Multicam media setup?

[Gerald Webb]

Can anyone suggest media layout for FCX multicam?
Previously with Vegas I would put each cam on a separate drive to spread the load.
With FCX it seems every time I add an angle it copies the media in that angle to the drive/Library that contains the Multicam project.
This cant be right, I assume I am doing something wrong.
I created Libraries on 3 drives for each camera.
If I just have one Library on my SSD and choose- Leave Files in Place, can I choose to create proxy media on the drive with the source media?

[Gerald Webb]

Nobody? really?

Small bump :)

[William Hohauser]

You have misunderstood Libraries in FCPX and your options in importing media into your libraries.

Each library is specific to a project (or sets of projects) and the media associated with it. The library is a complete package containing all the media in one place for easy backup and sharing. Once you cross reference media between libraries, FCPX wants to make the library complete and will copy media to make it so. Making a library for each camera will not help you at all, you need to import the camera files into a single library to use as a multicam track.

With importing you do have the option to leave the media where it is on the drives. (This option is not available when importing from camera cards.) However, useless you are working with massive camera file codecs, you can keep them on a single quality drive instead of distribtuting them on several drives.

Also there is an option available in FCPX preferences to transcode multicam clips to ProRes automatically after creating the multicam file. Depending on your computer model and the number of cameras per multicam tracks, you may want to turn this off to save disk space. The better the computer the less need for transcoding.

[Gerald Webb]

Thanks William,
Will try tomorrow.
Have project working atm as Multi with separate Libraries but it copied media back to Multi clip location.
Must be a better way lol

[Gerald Webb]

So just to clarify,
Are you saying there is no way to multicam with proxy media on separate drives?
So if I have 5 x 4k cams and import them myself to separate drives, when ingesting to FCX and choosing "Leave media in Place", it will still make proxies and/or prores files and read them all from one drive/library ?

[William Hohauser]

Separate drives are fine, although to me a clumsy way to manage the camera media. If it works for you, great.

If you choose "Leave media in place", FCPX will transcode the footage into the library if you have "Create optimized media for multicam clip" checked in FCPX preferences. The check box is under the "Playback" tab when you open preferences. The program defaults with the box checked when initially installed. If you uncheck it, it will remain unchecked for all subsequent projects.