Brad Hurley
Forum Replies Created
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There are probably other limits you haven’t discovered yet.
The best thing to do before installing Resolve on any computer is to read the latest DaVinci Resolve Configuration Guide (a Google search will turn it up); they haven’t yet updated it for version 16, but the version 15 guide gives a pretty good idea of what to shoot for. The MacBook Air isn’t even on their list, although they did test a maxed-out 2017 Macbook and said it would work for editing in 1080p timelines. Even many MacBook Pros can have trouble with Resolve.
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FYI, there is an OFX plugin in Davinci Resolve (the Studio version only) that actually does exactly what you’re looking for; it’s called Color Stabilizer. It’s possible that a similar plugin is available for FCPX but I’ve never seen one.
In Resolve, the Color Stabilizer OFX allows you to choose a frame in a clip that has the correct brightness and white balance. Color Stabilizer analyzes it, and then adjusts every other frame of the clip to match. It only works on a per-clip basis, so if you have multiple clips with this problem you’d have to run it on each clip. You might have to apply a deflicker afterward, based on reports I’ve seen.
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The render cache is simply designed to speed playback, that’s all. It renders certain processor-intensive effects (e.g., Fusion animations, noise reduction, titles, transitions, etc.) in the background so you can play back your timeline without it stuttering and dropping frames. Without render caching, some of the clips in my 23.98 fps timeline play back at 1 frame per second, especially if I’ve applied noise reduction.
Think of it this way: with the render cache turned off, your GPU (or in your case the integrated Intel graphics) has to do all the work of processing effects every single time you play through clips on your timeline. When you turn on the render cache, those effects are baked in and the GPU doesn’t have to go through all that work each time.
The MacBook Air’s graphics processor isn’t going to be robust enough to even accomplish some tasks, especially in Fusion, but also on the Color page. It should be fine for editing and maybe some basic color correction on HD or proxy footage.
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Okay, six mono channels is what might have made FCPX think this was Dolby 5.1, since Dolby 5.1 is six-channel sound.
But what you probably actually had was polywav files from a field recorder (e.g., the Sound Devices MixPre 10T that had six channels. Two of those channels would have been for the production stereo mix (a left channel and a right channel) and the other four would have been individual microphone channels (e.g., two booms and two lavs).
Field recorders typically record polywav files (which are single WAV files with multiple channels) because it’s a lot easier to deal with those in post than to have multiple separate wav files for each take. Final Cut deals with these just fine; it brings in all the channels and you can turn off the ones you don’t want to use in the audio inspector.
The alternative is to use Sound Devices’ free Wave Agent application to split the polywavs into separate individual wav files and import only the ones you want to use. I do that for DaVinci Resolve to avoid having to go through channel remapping, but I don’t bother in Final Cut since it’s so easy to turn off the channels you don’t want to use.
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“For some weird reason, FCPX (assembly edit) had half the WAV files in Dolby 5.1.”
That’s strange — were those polywav files, by chance? I know that Logic and some other DAWs typically misinterpret polywav files from my location sound recorder as surround-sound files; I wouldn’t think Final Cut would do that since polywav files are ubiquitous in location sound for video, but it’s possible that you or someone else accidentally set the wrong audio configuration for those multi-channel files — i.e., instead of “four mono” for a four-channel polywav file it could have accidentally been configured as “left, right, center, surround.” Just a wild theory, but it’s a good reminder to make sure your audio configurations are set correctly for each audio clip, especially for polywav files.
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“I have tried working with files sitting on my main ruses server, but FCPX does not seem to play too nicely with this set up”
What exactly was the problem you experienced?
As you know, you have two options with Final Cut: to add media to your library or to leave files in place. The “leave files in place” option is the only option in DaVinci Resolve; I’m not sure about Premiere. On one Resolve project I’m working on currently, I have about 3 terabytes of footage but my Resolve database is only 15 megabytes in size; my project backup files are only 1.2 megabytes in size. I keep all my footage on a Thunderbolt-connected RAID. Of course, if I disconnect the RAID, all my files go offline.
When I use Final Cut, that’s how I work too: I choose the “leave files in place” option and Final Cut doesn’t copy any of my original media into the library. I would only copy files to my library if I needed to share the library with someone else, or if I needed to work on the library on another computer offsite.
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Yes, it’s basically the same but more sophisticated. You have several choices in Resolve: there’s a universal setting (i.e., applies to all clips) where you can choose no render cache, smart render cache, or user render cache, and you can also manually set specific clips to be render-cached using the render cache clip output or Fusion output.
The smart render cache acts like FCPX’s background rendering: all processor-intensive effects (Fusion effects, titles, transitions, etc.) are rendered automatically. The user render cache allows you to choose (in the Master Settings section of the Project Settings) which types of processor-intensive effects you want to render-cache. The choices there are transitions, composites, and Fusion effects; you can turn off any one of them if you know you don’t want transitions (for example) to ever be render-cached.
The clip-based output cache provides the most control; you pick and choose which clips will be render-cached.
All of this will help in terms of real-time playback, but I saw in another thread that you’re thinking of buying an older MacBook Air, and I’m pretty sure Resolve 16 will be unusable on that machine, at least for anything beyond basic editing. My test machine is a 2014 Mac Mini with i5 and 8 gigs of RAM, and while Resolve will run on it, it’s not practical for real work even with 1080p footage. You can definitely forget about using Fusion, and while you can accomplish basic primary and secondary color grades it won’t handle GPU-heavy tasks like noise reduction, deflicker, etc.
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I just tested an ex-FAT-formatted micro-SD card on a Mac running Catalina, and Final Cut saw the video files in it just fine. My guess is that this is a permissions issue: you might have accidentally clicked “don’t allow” the first time message came up saying that Final Cut wants to access the files on your external micro-SD drive….or maybe the message didn’t come up.
To fix this, you’ll need to go to System Preferences > Security and Privacy > Privacy and click on the “Files and Folders” option. Make sure all the checkboxes for Final Cut Pro X are ticked: Removable Volumes, Downloads Folder, and Desktop Folder. My guess is your “Removable Volumes” is unchecked. If it isn’t checked, click on the padlock at the bottom left of the Security and Privacy window and enter your administrator password to make changes.
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Knowing Apple’s design ethos, I think it’s less about “style” than a clean aesthetic, which are not exactly the same thing. I doubt it’s really about longevity; would cables really reduce the lifetime of components that are rarely if ever moved? Apple’s all about sweating the details and fine points; did you catch that they even included a USB port inside so you can install a dongle (e.g., for DaVinci Resolve Studio) without having it hanging off the outside of the computer? My guess is that their designers took pride in producing something that is as clean on the inside as it is on the outside.
It’s admirable, but those of us who don’t care about aesthetics will still have to pay extra for those design decisions if we buy one. I’d be sorely tempted to switch to Windows when my 2013 trashcan bites the dust, but I’ve tried three times to switch to Windows fulltime and always ended up going back to the Mac. I would consider a Windows machine as a dedicated computer for DaVinci Resolve, though (which is mainly what I use these days for editing, color correction, and audio) and nothing else, but based on the reports in BMD’s Resolve forum the Windows version seems to be buggier than the Mac version.
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What happens if you actually render out a complete video rather than just playing back your timeline?
I agree with Jeff that dropouts are usually due to your CPU not being able to handle the work it’s being asked to do. Plugins to reduce echo (e.g., “deverberate”) can be very CPU-intensive. See this related thread at fcp.co: https://www.fcp.co/forum/4-final-cut-pro-x-fcpx/27905-occasional-and-random-audio-dropout-during-timeline-playback