[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

To get you started for Final Cut Pro.

First, the basics:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_ps.html

Create an Alpha Channel in Photoshop:

In this example:
A logo sits on a red background.
Make an alpha channel so the red background won’t show up, just the logo.

“Quick and Dirty” Alpha Channel Tutorial (for this image, anyway).

1. Open unaltered original image in Photoshop.
2. Touch the “Magic wand” tool, set the tolerance to 36.
3. UN-check (do NOT check) “Contiguous”.
4. Touch any part of the red area with the Magic Wand tool.
5. Make sure all of the red area is selected.
6. Select (menu) > Save Selection…
7. Go to Photoshop CHANNELS Window and see if there is now an Alpha Channel in the shape that you want.
8. Then File (menu) “Save As”
9. Choose PICT as the type of file and re-name this file what you want.
Done.

Drop this new PICT file into FCP.
Click it into the FCP Viewer window and then:
Modify (menu) > Composite Mode > Normal
Modify (menu) > Alpha Type > Straight
You might need to choose “Reverse Alpha”

Done.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[dantv1] “what is the flicker filter for then?”

All together now…
“It filters out flicker.” 😉

If you make a freeze-frame from moving video and it “flickers” because of too much motion between the two video fields (a FRAME is made up of two FIELDS that actually contain slightly different images),
the Flicker Filter will eliminate this animated motion.
Its adjustable because the more you reduce the “flicker” the “softer” the image can become.

It WILL degrade the quality of the video if applied to your whole video track, as the resolution is reduced.

Some people are of the opinion that simply degrading video quality creates a film look.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Mike Cohen] “It looks like there is a free IDE / ATA port on the ribbon cable, but there is really no where to mount another drive.”

Do you have a Zip Drive and a CDROM installed?
Is there any room ABOVE the CD drive?

I put some sticky Velcro on top of my DVD drive in a G4 and mounted another HD there.
You can also remove the Zip drive (who needs them with CD-Burners) and a HD fits nicely there (and it will hook into the power and ribbon that’s now connected to the Zip.)

And if you can find any other area that’s left “free” like under the PCI cards:
If you only have a couple of PCI cards installed and have those in the UPPER slots, there should be ample room to mount a HD in the case right below them.

To add more drives if you don’t have any more “free” ATA ribbon connectors, you can add another PCI card that will handle 2 to 4 more HDs for under $50.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Questions like this are posted very frequently. And many (most?) of the problems are solved by a simple procedure.

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs or freezes.

NOTE:
Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

1. Tell the producer to trust the editor.

2. Move his/her chair behind you.

3. Get an SVGA (monitor) splitter and put another computer monitor (same as yours) on the producer’s desk.
(No need to “blow it up” if the producer can see it the same size as YOU do.)

4. Read #1 again.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Walter Biscardi] “Nope, that’s not it. The audio MUST be recorded from the exact same source it was played from, i.e. the same tape format the concert was recorded on. What’s happening is that the music on the tape plays at a slightly different speed than the the MP3’s so you’ll never get them synced up.

What you can do is play the audio down to tape and then capture the audio off the tape, so long as you’re using the same camera or tape deck that was used at the concert.”

My gosh Walter,
That’s some odd-sounding info, for sure.

Today’s digital audio (MD, DAT, HD recorders, Chip recorders)… all can be synced back to video.

In digital (both audio and video), assuming a stable “clock” (and most are VERY stable), you should have no trouble finding a match-point and then it should stay in sync for a long time.

I’ve even shot with consumer camcorders on shows with audio sourced from A-DAT or computer hard drives, then taken a stereo CD dub of those tracks, converted to up to 48 kHz in iTunes and laid it perfectly in FCP to the video (yes, from the free-running battery-operated home video camcorder) for over 15 minutes straight!
Dead-on and no need to dub to a tape.

There is no reason to suspect that an mp3 will play at a different SPEED than its original digital source.
Again, a stable digital “clock” does not “care” how many “samples” are created per second (X per second), it still plays back at X per second. (The key being per “second”… as the TIME will be the REFERENCE, not the number or type of sample.)

The mp3’s I make are EXACTLY the same length as my original 48 kHz audio tracks.
(How could you ever re-sample (or render) ANY audio and have it match-back to the original, if it was not “frame-accurate” for time?)
The same is true of my small QT movies that I can email to clients.
They are the EXACT same length as my original video edits.
(And the QT conversions I use severely reduce and resample the audio tracks.)

Sorry to ramble on, but in all the years I’ve worked with audio and video, I’ve never had it so EASY to sync various and diverse sources as with the amazing STABILITY of virtually any digital medium.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

It goes without saying (so I’m TYPING IT) that you need to FULLY RENDER everything on this timeline.

And…

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

You can’t set the TC in most “DV” (SP and/or LP) camcorders.
(One noteable exception is the JVC GY-DV500.)
Most of them always default to 00:00:00 when they detect a “blank” tape.

You generally need a camcorder or deck with “DVCAM” speed to get TC setting features.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[aiden] “I ran into a problem with sound dropping out after Transitions, due to nesting sequences.”

There is a function in FCP that is often overlooked… and it can help with many audio and video “skipping”, “sticking” and “missing” problems.

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[Jameel] “forgot to add that the audio was imported in mono”

If there is a further QUESTION in there, you’re going to have to be more specific.

Is the “mono” capture somehow a problem for you?