[Mckee Smith]

These pops appear in the mix down files that are AIF files that are created by Final Cut. I’m not using any MP3s. Occasionally I have a request for WAV files to be exported from Final Cut and these files have the random pops in them as well. But, I don’t use WAV or MP3s in projects.

I use Automatic Duck to export my projects into AAF format, usually an AAF project linked to AIF files. ProTools likes this format. Since I often have 50 minute programs with 10 audio channels these are too big to use the OMF format to export because OMF has a 2 gig file limit.

McKee Smith

[Mckee Smith]

Its not a monitoring problem – they pops are really there as you can see them in the waveform. And yes we set output levels to peaks of -10.

When I capture from HDCamSR or digibeta, the captured files are fine. We often get tapes with 10 channels of audio on the HDCamSRs and I go ahead and capture all 10 tracks so our ProTools editors aren’t duplicating my capture efforts.

The pops are at 0 or above and last less than a frame. They only appear when exporting AAFs or AIF or WAV or mixdown files from Final Cut. We have tried exporting to our main SCSI drives and to other internal drives in the Mac with the same problem. The pop are random – if I do an export three times, there will be different numbers of pops in different locations each time.

Almost everything we do has at least 4 channels of final audio – mix plus an M&E track. Things which go to HDCamSR tend to have 10 tracks so they can be re-mixed later if ever needed.

Our ProTools people are spending a lot of time trying to fix the pops in AAF files they get from me. My output tapes are failing QA backs there are these random pops in the sound tracks. The pops on the output are NEVER on the actual timeline but only in the mixdown files. We do a mix down of everything before we go to tape because Aja said to.

Any suggestions for fixing the problem would be greatly appreciated.

McKee Smith

[Mckee Smith]

I’m actually having a very similar problem. However I’m using a MacPro with the Dual/Dual processors. I just upgraded to a Kona 3 from a Blackmagic card.

I’m mostly working in SD and capture everything in ProRez HQ. All of the media is a on Medea SCSI 1.5T array. I at first thought the problem was pasting sequences into sequences, but copying the footage in doesn’t fix the dropped frame problem.

I render everything and since everything I do requires M&E tracks, I always do an audio mix down. Just to be extra safe, before rendering the mixdown, I reset the system for just 4 channels of live mixing. I also disable the sharing, close all other programs, close all other sequences. As I type I’ve had a sequence stop for dropped frames now five times in the first 38 minutes. I also just got a message suggesting turning off the mirror to desktop which I’m going to try next.

Any suggestions would be welcome!

McKee Smith
Senior Editor, HIT Entertainent