FCP Audio ????'s (Clarification)
 

Hello FCP'ers.....

I'm a little confused and would like some clarification on audio when using DV cameras and FCP3.

I often use SP mode and 48khz Rec modes which allows for 2 audio channels....but when working on footage in FCP I can add as many tracks as I'd like- so I'm alittle lost as to the 2 channel/stereo limit when using 48 mhz rec mode...I'm aware when using 32 khz we can dub an additional 2 channels--- is this feature strictly for mic use.....does that mean I must use 32khz mode if I plan to use an onboard mic and plug in another mic? Will the audio show up in FCP as 4 tracks which would be 2 stereo pair per mic input?

...what about when i output back to dv tape and i have 10 audio tracks- what goes in what channel as i can hear all the audio back onto the tape??

I hope I am getting my question across the right way......can someone shed some light on audio? Thanks.

Hi Rich,
I started editing with Final Cut Express not too long ago. It was easy to figure out the basic functions and get by without any problems. About a month ago, I bought a very good book called Final Cut Express Editing Workshop by Tom Wolsky. This book is designed specifically for the folks making the move from iMovie to FCE. It starts out very simple, defining every little setting, and even contains a dvd video and sample projects that coordinate directly with the lessons of the book.
I found my copy at a local Barnes and Noble, so you should be able to find one too.

nicholi

Long Captures On Fcpx
 

Jeff if your out there I need your help. I'm having latency problems with long captures. I'm using FCPX with a MAC G5. Any Suggestions would be appreciated.

Can you describe your problem in a little more detail, please.

Picture and audio capture out of sync.

The quick fix (in most cases) is to export to QT then import into FCP. But there can be many causes. Hard drive getting full, not enough memory, audio at wrong rate for FCP capture settings (set for 32 kHz and capture at 48 kHz or vice versa), audio in timeline set for too high quality, trying to playback too many audio tracks for resources available.

What version of FCP, QT and Mac OS are you using?

Req: advice on Matrox RTMac, dual G4, FCP4?
 

Hi, just a quick request: can anybody please comment on the Matrox RTMac card? A friend and I are considerning investing in an RTMac to beef up his first-generation dual G4, NLE would be FC4. Is this a good idea? If it performs as advertized, it seems a good deal for US$600. Any happy/unhappy experiences with the product?

Steve,

Dubbing features are dependent on your camera.

As for the ten tracks, you'll have to specify what is each source and how you want it mixed. Creating a stereo field from multiple sound sources is an art.
But generally, monophonic microphone source tracks are panned to the center (equal amounts in each output channel),
stereo microphone source tracks are panned with left channel going to left output channel right to right. A nice method to generate stereo on voice tracks is to record them with stereo ambience, or even better, record them without any ambience and use one of the small room reverberation presets to generate stereo ambience.

Sometimes, mono microphone sources are definitely directional (such as in an interview that are on two sides of the screen), so you'll want to put the left interviewer mostly in the left output channel and the right interviewee mostly in the right output channel.

And hopefully it will fix the problem with Timecode Output via FireWire (Not sure how many people are having this issue, but I know somebody that this is happening to and drives him up the wall!)

timeline problems
 

In the timeline my scrubber bar is jerky and seems to jump in 2 or 3 sec intervals. My footage on the canvas is also jerky, but all plays fine on the viewer. There is a green circle with a black tick on the canvas window..what have I pushed?

Regards
Rick Banfield

You'll at least need to tell us what editing system and version you are using.

To Ken Tanaka
 

Sorry,
FCP 3 on g4 twin processor, 1gig ram

Rick Banfield

Rick,
Hard to know the cause of your scrubber jerkiness. Here are the two thoughts that come to my mind.
- Un-rendered footage effects?
- Your capture/scratch drive (i.e. where the footage and/or rendered footage is located) is getting full or is badly fragmented.

Re: the green check mark, it sounds like you may have turned-on the broadcast-safe checker, which will indicate the status of footage with such marks.

Turn off range check.

View--> range check I believe.

Steve, only some cameras support recording all 4 channels live. The XL1s comes to mind. Other cameras will only let you record 2 channels at once and the other 2 channels are for dubbing over later (kinda useless).

With most cameras the on-board mic is disabled when you have an external mic plugged in. There is an exception including the Sony zoom mics (which aren't very good).

In FCP you can have lots of tracks but the output is ultimately stereo sound.

Matrox has been very late in coming up with drivers for OS X and Panther drivers are not out yet. The card's RT abilities weren't very useful when FCP*3* came out and even less useful now that FCP4 came out.

I definitely wouldn't pay $600USD for one. There are a lot of folks trying to ditch their cards- just get it used if you really want one.

You might want to look into the Powerlogix processor upgrades for your Mac instead although your Mac may not be as fast as the latest G4s of same processor speed.

