[Ht Davis]

Where are the cache files?
You’ll want those internal most of the time (unique to each system) as they are simply Memory dump that can be loaded quickly.

Where are the Previews held?
Keep these anywhere, but keep audio and video together, and I would render out audio with video (a setting in preferences that renders audio previews with video previews), otherwise they will attempt to play audio from the main source with preview video, and that requires splitting audio stream from the original video (some more processing).

What plug do you use for the drive?
RAID drives are the best to use for this. They are fast and they can work at almost native interface speeds (the full theoretical speed of a plug like usb2 being 480mbps or esata being 1.5gbps). Use the best plug you can, with a RAID (RAID will combine the speeds of 2 or more drives to reach full speed data transfers).

Those three things will take some of the speedbumps out and give you an open road. Don’t forget to render your previews (render the effects to show off a few pieces, but render the whole work area to show larger portions), and make sure the audio is rendered to previews as well, to the same location as the video previews. Inline stream transport files (the files made by the rendering) will play quickly, as they are small, buffer sized files.

[Ht Davis]

48k audio samples. You’re displaying the audio samples not the frames.

[Ht Davis]

Sub clips in premiere are different. They reference the original clip, but have an in out mark applied, and look different by their icon and label color. The ones you have may be broken or they may need to simply be rendered. Premiere sees them as an effect, especially if they are slapped up against another clip, there is transition there. If rendering doesn’t work, they are broken.

To recreate them, you’ll need to know their in point and their duration (premiere uses the in and duration, and you can use Out if you wish), so scroll to the right in your project panel to see the timecode info you’ll need. If no scroll bar, try messing with the width of the panel until it shows up, then scroll it to the right. You’ll see 4 TC’s. The first is the original start, the second an in point (subclip start), the third is an out point (subclip end) and the last is the original clip end. Write them down, then recreate your subclips (rename them) and use the new ones to replace the old in the sequence (do not just delete, it will remove them from the sequence; replace first). This will fix the project.

This is also why I prefer using sequences for clips. I place the clip in a sequence, and dupe that to make a subclip, then mark and in out in the dupe. I can then use that dupe as a nested subclip. I can multicam or multi audio a clip the same way. More versatile.

[Ht Davis]

Most people don’t realize what the linker is doing. It’s not linking directly to your program and watching you make changes. It’s linked to the project file, and the xml reader that the program uses (the project files are essentially xml instruction sets for the rendering engine).

Unfortunately, there have been issues with memory linkage in dynamic link and with CUDA or other accelerated graphics. There are major changes occurring at the system level where memory is concerned, as well as changes to how graphics are handled.

The dynamic link problem you describe is an old one, I think, but I’ll give you both solutions. I’ll start with the old answer.

When you link to your comp, it’s looking into the saved project file. Save your AE file, close AE and go to premiere. You should see a bar updating the files. If not, check the comp. Right click and see if there’s an update to it. Try a save and close, then reopen. It may update that way. If it renders out incorrectly, even after a save operation, the dynamic link is showing the memory issue (a new problem). Also make sure you name your comps uniquely.

Let me describe this problem for you:
Program A sends data to Program B, and Program B opens a new copy of the XML reader of Program A (but Program A has it’s own already open). Program B then sends data back to program A, which opens a new copy of the XML reader of program B, but program B is already running it in different memory. Both programs attach a separate piece of the instructions for the data, and because they don’t link to the same reader, the memory has to be copied to be linked together. However, that memory isn’t being copied because of the new way memory is protected by the system.
One solution I’ve found is drag-linking. With the premiere project open, drag your clip into AE and edit there, then drag the comp back to premiere. This associates to the xml reader each program is already running, and (I don’t know which) either forces the memory copy or simply uses the original set of xml readers. Doing so will allow the linkage to work even after closing and re-opening; again I’m not sure if there is some sort of process link id that is included in the xml, but it would make sense. The drag should work going right from AE to Premiere with a simple effect (you don’t have to start your clip in premiere). The same logic would apply as well. If you start an autosaved project, you may have to relink a comp or a clip. This means you’ll have to do a drag and replace the comp.
If it still has trouble on exporting, you may want to export within premiere first, then out to a compression with AME.

[Ht Davis]

I second that suggestion. XDcam is great for footage but taxes your graphics with more than 4 cameras. Proxies aid in that.

Another alternative is to set up your previews. Render the whole thing to previews that are lower res and compressed to save processing. The downside: You have to do this several times throughout the process and it takes a while to do initially. If you are doing multicam, it will render the current cameras, and you’ll have to render every time you switch one.

Answer: Stick to proxy formats when multicaming.

[Ht Davis]

Premiere will re-generate them, but it will also save that location in the xml file, and attempt to re-read them. You must have the option to write them checked in preferences.

Make sure you’re working from a drive with the right filesystem and permissions settings.

