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[John Fishback] “be careful to wire them exactly the same to avoid putting the signals out of phase.”

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The first thing to always try is to Quit FCP, Restart the Mac, Open your FCP project and try again.

Next:
THE FOLLOWING COMES FROM THE KEN STONE WEBSITE:
“Over 5,000 years ago Confucius wrote: ‘If you are toiling away, you have changed nothing and FCP heads South on you, [starts behaving in strange ways] then it is time to trash your FCP Preferences.’ ”

Click the following link for instructions.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

A great way to do this is to use “FCP Rescue” a free Apple Script that will Trash the Preferences for you (and restore nearly all of your user settings afterward).
There are versions for FCP (Pro) & FCE (Express) and a new one for FCP 5.

Download these free Apple Scripts at

https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/

This is one FCP tip that has helped in solving hundreds of “odd” problems.

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You camcorder’s settings don’t matter because FCP captured the DV signal directly from the tape and ignores any camera setting.

In FCP the setting you want is:

Log & Capture > Clip Settings (tab) > Audio Format: > Ch 1 (L)

But, even if you choose Ch 1 + Ch 2 or Stereo (and FCP captures both channels) you will be able to separate them when you edit.

Just make sure when you choose an audio track that the “Stereo Pair” setting (Modify menu) is NOT clicked.
Then you can edit from either of the two audio tracks (individually) to the timeline.

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You can run BOTH versions on the same Mac.

I believe you should alter the NAME of FCP 4.5 so the Mac (and YOU) can tell to two versions of the program apart.

Be sure to make copies (I’d even burn them to a CD) of your 4.5 project files (not the media) to hold (just in case) and only open these older projects from inside the 4.5 version.
Once you open an older project in a new version of FCP, it won’t “go back” and open in the former version (Hence the backup copies, just in case.)

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What’s wrong with just copying the CD audio files “intact” onto your computer HD?

(On a Mac they would be AIFF 44.1 kHz 16 bit.)

This is the only “lossless” way to do it.

The other compressed files (like mp3) are VERY lossy.

You can’t have a “lossless” file AND have it be “small”.

OTOH, as far as “standing the test of time”… your original CDs will probably be more stable over time than anything else you can do with the audio files.

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If you have an earlier version than FCP 5, you need to use other software to remove this noise effectively.

This is the kind of “continuous” noise that a program like Bias “SoundSoap” can help remove.

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/review_soundsoap.html

Bias has recently released “SoundSoap 2”

https://www.bias-inc.com/products/soundsoap/

SoundSoap was retailing for about $50 (up to $80 just before the new “2” release).
SoundSoap 2 is priced at about $100.

If you have FCP5, there is a similar supplied filter that can do the job similar to SoundSoap.

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What kind of capture and timeline?

Uncompressed?
DV?

What kind of Hard Drive(s)?

Internal?
External?
SCSI?
FW?
RAID?

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“0 dB” on the Mackie should be adjusted to read about -18 to -12 on the FCP meters.

“0 dB” in digital is absolute FULL LEVEL (all “1’s” in the digital sample).
Anything (anything) above that will distort.

You need plenty of extra “headroom” coming from the Analog source to the Digital input.

I don’t know if there’s some kind of level adjustment on the AJA (hardware or software) but there needs to be some kind of “matching” of levels so that you don’t reach only -26 dB when the Mackie is reading “0 dB”.

-26 dB, while usable, is a bit too low.

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BTW, Peter… WHICH Mackie?

[Shane Ross] “Adjust the gain on the Mackie (top knob) until they match.”

Shane, are you talking about “trim”?

That won’t affect the Master output level, that’s only for the pre-fader pre-amp input.

The output level “is what it is” in regard to the Mackie level meters.

The input to the device that is inputting to the Mac from the analog out of the Mackie is where the change must be made.

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How are you getting the Mackie INTO the Mac?