[Kyle C.]

Well, just downloaded Audacity and converted it to a 16 bit aiff file…unfortunately, same problem. Unacceptable distortion throughout my video. My audio just gets destroyed when I export it. UGH….I have NO IDEA what I’m gonna do lol, I am supposed to have this turned in by tonight but I don’t think I’ll be able to. Thanks for your help anyways thought I really do appreciate it.

[Kyle C.]

Michael, you very well may have pointed me in the right direction. My audio is all from different sources, so the formats vary a lot.

My most problematic track is 44.1 KHZ and 32 bit (not even an option in my FCP sequence settings!)

Is there a way, in Soundtrack or elsewhere, to take that and convert it to lets say a 24 bit 48 KHZ track? Maybe this would solve my problem?

When you say, “what are you exporting to”, I’m not quite sure what you mean; all I did was push ‘export to quicktime’ using the current settings, which is the Apple ProRes 422 HD codec. Does that codec have audio compression?

[Kyle C.]

Thanks, what specifically would you recommend I do to fix them?

[Kyle C.]

I just tried several things to no avail:

1). tried setting the Field Dominance to ‘none’ and exported a smaller part of my sequence, but unfortunately the results turned out the same. The audio is still just as degraded as before.

2). I realized that the problematic songs in my timeline were 44.1 KHZ (in my timeline I have a combination of 44.1 and 48 KHZ audio), so I tried changing my sequence settings to 44.1 and exporting from there. STILL the same result; any time there’s even a hint of bass, massive distortion.

3). I tried exporting the audio (only the audio) to aiff (my thoughts were I would just seperately export the audio and video and combine them later). This didn’t work, and the audio still sounds terrible.

4). I went back into sequence settings and changing it to 24 bit (didnt know what this would do). Still same result. Just for process of elimination’s sake, I went back into sequence settings and changed the audio configuration from Channel Grouped to Discreet Channels, and still, same result 🙁

The reason my sequence settings are 720p and 29.97 is because I’m using a combination of regular NTSC footage (anomorphic) and 720p footage–the vast majority of it being NTSC. The 29.97 is to match the vast majority of my clips that actually are NTSC, and the 720p is so that my few HD clips didn’t degrade.

Is there any more information that I could give you guys that might help you solve my problem? I appreciate the advice so far. Any new suggestions? Could the fact that i’m using different KHZ of audio in my timeline be the source of my problem?

[Kyle C.]

I just tried several things to no avail:

1). tried setting the Field Dominance to ‘none’ and exported a smaller part of my sequence, but unfortunately the results turned out the same. The audio is still just as degraded as before.

2). I realized that the problematic songs in my timeline were 44.1 KHZ (in my timeline I have a combination of 44.1 and 48 KHZ audio), so I tried changing my sequence settings to 44.1 and exporting from there. STILL the same result; any time there’s even a hint of bass, massive distortion.

3). I tried exporting the audio (only the audio) to aiff (my thoughts were I would just seperately export the audio and video and combine them later). This didn’t work, and the audio still sounds terrible.

4). I went back into sequence settings and changing it to 24 bit (didnt know what this would do). Still same result. Just for process of elimination’s sake, I went back into sequence settings and changed the audio configuration from Channel Grouped to Discreet Channels, and still, same result 🙁

The reason my sequence settings are 720p and 29.97 is because I’m using a combination of regular NTSC footage (anomorphic) and 720p footage–the vast majority of it being NTSC. The 29.97 is to match the vast majority of my clips that actually are NTSC, and the 720p is so that my few HD clips didn’t degrade.

Is there any more information that I could give you guys that might help you solve my problem? I appreciate the advice so far. Any new suggestions? Could the fact that i’m using different KHZ of audio in my timeline be the source of my problem?

[Kyle C.]

Thank you so much!!! I’m looking into buying FX Factory Pro now…i love how it shows you examples of each filter even in FCP!!

[Kyle C.]

OH yeah, forgot to ask…this all being said…is there a way to transfer my project over to the new harddrive?

I’m aware that I can do a simple copy of my old harddrive, but I’m worried that my project will stop working due to the source files being moved to a new harddrive. Is there a way to do this where I can keep all of my old clips and original edits???

[Kyle C.]

Thank you so much yet again for your help! I’m checking out this one….https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/ME8SRS10TB32/

i’m excited to upgrade from my primitive setup!

[Kyle C.]

The clip is 1-Stereo. I checked the master level, it is set fine at 0 decibles (I think that is fine, lol). It’s weird…most of my other clips sound GREAT in the timeline, but this one for some reason is way too quiet when imported.

As far as monitoring via audio/video card or mac, I have no idea. I’m still learning this stuff on my own, so it’s been a pretty slow process. Any more suggestions?

[Kyle C.]

Thank you very much for the helpful advice!

It looks like I need a lot of brushing up with this software…I’ve bought a Lynda.com subscription and I plan to be on it religiously.

I understand your concern about using a 16:9 ratio with my 3:2 NTSC footage, but when I click the ‘anamorphic’ box in FCP, it actually turns out looking pretty good, and I’m okay with the slight stretching (it’s very slight).

Also, I finally found a sequence setting that seems to work great with both my NTSC and HD footage:

(Note that I changed the pixel aspect ratio to ‘square’. I dont even know what this means, but it works the best out of everything so far. The HD quality is not sacrificed at all with this selection).

As far as my end deliverable goes, I haven’t even thought of that and I’m glad you brought it up. I guess I would prefer Blueray quality. This is purely a personal, non-profit project (moreso to use as a resume and to share online)…so I would like the output quality to be as high as is reasonable. I’ve really only created projects in Windows Movie Maker and Imovie so far, so this grand choice of options FCP gives me is quite overwhelming. Judging from my sequence settings that I’ve included in this post, what output deliverable would you recommend?
Again, your help is greatly apprecated. I realize how ignorant I must sound not knowing even the basic fundamentals of this program, but I really am trying to get a grasp on it all! 🙂