What makes X fast? Tom Knows.

[Mike Warmels]

Actually, I was referring to a music track where left and right ended up separated. But in the clip Robin just displayed there seems to be something you can do to prevent that.

[Mike Warmels]

I work for a client who has chosen to work exclusively on FCPX. They have an editing bay with 10 suits working with SAN. That’s quite the adventure itself.

I myself work on my own system, on a MacPro Trashcan I bought to be able to work properly on FCPX. (Avid still runs excellently on my old MacPro as well as on the new one). So we exchange libraries and I work on copies of media they have on their SAN. So when I start finishing rough cuts into final cuts we go into one of their suits. And after that, they export the cuts for audio mixing and broadcast masters.

And then there’s a group of editors that get hired to work there, also work for a post-production facility that works on FCPX. With about five or six suits, on MAcPro trashcans and SAN.

But… the issues I run into, they also run into. Even a lot of fellow directors of mine working on all kinds of Apple machines (MBP, iMac etc) experience sluggishness etc. Even though my cuts are much closer to a finished product than theirs. So I do try to cut everything as well as I can, including split edits, overshoots, graphics, preliminary color correction, music pre-mix, SFX, the lot… So I use a lot of the tools. But… it’s nothing uber complicated. I’ve done this collaborative process for years, on AVID and FCP7. But it’s never felt so hard as with FCPX.

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “Actually, I was referring to a music track where left and right ended up separated. But in the clip Robin just displayed there seems to be something you can do to prevent that.”

There is… You can set “track” order quite easily by just dragging Roles to re-order before export.

Also, a bunch of pretty important options are found in the preferences, not just in the window you’re presented with. My guess is this is where something is mis-set. Particularly disabled Roles vs. muted Roles.

You can set it so that anything you really don’t want to transfer doesn’t, and you can include tracks you might want (alt mics etc) by leaving ’em enabled and muting them. FWIW, muting clips in the timeline (V key) does not disable/exclude them for X2Pro. You must explicitly deselect them in the inspector. If you can see it in the timeline, it’s gonna be included, muted or no. Maybe that’s what’s happening?

For posterity, there are 3 different ways to “disable” clips and/or components, all of which have different results:

-Turning off the Role in the Timeline Index mutes it for playback, but it will still play if you export the Project with a comp mix. You can of course exclude Roles if you export a multitrack Quicktime (for stems, mix minus etc).

-Disabling (Muting) an audio clip or component (multichannel track) in the Timeline (V key) will do what you’d expect, you won’t hear it, and it won’t play in an export. However, it will be shown as enabled in an fcpxml export, and will appear in anything that uses that xml for translation. The pref in X2Pro lets you choose to exclude or include it in the AAF.

-Disabling a clip or component in the Inspector makes it inaudible during Playback and export, it will not be shown in the timeline, and the fcpxml will indicate that it is disabled and it shouldn’t be included in any translations

With multichannel clips, the only way to not have all the components appear in an AAF, is to disable individual components in the Inspector. If you only want CH-1 & 3, you need to uncheck all the others. Even if you tell X2Pro not to include “disabled” clips, disabling multichannel components in the timeline won’t work, as the clip enclosing the components is still enabled.

Saying FCP X is simple is… not entirely accurate. lol Same with setting up a network. People think it’s easy so they read some online info, or just wing it. It often won’t work well, the network needs tuning just like you would for Avid or anything else.

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Oliver Peters]

[Mike Warmels] “I work for a client who has chosen to work exclusively on FCPX. They have an editing bay with 10 suits working with SAN. That’s quite the adventure itself.
I myself work on my own system, on a MacPro Trashcan…
… But… the issues I run into, they also run into.”

OK, thanks. That make more sense. The network could indeed be the issue; however, if you are getting similar performance in a standalone configuration, it’s hard to say.

– Oliver

Oliver Peters Post Production Services, LLC
Orlando, FL
http://www.oliverpeters.com

[Mike Warmels]

Oh wow… yeah, pretty complex. Maybe I can help these guys out with this info.

But yeah, it’s not really simple. Plus, to me this feels like you have to do a lot of things twice. And when you forget to do something (and FCPX will allow you to forget things) you’re in a big mess.

If I just add up from import in FCPX to AAF export:

1. Make sure all the codecs, frame rates, frequencies are the same, if not convert
2. Create Library en check settings
3. Import
4. Add roles to audio
5. Order everything in events, folder, keywords etc.
6. Edit and turn off audio you don’t need (disable, deselect or detach and remove)
7. Export to X2Pro
8. Work on settings for audio tracks you want discarded, bundled etc…
9. Export.

Again… it’s quite a bit of work. That’s one of the things of AVID I prefer, because this workflow is much easier.

1. Create project with project settings
2. Import media (which gets converted to project settings if necessary)
3. Order media in bins
4. Edit
5. Create AFF settings (and save as profile for future use)
6. Export to AAF

The next time you cut you can leave step 5 out of it. I do think in this workflow AVID is doing much more of the heavy lifting than FCPX and gives less room for mistakes.

[Mike Warmels]

Oh wait…

This bit I don’t get:

“With multichannel clips, the only way to not have all the components appear in an AAF, is to disable individual components in the Inspector. If you only want CH-1 & 3, you need to uncheck all the others. Even if you tell X2Pro not to include “disabled” clips, disabling multichannel components in the timeline won’t work, as the clip enclosing the components is still enabled.”

So does this mean if I have an 8 track audio track from recording on location (or a four track audio included in XD-Cam video), I can disable tracks in FCPX but it will still all go into the export and end up in Protools?

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “So does this mean if I have an 8 track audio track from recording on location (or a four track audio included in XD-Cam video), I can disable tracks in FCPX but it will still all go into the export and end up in Protools?”

I believe you need to disable components in the inspector or they just come across muted. I’ve been wrong before though. 🙂 I’ll run an experiment and see…

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~

[Mike Warmels]

Please do, because this may be exactly the problem of the huge stacks of audio tracks in the exports. I know the editors disable all the unused (and sometimes muted ) channels in Inspector. And yet, they do turn up in the export.

My thinking was always that X2Pro exports the clips. And all those multiple tracks are IN the clips. But I am not sure if that’s how it really works.

[Robin S. kurz]

[Oliver Peters] “… without thinking it’s all about you?”

Damn. You’re right. My bad.

Just so my egomaniacal self doesn’t make the same blunder again, for future reference: exactly which Robin are you talking about when you say “contrary to what Robin said”? Would hate to make the same obvious mistake twice. :-/

[/s]

[Charlie Austin]

[Mike Warmels] “And when you forget to do something (and FCPX will allow you to forget things) you’re in a big mess.”

Not really… the biggie is setting Roles when you import media, but that effectively negates all the work you need to do with tracks in Avid or Pr. Meaning no track patching, setting up different sequences for multitrack export etc. Do it on import and you’re done. And X generally assigns correct Roles on it’s own, but for multichannel sources you need to do it.

[Mike Warmels] “If I just add up from import in FCPX to AAF export:”

No, it’s actually much more like what you describe for Avid, Couple extra steps up front, but it saves a lot of time later…

1. Create Library
2. Import media
3. Check Roles and Set Roles on Multichannel Audio
4. Disable unwanted tracks in the Master Clips (you can always re-eanble at any time if you need them)
5. Order media in Events using KW Collections
5. Create Project with project settings (or let project settings be set by the first clip cut in)
6. Edit (enable/disable stuff here too, but it really is less “work” than track management)
7. Export to AAF, Check settings and Save.

Obviously not the same, but it’s pretty easy. X is certainly not all skittles and unicorns, but it’s not brain surgery either, just a different way of doing things. You need to pay attention to them, but Roles are an enormous time saver for a lot of reasons///

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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~