I'm just curious, because I've heard of so many methods, and I have my own, too, but it may not be too complex. I usually drag the song off a CD into a folder for the project's music on my hard drive. I then use QuickTime to convert it to an AIFF that's 48 khz.

What do you all recommend?

Thanks,

heath

That's pretty much what I do also, but I typically just drop it into a sequence and render the audio. Sometimes I export it out as a separate .mov file from FCP so I can use it again without rendering.

You do change it from 44.1 khz to 48 khz? What does Final Cut Pro recommend? I swear, it changes every update, it seems. At one point, they said to use iTunes, but that was the biggest pain-in-the-butt because it dropped the file into the iTunes folder...

Remember FCP 1-3? You could easily just import Music Files in FCP and tell it where to put it on the system and where to put it in the open project, then it would convert it and bingo, that's it.

heath

I convert it to 48 khz.

Mark
www.sharkvp.com

Same here. Good idea with bringing it back out as a .mov. That is definitely a time saver with a large audio bed.

Jon Bufkin
web.mac.com/bufdaddy

#5 Imported music from CD or iTunes

Shane's Stock Answer #5:

To get music into FCP, it needs to be an AIFF file at 48khz, 16 bit stereo. So if you want a song from a CD, you go into the iTunes Preferences and set this up under the IMPORTING tab:

File > preferences > importing > import using - AIFF encoder > Setting - Custom
Sample Rate - 48.000 kHz
Sample size - 16 bit
Channels - Stereo

If you have an mp3 that you want to use, then you can convert it thru iTunes as well.

If the piece of music you want to use is something you purchased thru iTunes, I'm afraid I can't help you there. There are copywrite issues that prevent files from being converted into the format that FCP can recognize.

If the piece of music you want to use is something you purchased thru iTunes, I'm afraid I can't help you there. There are copywrite issues that prevent files from being converted into the format that FCP can recognize.

Same copyright issues as a CD.

But here's what to do with iTunes .m4a files with digital rights management.

Make a play list of the songs you desire. Burn the list to CD as an audio CD.

Rip the disc you just made to your hard drive then change to 48khz .aif with QT Pro.

Also see the following thread. Obviously there are copyright issues with using content from a CD or iTunes for anything other than personal projects.

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=68457

Another option is to import the mp3 files into FCP then select them in the browser and do a batch export of quicktime conversion to AIFF 48 KHz or send your audio from the timeline to a STP audiofile project and choose resample from the process menu and choose 48 KHZ.

Problem is, MP3s' audio is, for some reason, dropped to zero every 1/2 second or so in Final Cut Pro. You can open an MP3 in the viewer and see little gaps where the audio waveform isn't there.

hwm

Another option is to import the mp3 files into FCP then select them in the browser and do a batch export of quicktime conversion to AIFF 48 KHz or send your audio from the timeline to a STP audiofile project and choose resample from the process menu and choose 48 KHZ.


Thanks for this tip. Works great.

Pavel

Heath, when I first started editing with Final Cut Pro, I tried a lot of different methods. But eventually I came to the conclusion that using Quicktime to convert to an a 48kHz AIFF and bringing that in Final Cut was the way to go. Quick, simple, and it just works. I did have a script lying around that automated the whole process if I needed to rip the whole CD, but have never come across a situation when I've needed it.