referencing music clips to proper media

I inadvertently cut a sequence to music not realizing the media was being drawn from a CD (created for the purpose of AIFF conversion), and not my hard drive. Even though I've since loaded those files into an I-Tunes folder, FCP cannot find a path to them; hence, I still can't remove the disc without my media going offline.

Is there a way to redirect the existing clips to the music files that now live on the media drive, or must I now re-import (and re-edit!) all the music for my sequence?

Reconnect Media- remember they must be legally usable. If they are .m4p songs from the iTunes Music store it isn't going to work. AIF is best.

-Noah

Final Cut Studio Training, featuring the HVX200, EX1, EX3, DVX100, DVDSP and Color at [www.callboxlive.com]!
Author, RED: The Ultimate Guide to Using the Revolutionary Camera available now at: [www.amazon.com].
Editors Store- Gifts and Gear for Editors: [www.editorsstore.com]

> If they are .m4p songs from the iTunes Music store it isn't going to work.

He already said he had imported them from a CD, so that's not likely, unless it's a data CD.

Since music files aren't timecoded, it's not a sure thing that your editing clips (which connect to the CD) will reconnect to AIFF files created using those same CD tracks.

I'd do this.

1. First, backup your project file and date/time-stamp the backup copy. That way if the reconnection goes wonky, you can go back.

2. Second, try the Media Reconnect. Do not save the project file until you've ascertained that the reconnection went correctly -- ie. your music is still where it's supposed to be in the edit. If this is the case, you're done.

3. However, if the music has been jumbled after media reconnect, don't save your project file. Close it out and re-open it. Because even when a clip is offline (no media file found), your edits are intact with the timecode information. While neither CD tracks nor AIFF files have real timecode, they will both start at 00:00:00:00 and will probably have identical "dummy" timecode. You can use that to recut the new AIFF files by matching the timecodes on the In and Out points -- basically a manual conform. This would go faster if you turn on the Canvas Timecode Overlays, or you could just stick the CD back in temporarily and conform the AIFF file's edits with the CD track's edits.


www.derekmok.com

Many thanks for the detailed walk-through.

Just for the record, these are royalty-free cuts that I paid for, the terms of which grant me unlimited use.

Davko,

Maybe you can try my xmlReconnect - it's free. But it works with missing folders only. So if you got a folder with the tunes from the CD it's easy.
[www.spherico.com]

Here the steps to do:
While files are online export an XML from your project.
Close but don't save the project - to have a backup.
Remove the CD.
Open the XML with xmlReconnect.
The app will show the missing folders.
Just apply the path you need to each of them - maybe in your case the music folder.
Save the XML.
Open it with FCP.

A note to Derek's suggestion. It's a good suggestion. The thing you should be aware is that FCP not really does work with timecode, it works with frames. Internally both timecode and frames are stored for a file entry. Frames are always above timecode. In case those 2 (ore more - like with aux TC) entries don't match for the file the file may go offline. In this case it's a good idea to export an XML and remove all "timecode/string" entries.

Andreas

Some workflow tools for FCP [www.spherico.com]
TitleExchange -- juggle titles within FCS, FCPX and many other apps.
[www.spherico.com]