Audio drop-out for nested sequences

I consistently have been plagued with audio ?drop-out? from projects that contain nested sequences. My experience is that this has been a problem that goes back to FCP 1.25. This audio "drop-out" occurs when creating a final copy of the project.

Here's the usual scenario. I will have a fairly long and somewhat complicated project which has required the use of nested sequences. In the course of editing, those nested sequences have been opened and re-edited several times. The audio will play back fine from the timeline, but eventually the time comes to record the master sequence onto tape, either with "Edit to Tape" or "Print to Video", or the sequence needs to rendered out to a single piece of media compression in Cleaner, or for output to DVD Studio Pro via Compressor or QT conversion. It is in these situations that the audio "drop-out" becomes evident.

The audio drop-out can always be matched up in the final sequence to either a video transition that occurs at the same spot, or to an entire nested sequence.

This problem has occurred over multiple versions and over multiple machines and various configurations. Only once or twice have I seen any video drop-out as some users have reported on the LAFCPUG forum. And to the best of my recollection, any video glitches I experienced only occurred with FCP 1.25 and 2.0.

My work-around has always been to copy audio from the nested sequences and paste them into the final sequence. This solution works every time.

In short projects -- 30 sec. spots -- audio drop-outs occur rarely, and if they do occur, it?s related to the amount of tweaking I've done a nested sequence.

The problem, I believe, is related to FCP's handling and tracking of the rendered media associated with nested sequences. My understanding is that when you create a nested sequence, there really are two versions of the nested sequence -- one in the browser and a separate one nested in another sequence. Somehow, FCP loses track of the renders and these "drop-outs" occur.

That's my take on it. I hope this issue is addressed by FCP developers soon. Too much time has been wasted and too much pain has been inflicted.

PS - This issue has been sent to Apple's FCP Feedback webpage.

David Barker
Video Propulsion, Inc.
david@video-propulsion.com

David - do you mixdown your audio before going to tape? The only time I have ever seen gaps in audio is when I have a complicated sequence that has not been mixed down.

I've been making a program that has nested sequences once a week for nearly four years. I'm not sure it is a bug.

Since some others are also reporting your problem - maybe there is a common thread? What OS, computer, ram, etc?

How many lines of audio do you normally work with? Do you use many audio transitions or effects? Anything else?

I HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEMS ON EVERY MACHINE APPLE HAS RELEASED AND CURRENTLY RUN A DUAL 2 G5, 3GB RAM, 3.5TB FIBRE CHANNEL XRAID ETC. THE PROBLEMS HAVE BEEN AS CONSISTENT ON MY CURRENT SETUP AS THEY WERE ON AN OLD IBOOK FOR GOD'S SAKE.

I CONSISTENTLY REPAIR DISK PERMISSIONS, UPGRADE SOFTWARE, RUN MACJANITOR AND COCKTAIL ETC. ALL MY FIRMWARE IS UP TO DATE ETC.

I mixdown audio, follow every precaution Apple reccomends and have had similar problems for the 5 or so years since FCP 1.

It many times has made me feel as thuogh I am doing something wrong. Hearing that others have the same problem is interesting and somewhat encouraging.

If FCP is to TRULY compete with AVID and others then Apple needs to get on the case. MORE STABILITY!

FIX THE WAVEFORM/VECTORSCOPE, FIX THE PIC SAFE/TITLE SAFE OVERLAYS.

SEAN

Stop shouting.

Look at my post of 1-13-05 & 1-14-05 for a possible solution to this problem.

MG