First time editing a movie soundtrack in SP - need helpful hints to get started!

I have a 100 minute feature film that I've edited in FCP5 with a G5 dual processor 2.7 kHz and 4 megs of RAM. How do I go about editing the single mono track that I have so I end up with a stereo soundtrack? The only track I need to edit now is the dialogue track, which I'm going to split up into two tracks with loud dialogue and low dialogue. Can I export the two tracks separately to Soundtrack Pro? Then how do I mix the tracks in SP? Thanks in advance for any assistance.

Nobody responded to this posting, so I'm just trying to report that I've had a lot of fun the last week editing my sound track in Soundtrack Pro. This is truly a remarkable program. I like it very much. I've had to learn a lot of things by trial and error due to the fact that I can't read very well these days due to sight problems. Anyway, I have a bunch of questions regarding how to use the program. I can't use the single track page. I don't even know how to open it and close it. When exporting, how does one mix and do a good export? Thanks for your help.

filmman,

Sorry I haven't posted here, but when I saw your initial post, I found it confusing. I would like to help you out, but it would seem that you jumped right into the program without going through even the Apple suppled tutorials for STP. There is so much depth to STP that you can not just acquire the whole thing by osmosis.

Thanks John,

You've always been very helpful. I'm going to read the manual to the best of my ability. I'm enjoying editing in STP. I use the interface with the tracks. I can't seem to be able to edit in the other view, the one with the sound wave -- one big giant sound wave that encompasses the whole scene. I haven't learned how to edit in this and even in the tracks view I can't seem to be able to change the volume within a piece. So I place sound bits with the same level of loudness on one track and separate them from other louder or lower sound bits. I'm able to do quite a bit of sound editing, however. The one question I always wonder about is do I need to edit two mono sound tracks? I've been knocking one track away before I start editing, because I want to make it easier on myself. Then at the end, shall I mix a stereo track from the mono tracks? I suppose my single dialogue track will end up being included into both stereo tracks, am I right?

To move between the sound editor and tracks, you can highlight the clip of sound in the track editor and go tothe Multitrack Menu and Open in Editor.

Then you will have two tabs on top of the canvas. One tab will have the project tracks and the other tab(s) will have the waveforms. You CAN open more than one waveform at a time as well.

If you audio is a left and a right track, then you will edit it as such. If you have only one mono track then te editor will only show one track.

In the tracks view each track has a volume control assocuited with that track.

Thanks for responding. There is no "open in editor" in "multitrack".

Well, I just ran throuh this before I posted it, on my copy of STP??

I did just what I described and clicking once on the audio clip in the tracks window and then opening Multitrack>Open in Editor adds a second tab on the canvas at the top so that you can view the track view or the edit view.

Don't know what else to say??

Yeah, but where do you click to get to this menu item. Under MULTICLIP at the top, there is nothing but add this and add that. Nothing about waveform. I tried control click on one of my tracks, there were a few options, but STP crashed. It flashed a quick view of the waveform and then it was gone. I'm also getting no memory on disc messages when I get into extensive editing on STP -- what is that? There is an increasing hum, until I click on okay -- a window pops up, but the sound gets loud and almost defeans me. Sometime the waveform opens up when I open up a project. Most of the time I get the tracks interface. I just don't see anywhere an item to click to toggle between the two interfaces. I tried reading the manual, but it doesn't clarify if there is a toggle switch. The manual says you can work on canvas and on waveform, but doesn't explain how you get from one to the other.

Oh, okay, I found out how to do it... by control clicking on the sound bite, then choosing Project Editor. It opens up the waveform view and allows editing options. Although this works most of the time; sometimes the change that I made in the editor doesn't transfer to the tracks interface. There is a tab for the viewer now, like you said. So I can click on it and go back to the editor and make more changes. I found out that one must flatten in order for the change to take effect - sometimes. But the major problem I'm encountering now is that when I want to save the project, a window opens up and says I have no permission to write the changes. Also, I don't know how to use the bus and output features of STP. I've been able to successfully export the finished mix though (i.e., I don't know to use the mixer, however, but when I do an export to FCP, I end up with a mix anyway). Thanks for your continued help.