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RayLight MXFX will let you change frames rates (and other things) on P2 media, while retaining metadata.

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One way would be to select “Single Field” in the export window. However, that would be ignoring half the resolution of each frame.
You could also do a Video Mixdown of your final sequence, and deinterlace that in Avid, either with the SpeedRamp plugin, or with Avid’s own TimeWarp effect, in which you can choose to have an interlaced source and a progressive destination, with a speed of 100%. In TimeWarp, you may then select Fluid Motion to get a pretty decent deinterlaced end result.

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Just for the record, I doubt you’re in MC 3.1. Probably 3.0.1.

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The OP was referring to the OMFI MediaFiles directory, in which his mediafiles are stored (when the Avid is set to work in OMF).

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Ah, sorry, forgot to mention, those msm files you do NOT want to move, those are the databases you are trying to make the Avid rebuild. If you move those, you are undoing the rebuild. So move all files from the old folder to the new, except for “msmFMID.pmr” and “msmMMOB.mdb” and the subfolder “Creating”.

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If you look in the OMFI MediaFiles folder, how many items are in there? You should try and keep them under 5000. That said, I have often worked with folders of 15000 items.

A nice way to try to get things to run smoothly is:
– At finder level, hide the OMFI MediaFiles folder
– Create a new OMFI MediaFiles folder
– Move some mediafiles (say 100 files) from the old folder into the new one
– Launch Avid, see if it rebuilds the media database and runs fine
– Quit Avid
– At finder level, move some more files from the old folder into the new one
– Launch Avid, see if it rebuilsds the media database and runs fine
– Quit Avid
– etc. Repeat until you have placed all the old files into the new folder, bunch by bunch.

Quitting the application is rather essential, since rebuilding the media database eats RAM, and you will run out of RAM when rebuilding databases for very large directories. Quitting and relaunching ensures you have fresh RAM available for the process.

HTH.

[Job Ter burg]

PT has an Avid Compatibility mode, which places all cuts at frame borders. However, you can’t retain all things added in PT, unless you do destructive renders on everything.

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can I make new folder on that drive and put offline media there, so Avid can not see them?
Yes.

should I put the media back to media tool? or will Avid know that they have not disapiered
You are not actually taking the media out of the Media Tool. You are placing that media into a bin, but the media will remain in the Media Tool. No danger in there.

should I go your way and “make them invisible”
Again, there is no need to take one of the media sets offline. It does allow for easier management when things don’t turn out the way one would expect, and makes for easier relinking. Both methods should work.

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You don’t need to delete your offline footage. Of course you should be able to keep all media available for later cuts.

It makes things a bit easier if you keep your lowres footage out of sight for the online. Meaning that you can rename the Mediafiles folders so the Avid won’t see them anymore. That said, you should be able to work it out without hiding the 10:1 footage.

For now, can you separate the hi-res files from the 10:1 files? If they are on a separate drive, you should be able to take either the 10:1 files or the hi-res files offline, by renaming the mediafolders on the appropriate drives.

If not, here’s what I would do:
1. close all bins but the one containing the hi-res sequence
2. Open the media tool and do a Custom Sift so it displays all media in a specific resolution (hi-res)
3. drag all those mediafiles from the Media Tool into the bin containing the hi-res sequence
4. Select all, and hit relink, choose to “relink to selected”

This should force the sequence to relink to the hi-res media you just selected.

Now, did anything relink?

If not, open the hi-res sequence, and find a shot that is either offline or in 10:1 (you can have the resolution of a clip displayed as clip text in the timeline). Manually search for the hi-res footage of that shot. Is there anything different? Project name, tape name, timecode, anything?

Just a few shots in the dark.

For organisational purposes, you might want to keep a separate drive for the online resolutions, apart from the drives that hold all your 200 tapes at 10:1. It simplifies media management.
If you didn’t do so already, you might even try to manually locate the hi-res media; they were probably captured on a specific day between specific times, find the media at finder level and move it to another drive or partition.

[Job Ter burg]

As Grinner says, if you simply want to place the highest peaks at -14dB, use Normalize. However, that will likely not solve your issue, being that some speakers sound louder than others, and the dynamics are therefore too high.

A limiter is basically a very fast compressor, lowering any levels above a certain level.

The controls you will find in dynamic processors like compressor/limiters are threshold (sets the level at which the effect kicks in), a gain level (a comp/limiter will reduce the maximum levels, but you might want to raise the entire end result in order to have less dynamics, but at a higher level), a ratio parameter (determining how much the levels can be adjusted, 2:1 means half as low, 10:1 means 10 times lower, 20:1 means 20 times lower), an attack parameter (how soon after a peak level is detected, should the effect kick in), and a release parameter (determines how soon after a level correction, the effect should raise levels back to normal).

An overall dynamic compressor for spoken word can have a low threshold (-27 dB e.g.) but a lower ratio (2.5:1), a fast attack, and a slower release, plus a bit of gain, so that overall dynamics are reduced: the softer sounds will be lifted and the louder sounds will be a bit lower.

A limiter is basically a compressor with a narrower setting. It usually kicks in much later (-14dB e.g.), with a very high ratio (20:1 or infinity:1), a very fast attack, and a very quick release, and almost no gain. It will try to only affect peaks, and reduce them indiscriminately, without affecting the overall dynamics. True brickwall limiters can be adjusted to completely and utterly kill any levels above a certain level.

However, first of all the AudioSuite limiter is not a true brickwall limiter (like an L1 or L2 Maximizer are, or outboard gear like Jünger d-series), meaning that the limiter will kick in, but it will not guarantee an absolute maximum level.

Secondly, if your program contains large dynamics (soft speaking voices, loud speaking voices), you can more easily reduce dynamics by using the Compressor rather than the limiter. A limiter having to reduce more than a few dB will often sound harsh and ugly. You can use a compressor and have it kick in earlier, but gentler, creating a nicer sound. Best of both worlds is to use a compressor on your sound, ride the levels and apply a (brickwall) limiter for those last few peaks in the sound.

Furthermore, if you are actually limiting your mix at -14dB full scale, you are giving up quite a bit of headroom in the digital domain. If you are going to deliver for broadcast, you would need to know the specs of the broadcaster, but generally, having peaks at around -10dB full scale should be just fine.