Waveform re-draws are killing my minds!

[Nick Meyers]

Waveforms are the most RAM intensive things you can have enabled in FCP.
more RAM might help (you dont say how much you have)

better, just turn them off.
you don’t need them on ALL the time

nick

[Paul Nevison]

only turn them on when you are doing audio work, even then it’s better to do it in STP or Pro Tools where you have more control anway!

My default setup is to turn those RAM hog waveforms off.

You can switch them off in user prefs in the timeline tab….and release your precious RAM for more important tasks 😉

G5 DP 2.0 (Power PC)
4.0G RAM
OS 10.4.8
QT 7.1.3
FCP 5.1.2
BMD Decklink Extreme 6.0
PAL Land

[Stuart Ferreyra]

We completely disable the audio waveform and the clip thumbnails. We have gotten used
to work without them (since our old Avid days).

We only enable the audio waveforms when we need accurate edits on beats or do a quick
rubber band mix to then disable it right away.

Personally, I do not undertsand editors using the thumbnails with multiple video tracks.
They have so many tracks that they down size them and can not see the little pics anyway.

All they create is a snail slow system, but hey that is my opinion. If it works for you great!

Stuart Ferreyra
Timecode Multimedia
President
Santa Monica, CA 90025
https://www.timecodemultimedia.com

[Alan Lacey]

Most editors, I guess, are cutting on boxes that don’t make a fuss about waveforms.

Why is it that FCP handles them SO badly. I’ve edited on most NLEs now and FCP is without doubt the worst.

Apple could speed them up a bit by having them track selectable.

Alan

[Andrew Kimery]

I just about never use the waveforms in the timeline. It just slows down the sequence way too much and if I need to cut to a beat or something it’s quicker for me to use my ears anyway.

-A

[Peter Ralph]

Like Erik I find this to be a real pain. I’ve posted about it a couple of times, receieved plenty of suggestions but none worked. The only real solution seems to be to reduce the number of tracks on the timeline.

FWIW I use waveforms for cutting to dialogue all the time. To be able to finesse the placement of a cut at the beginning/middle/end of a pause in dialogue allows me to create a better flow to the edit. For music I’ll often just tap out markers and edit to them rather than the waveform.

[Nick Meyers]

i like to use waveforms for cutting dial, sometimes too,
but i use the VIEWER.
great for finding an audio point in a flash.

in the viewer, there’s no picture or fx to scrub through,
so no canvas re-draw time.
and the waveform is as big as you;’ll ever need it

so i double click a clip into the viewer
it;s very easy to locate where i want with the left/right arrows.

once the mod, or beginning or end of a word’s been found, there’s a few things you can do in the viewer that affect the timeline:

– add a marker if you want
– or f will matchframe back to the timeline (yes works that way, too) where you can blade the track with Control V, or whatever

you can also EDIT in the VIEWER:

– while you’re in there, if you invoke the roll tool (r), you can mark an in or out point,
and the timeline clip will be rolled to that point.
(I use this a lot to tidy up ins and outs of audio VO grabs)

– or call up the ripple tool (rr) to do a ripple edit the same way.

once you get used to it, it’s faster than turning waveforms on an off, and scrubbing in the timeline.

nick

[Erik Mickelson]

Here’s the deal.
Waveforms actually worked great prior to FCP Studio and the new Intel Macs. I swear to my non-denominational diety that I NEVER had the problems with waveform re-draws that I am having now. It is like Apple forgot how to make a program, oh wait…they bought FCP from another company. Well anyway, I am only using waveforms to line up dialog in a multicam shoot.

My machine: Quad 3.0, 6GB ram, 4-500 GB hard drives. Is that enough machine to view waveforms? I recently sold a Dual 2.3 G5 that had no problems with waveforms. I also have a Dual 500 with the crappy Matrox product that displayed waveforms fine. Some people will say YMMV but I have one of the fastest cars on the lot and can’t drive it off the lot! Maybe Apple will let me buy something to fix this. Here’s to money!