With flash cards or externals this is a common issue, along with needing to relink files when they show up on the system under different names (letter on windows or volume location on mac\linux). If you’re sure this is not the case with your system, run drive maintenance, you may have some bad blocks or maybe a drive is failing. Make sure your drive is set to a format that doesn’t use a Permissions structure or to a format that matches your system drive and you have full access to. The XMP files should show up right next to your imported files in the system. Check that as well. If they don’t, then they weren’t written or they were trashed. If you trash them, this dialogue will show up often. They may be hidden, so show your hidden files to be sure. If they are simply not written, you are having other problems. Probably a formatting or write permissions issue. Make sure the drive is not locked (some flash cards have a lock or cameras allow you to lock the files to prevent deletion, you need to remove those to link the xmp sidecar files to in the header).

I know that’s a lot of info to hash through… …But I hope it helps.

[Ht Davis]

Wait…

You did say you recorded studio audio?
Take the finished audio track, set it as a main, and syncronize each clip in turn using plural eyes. It should poll and find the drum matches. Then just note the starting point of each clip with respect to the finished audio track.

First get the engineered audio, send to audition, boost the base. Now output to a sound only MOV or AVI as linear PCM at max quality. Send to AME and output as a the same file but check the export video box and choose a small video resolution that matches your aspect ratio (16:9 use 720X480 or 360×240 or 180×120) so that it takes very little time to code (this will be an empty video container filled with black). Match the audio settings to your Audition settings. Export. Now it will have a blank video, and will work for multicam in Premiere, but also it will be a capable sync clock if the actual timing wasn’t messed with (sometimes audio engineers get punchy and move the audio of the voices around, which can cause problems when syncronizing; if this occured, you may have to use the afformentioned method from my last post). By finding the sync frame for each video, you can place them manually or mark that spot and add the clip name to the notes of the mark. When you finish, you can drop the finished audio, mark an in\out, and nest the sequence.

[Ht Davis]

Try dragging between them. I’ve had the same issue with multiple situations across the suite. It’s a memory-linkage\process-linkage issue that seems to have arisen from system updates that were supposed to be a protection mechanism similar to sandboxing. Dragging between them associates the readers of the xml once instead of creating a new instance of it.

Think of it this way to see the problem:
—Program A is Running Reader A1, Sends to Program B which runs Reader A2 (both are the same reader program, just different instances of it in the system memory)
—Program B also runs Reader B1 attached to Reader A2, and sends data back along Reader A2, Program A opens reader B2 attached to Reader A1
—A1 cannot access the memory of A2, though they should be the same data, and B1 cannot access B2 though they are the same data, so the linkage is broken, and Program A will typically freeze or crash.

The fix is simple. Drag the pieces to the windows, which will associate the windows to each other, and allow access to the same memory instances. IE Program A and Program B will both Access A1 and B1 xml memory readers and the same clips\locations.

[Ht Davis]

Yes actually. Premiere sees each clip in a timeline referring to a file. You can dupe a clip in a timeline without dupeing the file. The downside is that you’ll have to create subclips from your source to go right to them later if you want a visual indicator of where a subclip lies. However, hovering over your clip in the timeline will give you some specifics (as well as right click and properties option) that you can use to create a subclip and replace the clip in the timeline with it.

There are several ways to create subclips:
1. Place clips in their own sequence, then dupe this and make subclips by marking in and out.
2. Right click the clip, and make a subclip, and use the source panel to mark the in out.
3. Using the source panel, mark the clip and make subclips (they will show up in the panel).

With method 2 and three, you will find that the indicator shows as in\out marks in the source panel, while method one puts it all into a sequence panel.

To replace the clip in the timeline so you have your indicator, select the subclip in the project panel. Then go to the timeline and right click the clip you want to replace\refer; select replace with clip from bin. You will now have that clip refer to the subclip, which will have an indicator of where the subclip lies; use the source monitor to view it.

[Ht Davis]

23.98? Final cut is rounding the frame rate up? Not a good sign when your professional NLE shows non-professional numbers… But I guess that’s the simplistic Apple way.

Have you tried other players? VLC for instance. IF it also shows the same timecodes, then you know there’s some math problems here. Check your output coding. Make sure you are set for the right frame rate, otherwise it will calculate a new one for you. On top of that, apple is notorious for trying to correct the world… …It may be that the program is trying to avoid clipping that last frame during playback, so it slides in a little padding. Check your configs and preferences.
Does the video end at the wrong timecode in QT (ie the last frame plays at a different timecode in qt than in final cut)? IF that is indeed the case, that would imply that there is either some retiming going on or FCP isn’t displaying the correct timecode. I would suspect the 23.98 value to be the culprit. Timing that in a sequence and then outputting that to a 23.976 would give you a longer timecode in your output. Check preferences and see if there’s a way to show the correct timecode (ie look for the settings for timecodes and find the one that rounds them, and turn that off). Other than that, Submit a bug report to apple.
Now you know why FCPX has lost favor with much of the mainstream community.