Warren Eig
6
COW Coins
Forum Replies Created
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Is this a USB Midi controller? With the AlphaTrack and the Mackie Pro Control MCU the Audio Mixer window has to be open in FCP for it to see it. You also have to set up control interfaces in the tool menu.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
[Jeremy Garchow] “Interlaced clips work in progressive timelines for you without changing the field dominance of the actual clip? Do 24p clips in 29.97 timelines render out as anything but 2:2:2:4 pulldown? And you can get virtual clusters to work on multi-pass VBR material? If you have the answers to these questions, please let me know. I will be happy to update the article if you can tell me how you have managed to get it all up and running.
“Jeremy,
I just did a project that was NTSC 23.98. It wasn’t 24p Advanced, which is what you are having the problem with? I created all titles and graphics in After Effects and they imported fine in the timeline. Could this be the way AE creates the 29.97 files? The footage was digitized at ADS in Los Angeles and brought to me on a Hard Drive. I believe they use the Kona card as I do.
As for Compressor and Multi Cluster. I have the setting set to 4, not 8 I believe and do not have any problems so far. I have to clarify, that this is a production machine only. There is no MS Office installed or any other plugins or software other than Adobe Creative Suite and FCS 2.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
I just read Jeremy’s report and I don’t have any of these issues with FCP 6.0.2 and OS X 10.4.11 on an 8 core machine.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
I had the same problem.
The stock ATI Radeon 9600 that came with the Mirrored Door won’t even let you launch Final Cut. It just crashes. You need a more powerful card. After some help with upper level Apple tech support, we discovered that their minimum system requirements on their website was incorrect. I eventually found a ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Mac edition card with 256 Mb of VRAM on eBay and it all worked.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
Cyberduck is free and so is FileZilla.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
Walter,
You’ll find the Red quite amazing. I got a chance to play around with one #68 to be exact and all I have to say is… I want one. 7 minutes of 4K on an 8 Gig compact flash!
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
[Dave Hardy] “Have you been able to program the missing F9 to F12 keys & Shift X & Shift V into the 40 programable functions? F9 to F 12 are one button on the keyboard would be 2 buttons on the AlphaTrack. Probably better to use the keyboard for those.
“The AlphaTrack’s control software lets use use a modifier key (option, CMD, Shift and a button as one button, or option + (whatever Button) as one programable button, or your example of Shift + X.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
The Shuttling works as advertised. With the Contour Shuttle you never knew what would happen when you turned the wheel. The AlphaTrack works smoothly and accurately. Having used Sony RM-440 boards and KEMS and Steenbecks it is a little different using just your fingers but you get used to it very quickly.
I think transport controls not working may have been a Tascam thing.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
[Andy Mees] “if you’ve time to post a personal reviews / your impressions of working with the AlphaTrack, specifically in FCP, I’m sure many here on the FCP COW forum would be interested to read it. how do you find the “unique touch-sensitive jog/shuttle strip”, what works well in this unit and what doesn’t, how has it improved productivity for you? “
Okay, here goes. First the disclaimer: I have nothing to do with the company Frontier Designs except use their product the AlphaTrack.
I started looking for a better solution to jogging and shuttling through my timeline while editing due to my frustration with the Contour Shuttle Pro. I could never get it to work and mine’s up for sale if anyone is interested 😉 I started editing on film on a Steenbeck back in Boston and liked the shuttling ability of the flatbed and wanted to mimic that.
What I like about the AlphaTrack is it just works. Bare in mind that it is a midi device so you have to leave the Audio mixer window open for the system to recognize it. And it has a motorized fader which is really cool. It moves up and down relative to your track volume. Because there is only one fader it only reads one track at a time- but you can set it to which track you want to monitor by turning one of the knobs; and in record mode, you can automatically ride the fader and FCP will put the appropriate level nodes in the audio track one the fly in realtime.
The AlphaTrack’s screen displays various information- what audio track is activated, and it gives a constant readout of the timeline’s Time Code. This is a big plus because the numbers are large and illuminated and it is easy to read in subdued or regular lighting. It also changes values if you use the panning knob to pan a track or dB if you increase volume.
The best thing I like about the AlphaTrack is the jog/shuttle strip. It just works. if you drag one finger on the strip it jogs the timeline one frame at a time. If you use two fingers on the strip it shuttles. The further you drag two fingers the faster it shuttles.
You can also program 40 buttons on the AlphaTrack. There are 8 sets in five groups (equaling 40 programable buttons). Plus it has a rewind, fast-forward, Stop, Start button that do what they are marked to do and a record button that does nothing in FCP but works in Soundtrack Pro (this uses the Mackie MCU emulation midi driver after all).
I have my buttons set to mark in (a button is labeled IN), mark out (a button is labeled OUT) clear mark in/ clear mark out, etc.– you can program them virtually any way FCP will let you assign keys in the keyboard layout. This is after all an input device.
I find that I don’t have to mouse or use the keyboard as much. I can do a lot of editing with just the AlphaTrack. Of course your mileage will vary depending how you program it.
Their support is excellent and friendly– reminiscent of AJA. I even asked them to look into getting an SDK for Color because I can see this working as as mini controller for color correction, and because they want to expand their market they are doing just that.
By the way, if you look at the Tascam FireOne, you’ll notice Frontier’s logo on it so I don’t know if they build it for Tascam or vice versa.
But for around $200.00, I got mine from Sweetwater.com another great company to deal with, you can’t go wrong.
One last thing, there is a 1/4″ jack that allows you to add a foot switch that will let you start and stop your timeline with, well, your foot.
Feel free to hit me up with more questions. As a whole I really like the AlphaTrack.
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp -
I’ve been using the Frontier Designs AlphaTrack with Final Cut. Also works in Logic, Soundtrack Pro, etal.
https://www.frontierdesign.com/
Warren
Warren Eig
O 310-470-0905
C 310-560-6245email: warren@babyboompictures.com
website: https://www.babyboompictures.comhttps://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/knitwits
https://www.atomfilms.com/film/family_xmas.jsp
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