[Dave Gage]

Gary,

Cool, thanks. I’ll book mark it as an option. If I go the route of using the ExpressCard slot to connect USB 3, I’ll try to get the best card I can afford. I’ve had problems with cheaper cards in the past, especially with popping out when you least expect it.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Jeremy Garchow] “I think there aren’t any because they’d be expensive, and USB3 is usually already part of a Thunderbolt computer, that is to say, I’m not sure if they’d sell enough of them to make it worth it.”

Yep, that’s my thought too. I believe this situation primarily just effects us 2011 owners. I think the 2012 and up have both TB and USB 3.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

Jeremy,

Ouch! Take a digital off and it’s in my price range. I’m hoping for a $30 or under cable solution and I may have to wait a while for it. If my Expresscard slot is actually fine and the problem lies with the eSata connector on my OWC 2-drive RAID enclosure, then this might work for me-
https://eshop.macsales.com/search/expresscard+to+usb+3

I think my new goal here is to get away from external enclosures altogether and since I can get 2TB drives at a good price now, I can just use two separate USB 3 drive docks to accomplish what I want with backups. Could be me, but it seems every external enclosure I’ve ever gotten (mostly from OWC) ends up having at least one port go bad on it. I think this is what just happened with my 2-drive RAID enclosure (which was my main edit drive until recently). It appears that the eSata connection is bad, but the FW800 works fine, it’s just slow for 300 GB transfers. I just plugged in a drive dock with eSata and the same Expresscard and it came right up on the desk top. Must be the RAID and not the card slot.

Thanks,
Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Florian Gintenreiter] “- repair permissions on all drives
– uninstall FXFactory
– removed all events and projects from FCPX, opened a new one and tried the generators there. Does’t work.
– delete FCPX permissions /with permissions manager)
– uninstalled and reinstalled FCPX
– switched off A/V output to Blackmagic Card”

What Bill said and also have you tried running Disk Warrior on the drive with your Events and Projects. I had some weird problems about a year ago with my external RAID “FCP X only” drive and Disk Warrior made it all better after repairing the directory structure. For years I avoided buying Disk Warrior because of the $100 price tag, but it’s made all my computers run better and even boot up faster. One of the best purchases I’ve made in the last few years.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Dave Brandt] “I have used clip wrap in this exact situation before.
It read mts files from an AVCHD camera that nothing else would accept
Dave”

Another Dave here echoing that sentiment. I have Canon AVCHD files and ClipWrap works great (with or without the complete file structure). ClipWrap can create Pro Res files, but I just “wrap” them in a .mov container and edit in FCPX with no problem.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[David Eaks] “Dave, do you find that using both the compressor and limiter is better than just enabling the limiter built into the compressors interface? Because that’s what I’ve been doing.”

David,

I’m basically forced to use the compressor as well as the limiter (which I max out at 10) because I do live online classes via Adobe Connect that I screen capture via ScreenFlow and within these classes I’m talking and also playing harmonica and guitar for the instruction. I do my best in the recording phase to keep my levels as even as possible, but they still can vary greatly. So, I’ve found using the Compressor helps quite a bit to smooth out the levels.

My biggest problem is that since I don’t have an assistant to help with any of the different technical aspects, I need to keep everything fairly simple to make it all work (you know, being the “talent” and all). I use my 17″ MB Pro’s built-in mic and camera to keep everything as simple as possible. And to Apple’s credit, both mic and camera do a good job. I’ve tried using an external mic, but it adds another layer of complexity and frankly is not that much better for my purposes.

But… the problem I have is that once I start the class and then turn on ScreenFlow, my MBP fans rev up way up. The internal Apple mic is only 12″ from the fan noise, so it picks it up quite clearly. I have to be very careful how much of the compressor I use so that it doesn’t also increase the fan noise. I think as I mentioned earlier, I also use the FCP X built-in Denoiser plugin and the Logic Channel EQ to eliminate some of the fan noise. But, if I over-do the Denoiser, it starts to add weird (bad) artifacts to the harmonica notes. So, I have to be very careful how I balance the compressor and the Denoiser.

To (finally) answer your question, I do need to use the compressor, but I keep the ratio as low as possible.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Nikolas Bäurle] ” For Internet and online content you can go close to 0db.”
I was trying months ago to keep my levels between -6 and -12, but I got complaints that it wasn’t loud enough for my websites, so I now routinely add the Logic Compressor/Limiter (I do use both) and then adjust the FCP X master audio volume (per Clip) so that the peaks are at about -3. This has been working great for me for the web. Of course, if you have some low level noise the compressor will bring it up, but then I add in the Denoiser and a bit of Channel EQ and that seems to give me the best volume with least amount of noise.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[Julian Bowman] “And I can second WordPress themes.”

Thanks Julian, I will pass this on.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

[John Davidson] “Our whole site is wordpress.”
That’s good to know. As I said, I’m old school and do everything on my websites myself, but certainly there is a huge time saving advantage these days by using templated websites.

[John Davidson] “That said, once you get your head wrapped around the underpinnings of it it’s not all that bad.”
Cool. If needed, I can help her with the technical stuff to get her started.

[John Davidson] “All our video is hosted on Vimeo because it integrates with wordpress sites better than self hosting your own video.”
Just the kind of information we were looking for. Her client is a high-end music and TV commercial director/producer and the video demo presentation is the main objective of her website.

Thanks for taking the time. I sent my wife this thread last night and she found your info and links very helpful.

Dave

[Dave Gage]

Gary,

Let me say right off the bat, that I’m not sure anything I say here will help you in your situation, but I do 3 edits a weeks and I copy and paste in 3 audio effects to each new edit from a templated project: the Logic Compressor, the Logic Channel EQ, and the Denoiser. I haven’t run into what you describe. Two things though:

1. Are you using the built-in Limiter in the Logic Compressor? Not sure this would make any difference at all, but thought I’d ask. Did you notice if the Compressor settings are changing when you restart the program?

2. (This is a stretch, but…) Are you using any other applications that like to re-set a user’s audio preferences. I know for a fact that Skype does this and ruined a couple of screen captured class videos I’ve done this year. This is unlikely the problem in your case because Skype and other silly apps like this will change the system audio levels and certainly not levels within an app.

By the way, I’ve stayed on FCP 10.0.4 and OS 10.6.8 because everything works for me and through the Cow I know there are some strange bugs in 10.0.8. Again, none of this may be helpful, but I thought I’d chime in because I use the Compressor/Limiter all the time with no problems.

Dave