5.1 audio in FCP 5.1?

[Travis Wheaton]

G'day,

I have Final Cut Pro 5.1. I have a Panasonic TM900 video camera, which records 5.1 audio.

As I'm running a PowerMac, I've imported the files as AIC. The files show in the browser as being 1V 6A (ie 1 video, 6 audio). However, when I move the files to the timeline, I end up with 4 mono audio tracks; the first two are both panned to the centre, and the 2nd two are empty.

To be frank, for this project I'm working on, it doesn't matter if I only achieve stereo sound by panning one each of the tracks that are working left/right... but I'd like to know how/if I can achieve 5.1 audio using Final Cut? (I have Soundtrack 1.2 but I've never used it...)

I gather it's a matter of the Audio settings in the Sequence settings... but not sure what to do...

THANKS


Travis

[Nate Haustein]

This may not be the final answer, but it seems like Final Cut 5/6/7 doesn't automatically handle the 5.1 streams from AVCHD. You can see this in the import settings in log and transfer as the only two options are plain and matrix stereo. There does however seem to be a workaround. This article explains things quite well, but I'm sure there are free alternatives if you want to take the time to do manual conversions of the clips. Good luck!

Working with surround sound in AVCHD movies | ShedWorx


On the previewing and exporting side of things, here's a great tutorial on how it can be done with the software you have: Mixing 5.1 surround sound with Final Cut Studio 2

[Travis Wheaton]

Thanks for the reply, Nate!

Looks a lot more complicated than I'd thought! Had hoped FCP could distinguish the 6 audio tracks without requiring converting first.

RE using a Firewave...

A PowerMac has "optical digital audio out"... Is that signal only stereo? I'd have assumed it could achieve 5.1... though I guess OS X is not 5.1... Mmm...

Something to look at further for my next project I think!

Cheers


Travis