-
Wanting to import 4 rather 8 audio channels
I’m using a Sony PMW-500 XDCAM which uses SxS cards. I’m not sure if this a camera setting or an Avid setting, but whenever I add a clip onto the timeline, even if I set the timeline for 2 mono audio channels, it lays down 8. As far as I can tell, the camera only records 4, and 2 of those are usually redundant of 1&2.
Even if I delete tracks 5-8 on the timeline, every time I add a clip they comeback. In the clip metadata it says there are A1-8 audio channels, but I can’t find anything in the camera menu settings that sets the number of audio channels.
Is there a way to modify the clip’s audio in the bin to set the number of desired tracks?
Note: I am still fairly new to both the camera (our company just acquired them) and to Avid Media Composer 6.
Thanks.
-
4 Replies
-
When you load a clip into the source monitor, a set of track selector buttons for the source video and audio tracks appears. Turn off the audio tracks you do not need, and they will not be edited into the timeline. If you need only source tracks A1 and A2 in a two-track timeline, then turn off source tracks A3-A8, and they will not be added to your timeline.
If, for example, you want to edit A5 and A6 from your source onto A1 and A2 of your timeline, drag souce track A5 to record track A1 and A6 to A2 (track patching).
Bill Stephan
Senior Editor/DVD Author
USA Studios
New York City -
I had this issue on a recent show, granted, we were using XDCAM optical discs. The principle should be the same.
– Insert the XDCAM disc and allow AMA to populate clips into the AMA bin.
– Eject XDCAM disc (forcing clips to go offline)
– Unlink clips (Hit “Shift” + “Command” and right click to find the “unlink” option)
– Lasso all clips and right click “Modify” and “Set Tracks”. In the Set Tracks window,
deselect tracks 5 – 8
– Insert XDCAM disc and it will automatically relink
– TranscodeRichard Sanchez
Los Angeles, CA“We are the facilitators of our own creative evolution.” – Bill Hicks
-
Thanks Bill and Richard for your relies.
Richard, I tried your method and it seemed to work, I tried in on my MC trial version at home with a 2 track clip and tried reducing it to 1. MC crashed a couple of times, but that may be an unrelated thing. (?)My question is, will I need to go through that process every time I insert the XDCam card, or is there a way to create a default setting? I’m guessing not. I’m still not sure why there are 8 channels when it seems the camera only has 4.
Cheers,
Chad Gottfried
“Don’t always believe what you think.”
-
Thanks for the tip, I’ve been struggling with this issue too — SxS cards with 8 tracks of audio but I only need 4.
I’ve been doing some tests and I’ve decided that since audio transcodes so quickly, it is more time-efficient to ingest all 8 tracks in the beginning, then in the end go and delete the unnecessary tracks from all clips at the same time.
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up