Matt Lyon
Forum Replies Created
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Hi Richard,
Did you confirm that the audio TC burn in matches the clip’s timecode within Final Cut? Turn on the overlays in the canvas and select “show timecode overlays.” If the overlay doesn’t match the burn-in, then the problem is within the timecode track of the media, not in the cinema tools export itself.
You can also try exporting a “regular” EDL, with just you audio tracks. FWIW, whenever I have to deliver an audio EDL to a post house, I send plain ol’ CMX 3600 EDLs, one for each group of four audio tracks (four being the most you can put in a single EDL). I remove all video clips before doing the export(s). You might want to try this approach over the cinema tools route.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
you can export a DV AVI directly from FCP. Select “File>export>using quicktime conversion…” Then select format “AVI.” Then you can select DV in the options dialog box. I’ve used this in the past to deliver reference movies to PC based audio facilities and they’ve worked fine. I can’t say for sure if the quality will be good enough for a “master,” because I’ve only every used this for reference material, so I’d recommend testing a short segment first.
Hope this helps,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Yeah, that must be the difference. I was using “Format: Quicktime Movie” and “item settings” …
Have you tried creating a sequence preset that matches your desired output, and then exporting using “Format:Quicktime Movie” then choosing that preset from the settings pulldown menu? Worth a shot….
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Uli, how were you setting up your batch export in FCP when it stripped away the timecode? I recently batch exported a bunch of footage from within FCP and was pleasantly surprised to find that it had preserved the TC and Reel names. But I was simply exporting subclips (no filters, no resizing, etc), so maybe that’s the difference.
Were you exporting footage via a timeline, or were you applying the filter to clips in a bin and then batching the files from there?
You can also re-associate timecode with the new clips via the FCP menus: MODIFY>TIMECODE…
Depending on how many clips you have, this may be faster then the alternatives.Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
In addition to Mark’s advice, I would suggest creating a folder on the SAN for templates and presets. Create template project(s) that editors can use as a starting point (then they have no excuse not to use it). Also create standard “easy setups” or sequence and capture presets that each editor can load on their system. I like to put an underscore character in front of these names so they sort to the top of the presets list for easy access.
Also a big issue I’ve seen in the past in multiple login configuration is when editors save things into their home directories. Any one else logging in to the system as a different user will not be able to access these files. Especially frustrating late at night if you need to hunt down an autosave file that is buried in someone’s home directory. I suggest everyone sets their FCP station to use the “/Users/Shared/” folder for autosaves, thumbnail and waveform caches. You can also make a subfolder in here for project files. Others may disagree, but I always was taught to keep project files on a local drive, separate from the media. At the end of the day, editors can backup the project file to a folder on the SAN (and to a keychain USB drive).
In the past, when I’ve used a SAN, we set each workstation to save render files locally. This was because we were maxing out its bandwidth and wanted to take some load off the SAN’s I/O, but this may not be an issue for you. Wherever you save your renders, give some thought to their organization, because it is possible for FCP to generate render files for different projects with identical names. I’ve seen situations where a project tried to load a render file from a different project entirely (if the workstations were looking in the same folder for renders). A good strategy would be to create unique folders for each project or workstation’s renders, either locally or on the SAN. Regardless, render files should be saved in a location that has read/write permissions for all users.
I also have to respectfully disagree with Zane about admin privileges. I think every login needs to be admin. Yes, this is a security issue, but I’ve seen too many situations where FCP had problems because the user didn’t have sufficient access privileges. IIRC, the Apple FCP guys themselves don’t recommend running FCP as a non admin user. But you may decide it’s worth the (potential) risk.
Hope this helps,
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Hi Mike,
I definitely agree with all of Shane’s suggestions. I had a couple other thoughts, since I’ve faced this situation a few times. But I think a lot of the answers depend on your specific situation: Are editor’s sharing projects? Sharing Media? Do you want individual logins or will each machine run in single user mode? Will you be shuttling hard drives around frequently, or using a SAN? How are you ingesting media? Answering these questions will help us give you better answers, but I think will also be helpful exercise for you, since a lot of the solutions to running a smooth multi-user environment has everything to do with setting standards and “best practices” and enforcing them (especially when sharing projects).
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
How was the footage originated? Was it shot on a DV camera? It’s been a while, but I recall early generation consumer DV cameras had issues with audio drift due to some vagaries of the format. Didn’t the first gen XL-1 have issues with creating materials with strange audio sampling rates. At any rate, David Weiss’ advice is probably the surest fix: capture from the same camera that shot the material.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
I also think it’s a good idea to re-tension any tapes you are reusing by fast forwarding and rewinding them all the way.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Sorry Alex, I’m re-reading the thread and realizing I’m probably just overthinking this problem. This is sounds like it is really just an issue of needing to apply pulldown to your audio files. Telecines don’t run at 24.00 fps when they do a standard definition transfer to NTSC, they run at 23.976 — in effect slightly changing the speed of your picture. Simply running the sound recorder at the “correct” TC rate in the field does not compensate for this (and let me just add that my memory is a little hazy at the moment since it’s been a few years since I’ve dealt with this).
If the lab syncs your rushes, they will compensate for this automatically. Since you are doing it yourself, you’ll need to speed adjust the audio files by 0.001 (or 23.976 divided by 24.00). Off the top of my head, I can’t honestly recall whether you need to speed up or slow down the audio (I guess it depends which way it is drifting!)
FCP won’t do this speed change properly, you’ll need to use a decent digital audio editing program.
A bit of googling for “audio pulldown” and similar terms should yield lots of info. Or give Technicolor a call and hopefully they’ll help you out.
Hope this helps!
-MattMatt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
It sounds like it could be an issue with the way the sound files were imported into Final Cut Pro. I’ve had this situation in the past, which may or may not be your issue:
Certain types of media (stills, sound files, etc) that are dragged and dropped into the bin will “inherit” different properties depending on what the default timeline setting happens to be. It could be that you might have had a 29.97 drop frame timeline selected in your Audio video presets, so when the audio files were imported, they were given certain properties. If you then try to put them in a 24.00 fps timeline, FCP might now think that it needs to apply some kind of pulldown to the media … which is actually causing the files to drift out of sync.When you look at the clips you’ve placed in the timeline, do you see a yellow or orange bar running across the top of the audio media? This is an immediate clue that FCP is doing something funny with the audio.
Does any of this sound like it might apply to you? Let me know and I could walk you through fixing it.
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto