Trouble Re-importing exported ALE to make subclips with only A1A2 tracks

[Richard Sanchez]

I would use the “Merge events with known sources and automatically create subclips” option in your Import > Shot Log Settings.

To modify the ALE, I’d open up the ALE that you created from your master clips in BBEdit. I’d use CMD F to Find and Replace. Enable Grep and enter the following into your find field.

(?<=VA1A2)(A\d)*

Keep the replace field blank and hit “Replace All”. That will replace A3-A8 in all clips in your ALE. Once that’s done, and once you set your Import > Shot Log settings to “Merge events with known sources and automatically create subclips”, highlight all clips in your bin, then drag in the ALE and you should get subclips with just VA1A2.

The error that you’re seeing usually means something isn’t lining up, either the timecode or the tape name. Or if you don’t have clips highlighted and you drag in the ALE, it will throw up that error.

[Nina Lucia]

Hi Richard! Thanks for your reply. I watched some of your ALE video on YouTube yesterday when I was searching for a troubleshooting method. I didn’t know what you used to edit the ALE so can try that.

However, I have done all those steps using Text Edit and then Input > Media and it’s always worked for me before and even on this project with footage from different cameras that didn’t have the Data track on them. That’s why I thought maybe the Data track was causing the problem.

As I mentioned, all the pertinent information was correct when I made new ‘master’ clips using the ALE I exported and re-imported, Source File, Source Path, Start, Duration, etc…

I even made a new project and used the generic settings in case something had gone corrupt but it still wont work with these clips but it just won’t work when I try merge and create new subclips.

What I ended up doing since I’m making groups from a long sequence is doing it with all the audio tracks that I don’t need then subclipping the group without those unnecessary tracks. It’s not ideal but I’m not going to manually subclip 200 clips and it suffices for what I need. I just really would love to get to the bottom of why it’s not working and be able to troubleshoot it.

In case this happens again in the future, I would love to know if making the new ‘master’ clips with only the audio tracks I need and no Data track is okay to do or if it will cause problems for the online. All the pertinent info is there, the timecode is correct for the Start and End and Source File and Source Path are correct as well, and the little EDL I made shows the correct info, so it seems it would be alright. Any drawbacks to using these?

[Richard Sanchez]

I usually avoid TextEdit because it has a tendency to save files as UTF-16 instead of UTF-8, which can create problems. With TextEdit you want to make sure you save as plain text instead of rich text. That said, you’ve mentioned you’ve done it before so that information may not be applicable, just something to try if it gives you trouble in the future.

To answer your last question, I personally wouldn’t make new master clips. I’d keep the original master clips as they are, and create new subclips with just VA1A2. I’ve never had that data track pop up, but I know some tapeless formats (Sony I think) include those.

[Glenn Sakatch]

I use text++ for my ale editing.

Another method you could use would be to unlink the clips in Avid, use the modify clips command to turn off the unwanted audio tracks, and then relink the clips.

I’ve done this when there are way too many blank audio channels coming in from certain cameras or recorders.