[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Colin!

Thanks very much for your help! This is definitely a case where the manual didn’t help – I never would have thought to go anywhere other than Log and Capture. Tools/Voice Over would never have came to mind.

I defintely like the STP version, although I would have a lot of experimenting to do in order to edit in that program. I followed your instructions and did tests in both programs – thanks!

One question that comes to mind is that, in yesterday’s case, I was recording a left and right channel. The left carried the moderator from a wireless mic and the right carried a mix of three PZM mics spread throughout the room to handle the 120-member audience questions. It looks like Tools/Voice Over in FCP would only have captured one of the channels. Is there a way to get that to record both of the channels (I tried both the built-in mic, which would work great for voice overs, and the built-in input for the stereo mini-jack but it only recorded to Channel 2). I didn’t really get that far in STP.

Thanks again!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Bret, Ryan and Zak,

Thanks for the help! I did get a quote from Disc Makers, too, which looks good but it is the highest price at the same time.

Zak, I’d consider putting this together in SoundTrack Pro but I’ve got tons of editing to get rid of “um”s, “ah”s, coughs (the presenter had a cold, too), long pauses, double-start and etc. I’m so used to editing in FCP that I didn’t even consider STP. Would STP be even better for audio edtiing than FCP? I’ve really only used STP for normalizing levels, but I’ve even abandond that since learning more about the compressor/limiter filter within FCP.

Thanks again!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

…unless you were referring to a duplication system that does both DVDs and CDs. Then, any referrals that does both would be greatly appreciated!

For this job, though, regarding my FCP editing question, the 4.5 hours will be on four audio-only CDs.

Thanks again,
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Bret,

No, not DVDs but audio-only CDs.

Thanks,
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi,

Unless I’m missing something, instead of exporting to QT, couldn’t you just export the audio to .AIFF and then either use Toast or iTunes to burn the CD? There might be a benefit to exporting to an audio-only QT movie that I’m not getting, though. The benefit of .AIFF is that Toast wouldn’t have to go through the extra few-second/extra file creation process in order to set it up to burn it – Toast can just start burning. iTunes would have to go through that process even with an .AIFF to get it into its library so that it can burn it.

So, unless I’m missing something in your question, if it’s audio-only, I’d export to .AIFF instead of QT in that case.
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Chris and Thax,

Chris, the audio in this case is coming in straight off of the SuperDrive.

Thax, the audio waveforms are drawn right to the top of the clip very thickly. In this case, it is a store bought CD but I have had a few other CDs distort as well. The audio monitor has a little bit of play on the high end but 80%-plus of the bottom of the meter is solid.

I have noticed, though, that Bugsy’s suggestion of bringing the level down to -12 does help quite a bit although it’s still sounds somewhat distorted. I’m riding the levels at around -12 anyway, which is the magic number for FCP anyway.

Thanks for your help, everyone!

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Thax,

Thanks again for your help with this, but I went through the entire process that you outlined via iTunes and I’m still getting distored audio. The waveforms are just as high as they are when I take the audio file straight in from a copy from the CD. I would doubt that the CD was recorded so hot, so I’m not sure where the problem would be.

I also tried to do this via a QuickTime Export but the audio actually sounded even more distorted.

Bugsy’s suggestion of bringing the level down to -12 appears to help somewhat, however the waveform lines remain topped out.

Thanks again for your help – perhaps I’m just missing something.
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi Thax,

Thanks for your help on this!

Basically, I copied the .aiff file from the CD to the Mac hard drive. I then went to “Import” in the bin to bring the audio into the project. When I put the audio on the timeline, I can see the waveforms pretty much topped out and then some. When I play it, the meters at 0 play back the audio topping out at zero and it sounds distorted, even if I pull it down to -6.

I just looked into what you said about “re-sample to 48khz for editing to the timeline” in the manual but it only got me as far as the “Render” menu. Would you mind walking me through how to do this? I do have green render lines on the CD clip itself (not at the top of the timeline). So, from what I’ve learned so far, I do have to render it for editing but I can’t figure out how to exactly do it.

Thanks again and in advance for your help!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Thanks, Jeremy!

I found the Sonnet SATA PCIE 34 Card for $110 delivered just before 1/1 and I just checked now and it’s still the same cost.

Do you know if Sonnet makes a FW800 Card as well? I couldn’t find one online, but I did find a SIIG FW800 PCIE 34 Card for $80 delivered.

It looks like I’ll be editing at an event in ‘Vegas with the new MBP from 1/23 through 1/26, so I might end up buying the Sonnet SATA next week. That’s provided the backordered SATA II drive, expected to be in around 1/15, gets delivered on time. I might have to buy both 34 cards just to be safe if I end up bringing my 500gb FW800 external drive instead.

You’re right – even if Steve Jobs rolls out a new MBP on Monday, this is still an awesome machine! The only thing that I wish it had was a larger HD or even a same sized 7200rpm one. I ended up going with option of the 160gb 5400rpm drive. If he rolls out a 250gb 7200rpm MBP on Monday, it’s return time!

Also, Jeremy, did you go with Matte or Glossy? In retrospect, did you pick the right one?

Thanks again for your help!
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671

[Pat Defilippo]

Hi all,

I’m the guy who responded fourth in this chain, the one who is expecting my new Matte screen 17″ MacBook Pro to be delivered on Monday, January 8th. I’m also the same guy hoping that Steve Jobs doesn’t roll out a new MacBook Pro at MacWorld on that same day because then I might have to return the one I expecting! (You might think that I should have waited, but I had to make the equipment expenditure before 12/31 so that I could deduct it from my ’06 taxes – so, I waited until 12/30 to buy it so that I can still return it on January 8th if necessary).

This question is for Jeremy. I did order one of those two-disk SATA drives that you were referring to – a 1TB SATA II with a PCI-E card (which I can use in my Quad). I know I’d need to get a SATA II Express 34 card (about $100) to used the drive with the MBP, but I was wondering what your experience was with FW800 on a MBP when the FW400 is tied up?

I have an AJA Io LA box (like you also referred to) and would have the FW400 port on the MBP used up on this for an analog deck and monitor. I read one other post that said that if I use this with the FW800 port with an external hard drive simultaneously, FCP will hickup during capture because both the FW400 AND FW800 go to the same MBP bus. This makes it necessary to get a FW800 Express 34 card (about $80) so that both FW drives are not hooked up to the same MBP bus at the same time.

Jeremy (or anyone), in your experience editing with the MBP, do you find this to be true? If I’m using both a FW800 external hard drive AND the FW400 AJA Io LA, do I also need to buy the FW800 Express 34 card or will it actually work without it?

Thanks in advance for your help with this,
-Pat

G5 Quad 2.5 Desktop with 4GB Ram, 500GB HD & Fiber Card ~
30″ Cinema Display & 17″ Sony SVGA ~
Swift Data 200 Internal 1.6TB SATA II RAID 0 ~
AJA Io LA ~
Final Cut Studio ~
Sony UVW-1800 Beta-SP ~~~

P D Post Productions, Inc. ~
TV~DVD~VHS~CD~WEB
for Corporate Communications, Commercials, Infomercials, Television Programs, Family Occasions since 1983 ~
E-mail PD@PDPost.com ~
Website http://www.PDPost.com ~
Business/Cell Phone (847) 275-5671