Just wanted to let you guys know how my situation turned out. I have my PC, iMac, and G5 networked together. I dragged the FCE project file from the iMac to the G5 and 2x clicked on it. FCP 4 opened and said "File format is outdated, would you like to update?" I clicked yes, and it opened the entire project, sequences etc. in FCP4 and AUTOMATICALLY changed the target path of my source footage over the network to the iMac. I played my footage in the timeline, and the freakin thing played back in realtime, with the effects! You gotta love the Mac's. Keep in mind I never copied the source files over from the iMac, and I can even export with the files still on the iMac w/ no dropped frames.

Michael

What about dual 15" LCDs?
 

Hello, all! Just a quick question about this monitor:

http://www.pcmall.com/pcmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=248019

I found this monitor on sale at PCMall, and it looks good on paper (DVI connection, good contrast & viewing angle). Right now, I have about $750 to spend on a monitor for doing heavy video editing on Final Cut Pro 4. I had been thinking about a 22" CRT, but now I'm wondering if a dual display setup with the Sony monitor above would be better. Here are the Pros & Cons of each, as far as I can tell:

22" CRT (Mitsubichi Diamond Pro 2070SB):

Max resolution: 2048 x 1536 @ 85 Hz (recommended 1600x1200)
More accurate color
4 Port USB hub
Weight: 65.7 lbs
Takes up a LOT of space
Not energy efficient/lots of heat output
VGA connection
2 gray horizontal lines across the screen (Wires for the aperture grille)
About $700

2 15" Sony LCD monitors (SDM-S53/B ):

Max resolution: 2048 x 768 widescreen (both monitors combined, I think)
DVI connection for both (adding 1 ADC-to-DVI connector)
Weight: 10.1 lbs each
Energy efficient/little heat output
Takes up VERY LITTLE space
Not as color accurate as a CRT
Possible dead pixels
About $700

So, there you have it. Believe me, if I could afford a 20" Apple Cinema Display, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. But I just can't. I've heard of a lot of people using a dual display setup and loving it, but it usually involves 17" LCDs, not 15" ones. I'm guessing the widescreen nature of the dual display is good for video editing timelines, bins, etc., but maybe one BIG desktop without a split in the middle is better for that.

I'd really appreciate any feedback on this, as I'll be making this purchase later this week. Thanks!

I can't comment on these specific monitors, but I do use both a 15" Samsung SyncMaster 151MP LCD screen and an Apple 21" (CRT) studio display. I think the Apple screen is actually a trinitron. I run the CRT at 1600 x 1200 and the LCD at 1024x768.

All I can say is that the image on the Apple 21" CRT is way, way better than the 15" LCD. And for the sort of things I do (like CAD, 3D modeling, etc) I find the 1600x1200 screen much more productive. I wouldn't consider swapping my 21" screen for 2 cheap LCD's, but that's a personal preference.

My CRT also has those faint lines, but I thought only the Sony Trinitrons had that. Am I mistaken, or does Mitsubishi get their screens from Sony? And yeah, those big CRT's are large and HEAVY! Had to send mine in to repair a bad power supply a couple months after I got it, and when it came back from Apple all the paperwork refered to it as the "Moby Display". Apt name. ;-)

Audio Question
 

I used a DVX-100 to make my short film. On the advice of people on this board, I record to both channels, but kept channel one a bit lower than channel two so I could pick and choose which one sounded better (just in case the audio popped on channel two during a take).

I noticed that when I play it back, the audio pops a lot and I assume it's because they channels are slighlty off and one of them gets a bit louder.

So I assume I should pick either channel one or two and get rid of the other one?

then should I take the one channel of sound and make it a stereo pair?

How do you do that?

Thank you.

Yeah, the Mitsubishi Diamond Pro monitor has a trinitron screen, I believe. I know it has the 2 faint lines across it.

http://www.necmitsubishi.com/products/home/mitsubishi_index.cfm

I figured I'd be better off with the 22" CRT for image quality. I've just never seen LCD with digital connectors for that cheap, and they're Sony! I guess before I buy anything I should actually see the display in action. I'm still leaning more towards the CRT, but if anyone can present a valid case for the 2 LCDs, I'm all ears (or eyes, I guess).

Thanks, Boyd!

First you may need to unlink the audio from the video using the Link command from the Modify menu. Furthermore, you may also need to unlink the two stereo channels using the stereo pair command in the Modify menu.

Once you've done this, double-click on each of the audio tracks; it opens in the viewer. There are two controls at the top of the window, "level" and "pan". They can be adjusted either numerically or with the sliders. If you only want to use one track at a low level, or not at all, adjust the slider accordingly. Then use the pan slider to position the other channel where you like in the stereo image.

I guess I should clarify: these techniques work in FCP3... you don't actually mention what software you're using...

External DVD burner
 

I'm looking to buy an external dvd burner for a G3 imac. Anyone know which is best to buy for a mac running OS9.1 ? Also, will software come with the unit?

Some external burners come with software and some don't. iDVD will not work and would be pretty slow on a G3. It should work fine for burning data to DVD's for archiving.

FCP4 vs AG-DVX100
 

I just upgraded my system to FCP4 and I'm using an AG-DVX100. When I was printing to tape under FCP3 the camera was able to receive the regen TC from the timeline. Under FCP4 I can't get the regen TC as preset on the timeline. I only get 00:00:00:00 during the whole recording.

How can we resolve this problem ?

Also, is FCP4 and the AG-DVX100 capable of a remote Print to Tape. Now, I must start my recording manually.

HELP! Unexpected quits in FCP 3 with Panther
 

I installed Panther, now I'm getting TONS of unexeptected quits in FCP 3.0.4 (I have a G5 1.6 ghz machine).

HELP!

heath

Most of the problems with Panther are caused by 3rd party software. Some of the bad apps are Default Folder X, Copy and Paste, and any of the Unsanity Haxies. Anything that adds a preference pane to the System Preferences should also be suspect.

Have you repaired permissions and run fsck -y? How did you install Panther? Upgrade or clean install?

Have you tried a previous project and it doesn't work? Have you repaired permissions since upgrading? Worse case you may need to reinstall FCP 4. There are also some 3rd party software causing troubles, but I haven't heard of this issue before. Could be a camera issue also. Can you try your camera on another FCP 4 system and see if TC works?

fcp4 slow starter???
 

hello everybody,
I just installed fcp4 and it works allright. But I do have some questions about its capabilities. I am running the program under 10.2.8 on a single processer 1.25 mac with 1 gig memory power. Its starting up witch takes a lot of time compared to fcp3, it needs to read very long. Exacly the same with closing and saving witch used to be a no time affair in 3, it takes also a really long time..(we are talking at least a minute here...)
To be fair I have tried it only under a project that was recently running in fcp 3 and now imported in to 4 (it asked to update "its file format" so the first time i could understand the time but now....)its realtime capabilities are no problem and in any other way it does not seem slow...
is this normal?

greetings

I think it may have to do with the modified (FCP 3 to FCP 4) project. Try a project originated in FCP 4 and it should be as fast as FCP 3. You may want to repair permissions if haven't done so since installing FCP.

Upgrade. How do I do those things?

heath

thanx!

You should almost always do a clean install of OS rather than an upgrade. Try repairing permissions. Open Disk Utility (should be in Utility folder inside application folder). Select your boot drive and select repair permissions (not verify). Reboot and see if problem persists. If so write back, you'll need to do a clean install. It's not as bad as it sounds.

Do you have any of the questionable software installed?

Quicktime settings
 

Need advice please. I'm working with IMovie 2.1

When exporting a movie to quicktime, what would be the perfect settings to prepare the quicktime movie for the web? I've been setting it on streaming web movie. I'd like to be able to show a larger quicktime movie but without losing so much sharpness. I'd prefer my quicktime movie to be able to be viewed by people with a 56k modem without waiting forever for it to download. Streaming movies are the best but I want to show larger then those small quicktime movies. Any ideas?

Rich,
There is really no completely good answer to your question. Video streaming demands a great deal of data transfer no matter what you do. Dial-up 56k users will always be disadvantaged.

The basic variables you control with any codec are: frame rate, frame size and degree of compression.

Tools such as Cleaner 6 enable you to create fall-back versions of video for slower connections. This, of course, would relocate the compression process to a separate tool (than iMovie) but it's a very worthwhile change if you're serious about creating good, or even watchable, compressions for the Web platform.

For a better understanding of this subject do a little reading. Ben Waggoner's "Compression for Great Digital Video" (ISBN 157820111-X) is a good place to start.

Uninstalling software
 

This is probably off-topic, and I'm sure it's a dumb question to long-time mac users, but how do you uninstall software on a Mac? I installed a program on my Powerbook that I want to take off, but couldn't seem to find the answer in thje help section.
Thanks!

Question: HD production without an HD camera?
 

Hi. I am being drafted for a project consisting mainly in the restoration of slide shows. Of course I think it would be wise to do the work in HD so it is not obsolete in two years. Am I correct to assume I can use 1920x1080 scans of the slides and render that as DV for editing and then as 1920x1080 using pixlet or some other codec for HD mastering? Am I missing something here? The idea is not to have to buy expensive HD (or shortlived HDV) equipment, and use a G5 with FCP4. I have read about people doing this kind of thing in Vegas, but I want to keep things Mac. Any ideas would be welcome. My coming up with a good setup will give me work for about 12 months ;-) Thanks.

In most cases (OS X) just drag the application to the trash and empty the trash. If it install preference panes or icons in the menu bar you may need to dig a little deeper. What program?

Thanks Jeff. I knew you would come through.That seems almost too simple. I'm wanting to take off Avid FreeDV. I just put it on to demo it to the kids in my class, and I don't want it on my powerbook anymore anymore.

You can also load the installer and under custom install there may be an uninstall option. But dragging it to the trash will get the largest part of the application.

Actually this topic interests me as well. I would like to do 3d animation at HD resolution, so no camera is involved. Would HDV/pixlet work for this? When I get a bit of time I plan to muster up the courage to install my copy of Panther and try this for myself :-)