[Simon Billington]

I do a lot of these manually myself because, more often than not, I’m doing some kind of J or L cut with the audio.

[Simon Billington]

I think you’re missing my point here. I was speaking of a hypothetical situation, that can exist from time to time, but more often than not, it doesn’t for various reasons like you described.

The example was IF youre whole timeline existed in cache as ProRes 422 and you did output as 422, in theory it should just export straight out in a few seconds.

I live in the real world too, and I know it’s an unlikely situation, but it can happen.

[Simon Billington]

Oh yeah. of course it rerenders only sections in the timeline and is quite efficient at it. I was referring to rendering on output.

However, I do maintain the original point… if your project is, say set at ProRes 422, by the time you’ve done with it you already have a rendered version somewhere in cache. In theory to output at 422 there is almost nothing for FCPX to do, in theory, so output should only take a few seconds, no matter the length.

Contrary to my earlier point on closer inspection, I actually realise this is pretty much what it does do. I’m not entirely sure it has always done this though. I seem to recall different behaviour in the past. The fact that it does do “through” style rendering is enough. That’s the most intelligent thing to do in this situation.

[Simon Billington]

Of course there are ways to manually sync audio to video, even without the slate. The trouble is it’s only really feasible as long as you have a relatively small ingest. If you have LOTS of clips that need syncing, that it would be nightmarish to do it by hand.

There are third party solutions also available, such as Plural Eyes, if you have the budget for such an indulgence.

[Simon Billington]

Good point.

Another thing to look at is whether you inadvertently set your keyframe response characteristics to “Hold”?? Right Click on the keyframes to see what it says

[Simon Billington]

In a way there seems to be some redundancy to how FCPX renders versus what it exports, especially if its in the same format. I’m not sure as into what’s going on as I’m not on the development team, but my guess is it’s one of three things…

1. Since ProRes is a form of compression, even if it’s lossless, it may involve quite bit of decoding and re-encoding just to update a specific change. It may have a negative impact on the performance. So FCPX just renders the file fully instead

2. Final Curt was designed to work largely with proxies and different media formats in a relatively transparent way. Because it is possible to work with footage in format and render out in another, it may not have been a thought for the developers to allow a “through” method when editors are outputting the same method they are editing in… I certainly wish the did though!!

3. It may actually be possible to achieve more effecting rendering when outputting in the same format as you edit, but the devs either never thought of implementing it, or maybe its just not high enough on their list of priorities.

It’s always worthwhile leaving them some feedback if you wish for this type of feature. They do read them. I actually got a response from a dev a few weeks back concerning a hideous bug i uncovered with Logic. The fact that anyone responds, is a rarity though, especially if you are just requesting a feature.

[Simon Billington]

Yeah it will work fine. Although, if your idea is to put the system on the other partition, there’s some debate as in to how advantageous that would be.

Typically, I think the debate is regarding platter based hard drives, so if you are looking into doing it on an SSD the argument is probably a moot point.

[Simon Billington]

You’ll be surprised how the ambient noise of your environment sneaks up on you. We become accustomed to it and our brain tends to tune these things out, until a certain point. Too much noise is hard to ignore and can really fatigue the listener.

In your case, its most likely an accumulation of noise. Your CPU fan, any external patter-based hard disks, mic self noise, pre-amp noise, the outside leaking in, the fridge humming from all the way in the kitchen. There are some tools you can use after the fact, like Waves Restoration tools or iZotope RX, which can help. Although nothing does a better job like good isolation in the first place.

I’m just not sure if an NT1-A will help you out in this case. It’s a cardio pick up pattern so that helps to eject some of the surrounding audio. You could try checking out hyper-cardioid designs or shotguns, they will tighten the focus even further, but the trade off is it will pick up more noise from the rear than a standard cardioid. This where auditioning the mics will be extremely important. Perhaps hiring a few mics over time so you can see how effective they are in your given situation before you buy. Also position your mic as close as feasible to the source if you are combatting noise.

Ideally you will want to sound proof the environment if possible. Failing that just sound proof the immediate environment which you want to record in. Turn everything non-essential off. If the fridge is a factor, turn that off, but leave yourself a reminder to turn it back on!! See if you can throttle down your computer fan. There are reflection filters you can attach to the mic stand, that can help to some degree. Surround the mic with thick blankets can help further. Just be careful not to suffocate the sound too much though as that can also be problematic.

If you were doing dialogue I could suggest looking into something like this.
https://ask.audio/articles/review-isovox-2-portable-isolation-recording-booth?mc_cid=3fa938d1d1&mc_eid=589ff466ac

…Perhaps you could even some roadworks signs so you can divert outside traffic for a cleaner recording!! Haha!!

[Simon Billington]

Haha!! Too Funny.!!

Probably really annoying for him though.

[Simon Billington]

I’m not entirely clear of what you are after. However, you can use level automation on the timeline editor to bring sounds in and out.

Adversely, if you are talking about having a more polished dialogue sound that stands out against the music then this can get a bit more detailed and take a bit more practice.

However, you can use a limiter to reduce some of the loudest peaks of the dialogue which will enable you to turn it up a bit more and you could use a compressor to level out the overall signal. This will again allow you to bring up the audio even more and it will add energy to the track if set properly.

Audition has a Dynamics plugin for this, see if you can find a setting that will get you close, then adjust any ‘threshold” parameters, to customise it for your use. Too much and your voice will sounds squashed and lifeless, so use in moderation

An eq bump around 120-200hz can help with more bass. Too much of this, though, will make it sound too boomy. Some presence between 900Hz-2kHz can help push the voice forward, but too much will make it sound too nasally. To brighten up thew voice try around 5-8kHz. Cbe careful here too, because too much will make their voice harsh or sibilant where the S’s and consonant sounds jump out too much.