Editing AC3 files

When I put a project to DVD, I usually do a Print to Video from my HDV timeline, and then take the tape, and do a firewire output to a set top DVD recorder. I extract the streams with MPEG Streamclip, and reauthor the DVD with DVD Studio Pro.

I want to be able to use the AC3 audio format because my projects can get long and the AIFFs are too big for my DVDs.

The problem is, I want to be able to look at the AC3 waveforms, check them for levels, and perhaps do some basic audio editing (especially for those projects where I'm taking them directly off the rough masters, and not capturing them into FCP). I'm looking for a way to edit the AC3 files either in FCP or Soundtrack Pro. Otherwise, is there a 3rd party app that would work well for this?

Thanks,
Casey Petersen
www.unitedvideoinc.com

When outputting a movie file through Compressor to go to DVD Studio Pro, you can get a .m2v and either an .aiff or a .AC3 file of the audio.

The issues in editing after MPEG-2 compression is that those two files must line up frame accurately to make sure there is not audio/video sync mismatch.

I don't think you can edit a compressed Dolby AC3 file even with Peak, but this would not be the place to try and change anything audio.

Do all you audio edits back in Final Cut Pro before encoding the movie file to MPEG-2.

The problem is, I'm not encoding with Compressor, I'm doing it live on a DVD Recorder, and then stripping out the audio and video streams, and working with those.

The PC has a program that I used, it came bundled with Nero, it's the Wave Editor, and you could download a free codec for AC3 files. Now I'm on a Mac, and I want to be able to do that, without having to keep my old PC system plugged in for just the Wave Editor.

I'm looking for either a codec for Soundtrack Pro, or a 3rd party app that lets me do basic editing on an AC3 file (normalize, mono to stereo, etc.)


Thanks,
Casey Petersen
www.unitedvideoinc.com