Extracting a bunch of audio tracks

Hi,

I'm about to finish up a larger project and going to audio post. As I'm facile with ProTools and Logic, I don't really want to learn another audio editor. Instead, I'd like to bypass FCP/STP for audio mixing and just bring in the final audio tracks for rendering.

Most of the ambiences etc. will be replaced, because the camera sound is lacking, but obviously there are lots of clips where that sound should be used. The obvious, but quite laborious way sounds like finding the respective clips in the capture scratch folder (ProRes and uncompressed audio), open them in QT and export the audio, then align it with the image in the audio editor. Doing that for dozens of clips doesn't sound like a lot of fun. So I thought before I go right in to see if you have a quicker workflow for me.

Thanks,
Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

You're still using FCP7, so just export an OMF. OMF files include the actual media used plus handles specified by the user.


www.derekmok.com

yes, OMF export is built into FCP,
or you can export an AAF with the help of Automatic Duck Pro Export for FCP (now free)

AAF carries more metadata if you want / need it,
and it doesn't have the tedious 2G limit of OMF



nick

If AAF has no file limit, why do most post sound people request omf?

Old habits die hard. OMF for quite a while was the professional workflow from NLE to ProTools.

- Loren

Today's FCP 7 keytips:
Copy clip Attributes with Command-C
Paste selected Attributes with Option-V
Remove selected Attributes with Command-Option-V !

Your Final Cut Studio KeyGuide™ Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Thank you guys - never used OMF except once in the late 90s and it was a nightmare. Curious to see what's going to happen!

Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

Well not much happened actually!

Trying to open the OMF file did nothing. Searching the help file tells me I need DigiTranslator 2.0. Searching Avid/digidesign tells me it's built in to PT, but not available for PT M-powered which is precisely what I have since I retired my larger PT rig about 10 years ago.

Now I'm left wondering which is likely to take longer - extracting the audio from the clips in question or trying to power up my old PT MixPlus system on the G4 sitting in the basement.... aarrggh.

Happy Easter,
Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

Whoa...not so fast. Logic can also import OMF. Glad I just noticed that before choking on the dust on my G4!

Happy Easter again!!

Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

3rd post on this today - sorry guys. It's turning into a bit of a 80s style adventure game where you solve one puzzle only to see 'You can't go north' on the next step.

Ex- and importing OMF worked, but all tracks are now Mono. It's not rocket science to convert the appropriate tracks into interleaved stereo files, but it's still quite a task to figure out which files are actually supposed to be stereo and which ones are mono, then convert them by hand, and drag them to the appropriate stereo and mono tracks.

In addition, the files OMF-import to the proper place in Logics timeline, but they don't have an actual timestamp, meaning that once I mess with them by converting to stereo, I need to manually align them to the video!

Can FCP be prepped in such a way that stereo files are exported as such or is that a limitation of OMF itself?

Thanks,
Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

Dunno Logic, but ProTools usually gives you a choice when importing OMFs of converting all your stereo tracks to 2 track mono. Is there a step or setting or setting in Logic you can invoke to try that?

Both Soundtrack and Audition will also import OMFs. (Dunno about stereo conversion...) Can you use one or the other as a intermediary workaround?

And, worst case, given that your first OMF export will give you your handles and clips in place, if you can figure the stereo conversion and haven't done a lot of preliminary level mixing, you can set all your levels to 0db and export each track in an audio format (add sync pops heads and tail before). "Strip silence' in ProTools and you're back to discrete clips in place.

All wanky and wonky, I know, but....

randy

Hi Randy,

thanks for answering, but actually it's the other way around. I already have two mono tracks and would like one stereo track instead. For testing, I now renamed a copy of one such pair with the endings .L and .R, respectively. That was correctly recognized as a matching stereo pair (although it got munched as far as the finder is concerned). But the handle/pointer info is gone. The file now plays from beginning to end.

I don't know Audition or Soundtrack. If I knew ST, I'd probably go with that, as I'm sure it's better integrated with FCP. But the thought of learning yet another audio editor because of all format im/export problems is frustrating.

Thanks,
Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

when you make the OMF in FCP,
check the box for "include pan information"

nick

Hi Nick,

did that already.

As it is, I find Logic to be pretty clumsy for posting, so I decided to do it in ProTools. I exported the locked audio tracks, like dialogue, as a complete file and I will replace wild sync stuff like FX and ambiances from scratch. It's painful as a general workflow, but for this particular project sort of acceptable, as there aren't a zillion audio bits and I had planned on replacing the cam tone for the most part anyway.

Still - why PT M-powered would be excluded from reading OMF files is beyond me.

Thanks,
Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

I wasn't suggesting that you edit in ST or Audition, just import and export through them. PPro, for example, can be flaky exporting OMFs sometimes (hangs) but you can often get an OMF out via "Edit/Edit In Audition" and then successfully export an OMF from Audition without ever editing in it.

As for needing stereo interleaved files to audio edit, I'm confused (all too common, alas...) but my question is: Why?
Unless you've got music, if you've managed to get to PT, can you not just pan one of your mono tracks hard L, the other hard R, and just "Group" them? All your edits, levels automation, etc. will then be applied to both. They'll act and end up as a stereo file but be more flexible. (You can quickly "Ungroup", drop out a track and pan the other to Center if one is NG- a camera mic backup, for example, and "Group" again.)

randy

Oh, and ..."Still - why PT M-powered would be excluded from reading OMF files is beyond me."

That was to sell DigiTranslator.

randy

rrotheisler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I wasn't suggesting that you edit in ST or
> Audition, just import and export through them.
> PPro, for example, can be flaky exporting OMFs
> sometimes (hangs) but you can often get an OMF out
> via "Edit/Edit In Audition" and then successfully
> export an OMF from Audition without ever editing
> in it.

Yep, that would make sense. Just for in and out is shouldn't be complicated. I'll give that a try. (Perhaps I'll even like ST, although I doubt it!)

> As for needing stereo interleaved files to audio
> edit, I'm confused (all too common, alas...) but
> my question is: Why?
> Unless you've got music, if you've managed to get
> to PT, can you not just pan one of your mono
> tracks hard L, the other hard R, and just "Group"
> them? All your edits, levels automation, etc.
> will then be applied to both. They'll act and end
> up as a stereo file but be more flexible. (You can
> quickly "Ungroup", drop out a track and pan the
> other to Center if one is NG- a camera mic backup,
> for example, and "Group" again.)

Well, yes and no. Of course, you can group tracks, but once you start trimming or fiddling with flexing the tracks, there goes your phase. Muting, leveling, etc. of course is fine.

Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2

rrotheisler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Oh, and ..."Still - why PT M-powered would be
> excluded from reading OMF files is beyond me."
>
> That was to sell DigiTranslator.
>
> randy

Nope, the web site states that DigiTranslator is not supported for M-powered systems. They don't want your money!

Stefan

--
macpro 2x3 ghz dual core intel, 10.6.8, FCS 2