one component selected:

If you can show me how to do this in the inspector without hitting a timeline (or opening each clip in timeline) I’m all ears as it would be new capability in 10.1.2 that hasn’t been talked about.

Jeremy