Have to keep re-rendering sections of audio

Help!

I am working on a project with audio that comes from several sources - dialogue, music, effects, voice over....and I have made volume changes on many of the cuts. I have 20 tracks and my timeline is about 45 minutes (need to do a lot of restructuring, otherwise I'd work in shorter "reels".) I am pretty sure that all the audio has been converted to AIFF's.

The frustrating problem I'm having is that every time I make an edit -- all the more "complex" sections of the timeline become unrendered and I have to keep re-rendering the same sections of audio over and over....I think that's one of the definitions of insanity!!

What am I doing wrong? Is there a way to remedy this?

Thanks
Sherril

How many real time tracks are enabled in your user settings? More than what you are using?

Hi Tim - will be back in front of my system on Monday morning - will check real time tracks enabled then....is it a problem to have MORE enabled?
Thanks

> I am pretty sure that all the audio has been converted to AIFF's.

Ah. Something tells me you were mixing sample rates. Make sure they were all converted to 48khz.



www.strypesinpost.com

That or some MP3s are hiding in the mix- that always means render. Remove...

Noah

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Thanks everyone -- finally got a chance to get back to the question at hand!

Tim - I had 8 real time tracks enabled -- should I have the 21 I am actually working with?

Strypes - So far I haven't come across anything that's not 48khz -- but if I do - what's the best way to convert once it's already cut and being used in the timeline?

Noah - don't think I have MP3's but I will go fishing for them in case -- when you say "remove MP3's" - do you mean export them out and convert to AIFF's?? - again - if it's already in cut and I do that - would I have to recut them into the timeline or will FCP recognize them?

Do you really need 21 lines of audio? I think you'll find that if you do some reduction, you will get a lot better performance out of your timeline. Each extra line of audio you add increases the pressure on the system, even if it's almost empty.

This is from the FCP 6 manual

Calculating the Number of Tracks That Can Be Played Back in Real Time

The number of tracks Final Cut Pro attempts to mix in real time is determined by the Real-time Audio Mixing setting in the General tab of the User Preferences window. The number of tracks you can play back in real time is largely dependent upon your hardware, so performance will vary from system to system. Increasing the number of tracks in this field doesn?t mean they?ll all play.

Important: If the number of tracks is set too high, you may have dropped frames during playback.

To determine the number of tracks your system can play back in real time:

1 Add a video clip with a typical data rate for your working environment to your sequence.
2 Add 16 or more audio clips at the same point in time as your video clip.
3 Choose Final Cut Pro > User Preferences, then click the General tab.
4 In the Real-time Audio Mixing field, enter the number of tracks in the sequence.
5 Make sure the ?Report dropped frames during playback? checkbox is selected.
6 Click OK.
7 Play back the sequence.

If your system cannot perform real-time playback of the number of tracks in the sequence, you see a ?dropped frames? message.

8 If you have dropped frames, reduce the number of tracks in the sequence and play it back again. Repeat this step until the sequence plays without dropped frames.
9 Set the number of tracks for the Real-time Audio Mixing option in the General tab of the User Preferences window to the number that played back without dropped frames.

Thanks for all the good responses -- this forum is fabulous!

For most of the film - I don't use 21 tracks - though there are a few scenes that involve dialogue, effects, music and voice over and because I like to keep my tracks organized with discreet tracks designated for each -- it necessitates having a lot of tracks....and in some cases - 21 of them!!

So far changing the number of real time playback seems to be working well - no dropped frames and no constant re-rendering. I'm holding thumbs that this continues to work - it's changed my life!!
I can't believe I waited this long to ask the question......

- Sherril