Exporting 4 Audio tracks

Hello,

I have an audio output question. Running FCP 4.5 on a Mac G5.

My online person?who will output my film to digibeta?suggests I bring it in as a quicktime file (exported from FCP, not using conversion) but with 4 audio tracks: LTRT on Channels 1-2; M&E on 3-4.

Typically whenever I?ve exported to quicktime, all tracks are merged into two tracks (stereo). He talke me through steps of going to the sequence settings, then Audio Outputs, and selecting 4 tracks (two stereo pairs). Then I?d right-click on each track near the lock button and assign each track either 1-2 or 3-4.

He said I could export then as a Quicktime and test by playing in Quicktime and noting the 4 audio tracks. Well?I only found two. And when I pasted that exported quicktime file into a timeline?I only found two.

Now, after changing the settings in the Sequence Setting- Audio Outputs to 4 tracks (two stereo pairs) the following box came up: ?The current audio device does not support the number of outputs selected in the Sequence Settings Audio Outputs tab. Unsupported outputs will not be heard during playback on this machine unless downmixed to stereo.?

This make me wonder what ?current audio device? are they referring to? I do note that in the Audio/Video Settings sectiong the Audio Playback is set to ?Built-in Audio? the other options (Fire DV and Firewire DV (DV50)) are greyed out.

Any thoughts on how to export with the 4 audio tracks intact?

Thanks in advance
DK

Dale,
Don't worry too much about that warning, it's only telling you that your audio device, your computer's built in sound, doesn't support anything more than stereo output. The key word in the warning is "Playback". You can't playback anything more that 2 discreet channels out of your computer without a multichannel audio interface.
But you CAN render out more than 2 channels.

I just did a test of this. I clicked OK on "downmix to stereo" in the warning and went through and assigned Ch1 and Ch2 to 1&2 and Ch3 and Ch4 to 3&4. Exporting without conversion I get a QT that shows up as 2 stereo pairs when imported back into FCP.

Reading your post again I see you're on 4.5. I can't confirm whether 4.5 could do this but if you are able to assign the channels in the timeline you should be able to export them.

Start by checking your sequence settings to see if your output setting is still set to 4 channels @ 2x Stereo pair. Then go through all the steps your audio person gave you.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

I'lll give this a shot. I assume this practice won't mess with the LTRT encoding of the 1-2 tracks?

dk

Well, tried it again...setting seem to be right...4 channels, 2 stereo pairs...but the quicktime file just has the two little audio meters in the lower right corner, and when I paste the file into a final cut timeline it just has one stereo pair. Doesn't checking the "downmix all outputs to stereo (toggle in audio mixer)" box mean the 4 channels will be merged into two?

DK

QuickTime Player doesn't show the number of tracks on the meters. You will need to check another way:

Open the file into QuickTime Player and choose Window > Show Movie Properties. How many sound tracks are listed? Click on a sound track and select the Audio Settings tab. How many channels are listed?

Martin Baker
[www.digital-heaven.co.uk]
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