audio output problem (Panasonic HD1700)

I've been working on my first few HD projects over the last two months. This problem has stumped everyone I've spoken to.

I have a 720p60 sequence with 8 channels of audio. When it came time to lay off the first piece to our DVCProHD deck (Panasonic HD1700) I could not get eight audio channels. The deck's audio inputs are set to digital and AES, all channels. I've checked and re-checked my audio settings in FCP (8channels.) The Audio Tool shows eight discreet channels when I play the timeline down. I've checked to make sure my audio is routed properly, 1&2 to 1&2, 3&4 to 3&4, etc... I do not have downmix on. I have the Kona card set to output audio in the Audio/Video Settings.

Here's the wrinkle, when I set up the layoff, put the deck in EE and hit play on the sequence I see all eight channels coming through fine. When I use the Edit to Tape tool I can only get it to lay back four channels of audio?? It doesn't even give me the option of arming channels 5-8?? Another little wrinkle, I'm uprezing the sequence to 1080i on the fly with the Kona card. One of the engineers I've talked to seems to think that's part of the problem. I think he may be right. I edited an outside project of my own on this same computer before the present project came my way. Everything was shot on a P2 camera in DVCProHD and I used the 1080i DVCProHD Easy Setup in FCP for all of my presets. Layed the final sequence off to the exact same deck with all eight audio channels with no problems?!?

I'm working on a 4Core MacPro with 4GB of RAM, FCP 6.0.5 and a Kona3 card. Almost all of my work up until now has been in SD and things work like a charm. Someone please show me the 'stupid button' I'm forgetting to push?!

Did you go to sequence settings and allow 8 channels?

and all mono, not a set of stereo in there somewhere

Hmmm...I did allow eight channels in sequence settings. 1&2 are stereo vo, 3&4 mono nats sounds, 5&6, 7&8 are stereo music. How does this make a difference?

Sorry, I think I misunderstood the problem. Hmm, ok, so if you try to edit this out without the upconvert, does it allow you to arm the extra channels?

No, it does not. I just tried that and I double checked to make sure the Kona card was behaving. Sometimes it does not follow my setups.

OK, so it's not the upconvert.

So since you've done this successfully before on another project, this is a new development.

Can you make a new project and do a dummy with 8 outputs and see if that works better? Could be a project corruption.

Andre-

Did you check your device control preset? Go to Audio/Video settings (Command Option Q) and look at the device control tab. Most of the presets limit to four channels. That would prevent arming 5-8. If that is the case copy a setting that otherwise works and change the number of channels.

-Vance

Go to the Sequence Settings...the Audio Output tab. make sure that you have 8 outputs selects...it defaults to 2.

Now, on the timeline, on each audio tab area, you need to right-click to get a drop down menu that allows you to assign what audio track goes to what audio channel.

have you done that?


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V,

Nailed it, thanks for the teach! I was using the Panasonic 59.94 VTR preset. It will let you choose to output 8 channels but it defaults to four. Shane, thanks, check and check. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in my earlier posts.

Andre