[Gary Hughes]

I do my levels editing on the timeline itself by turning on the keyframe overlays, as Frank mentioned. The button to turn it on is in the lower left of the timeline. Then use the “Pen” tool to add points to the level and/or pan overlays, then you can move them up or down or you can also slide them side to side.

But if you want a larger view, if you double click on the clip in the bin, that won’t be the correct file. If you double click on the clip on the timeline itself, that opens the clip FROM THE TIMELINE and any editing you do to it, will appear in the timeline as well.

You can also use the “mixer” view to edit the audio levels.

I’d suggest you go through a beginner’s tutorial, even if you are a seasoned pro on another NLE. There are many out there in the form of books and DVDs too. I used Jerry Hoffman’s book when I first made the switch and it really helped point out a few things that you just can’t afford to not know if you’re going to use FCP.

As for STP, it sounds like you have some sort of connection mishap on the mixer. It almost sounds like you have a feedback loop of some sort, or double input with the sound arriving at two different times, creating that reverb type effect. Be sure that you aren’t listening to two separate connections at the same time. In other words, be sure you are listening to just the kona and not the system sound at the same time (if that’s even possible). I don’t have a kona so I can’t check it out.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

I’ve heard bad things about specifically the “Big Discs”. I went with G-Tech G-Raid and am very very pleased. Since then, I’ve bought some G-Drives, but not for media. I’ll only use the G-Raid for media until I decide to upgrade to a SATA raid.

You definitely want to add on a PCI firewire card (pcmcia for laptops) if you haven’t already. Don’t use the built in firewire for the drive.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

I use the Black Magic Decklink Extreme. Check it out. https://www.blackmagic-design.com It’s not expensive and works great. The AJA stuff is great too, and probably prefered by the majority here, but I liked the price/feature combination of the Decklink Extreme. You can’t go wrong with either.

Call the guys at Niche Video in Atlanta 770-499-1899. Start an ongoing relationship with them. They were a great help for me when I made the switch to Mac and FCP.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

I just edited a 5 camera show, plus a line cut. I haven’t had time to learn the multiclip stuff yet, so here’s what I did.

I don’t use the line cut, but I did put it on track 6 (for whatever reason), and disabled the track. You can disable/enable by control clicking and toggle the check by enable, or you can select a clip and type control+B on the keyboard. Cameras 1-5 were put on tracks 1-5.

After getting all the cameras in sync (via timecode in my case), I turned on autoselect for the 5 tracks, and turned it off for everything else. This allows me to cut via keyboard shortcut, and only cut the autoselected tracks.

Locate the position where you want to switch to a different camera. With the playhead there, and with no clips selected, type control+V to cut all clips. Then one at a time, starting at the topmost track, click on a clip that you don’t want to see and type control+B to disable it. Keep going down till you see the one that you do want. Move to the next desired edit point and repeat. This time you may need to enable a clip to see it because it was disabled at the last edit.

I found this to be very fast since I keep my right hand on the mouse and my left on the keyboard for shortcut keys. I flew right through the editing.

Here’s a couple more tips. To enable/disable multiple clips at once, simply select them and type control+B. To cut a clip or clips regardless of the autoselect state, simply select the clip or clips and type control+V. It will ignore the autoselect and only work on the ones you have selected. This is much faster than control clicking and choosing enable, or choosing the razor and clicking to make a cut.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

I have to put my 2 cents in here, fyi. The real shame is that Pinnacle (now Avid) Liquid Edition did this last year with HDV and SD (not sure about HD), 4:3 and/ 16:9, in both NTSC and PAL on the same timeline. That’s a $700 software NLE, and without very steep system requirements.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not plugging LE, just stating a fact.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Based on your question, I assume you’re using a version of Photoshop prior to CS. Use the photoshop preset for 720×540(601) if your sequence settings in FCP are for 720×486. Use 720×534(DV) if your sequence settings are for 720×480(DV). Set your ruler to percent and drop guides on 5% and 95% for action safe and 10% and 90% for title safe.

For CS or later ONLY, photoshop has built in presets and support for non-square pixels. Just use the one for 720×480 for DV and the 720×486 for other SD 4:3 sequences. Viewing the corrected aspect on your computer monitor while you design is turned on by default. This allows you to draw a circle and it will be a circle on TV, however it also degrades the view a little. This degradation will not truly be in the file, it only shows up on screen in photoshop. If you need to see the full quality, you can turn that off, but circles will be ovals. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.

Also, with CS2, if you have a DV device connected to your computer and to a TV, you can preview your design on tv directly from photoshop. I’m not in front of photoshop right now, but I believe it’s somewhere buried under the “File” menu.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

If the image is 720×486, and if you are moving it around to do the wobble effect, then you are revealing the edge of the image during the move. Create your image larger than default if you are planning to do any movement in FCP. Sounds like you’re moving it to the title safe border, so I’d create it 20% larger in Photoshop and you should be fine in FCP. Only create graphics at 720×486 if you plan on NOT moving them at all in FCP.

Hope this helps,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

https://www.deepmagicstudios.com/FCP/ A universal leader modified for FCP.

Thanks,
Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Well, when I first got the deck, I tried an edit to tape with firewire and having never heard of this issue before, I was completely stumped and thought I’d try RS422. It didn’t act much different, but when I finally figured it out, it was 10 frames off. I haven’t tried firewire again to see if it also is 10 frames off.

Gary

[Gary Hughes]

Depending on your actual footage, you may be able to use the shadow/highlight plugin that’s free from Lyric. https://www.lyric.com/index.htm I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s supposed to increase the brightness in the shadows without making it look washed out. I’ve used similar plugins for Photoshop before.

Thanks,
Gary