hvx200 question about audio tracks in CS4

[ihatedv]

Hey guys I have a question about audio tracks from captured .mxf files. Shot on the HVX. Why are there 4 audio tracks? Do I need to keep them all. This is the first time I'm dealing with .mxf files.


I have a client here for the next few hours while I do a rough cut so I don't have time to search.


thx

[David Jimerson]

There are four tracks because in DVCPRO HD or DVCPRO 50, four tracks are always recorded -- even if two of them are blank.

But for easy management, go to the CS4 wofklow white paper here:

ftp://ftp.panasonic.com/pub/Panasonic/business/provideo/whitepapers/WP_Using_P2HD_with_Adobe_CS4.pdf

And check out Source Channel Mapping on page 16.

[ihatedv]

David thanks! You always come through. But here is another one if you know the answer. If I want to map the audio to a stereo mix the option to do a source channel map is grayed out. Am I missing something? Do I need to select certain audio channels to enable this function?

[David Jimerson]

Where are you trying to do this? (Where's the clip you're trying to do it to?) This is something you do before you send anything to the timeline.

[ihatedv]

The clips are already in the timeline. Its not a big deal I guess. If I need to clean audio with roomtone, how should I tackle it? Or do you think I should do another timeline. Final export is to the web.


I've included some info on the two types of files I'm dealinig with. One is .mov and the other is the .mxf format. Are these from an HVX? P2 workflow?


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

File Path: K:\removed\CONTENTS\VIDEO\0001JS.MXF
Type: P2 Movie
File Size: 251.8 MB
Image Size: 960 x 720
Pixel Depth: 32
Frame Rate: 23.976
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Mono
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Mono
Total Duration: 00:00:45:20
Average Data Rate: 5.5 MB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.3333
MXF File details:
UserClipName: 060A2B340101010501010D431300000044450001441505DA00 80458228B1D249
DataSource: SHOOTING
Access:
CreationDate: 2000-01-01T09:05:49+09:00
LastUpdateDate: 2000-01-01T09:06:35+09:00
Device:
Manufacturer: Panasonic
SerialNo.: A6NC00048
ModelName: AG-HVX200
Shoot:
StartDate: 2000-01-01T09:05:50+09:00
EndDate: 2000-01-01T09:06:35+09:00
Thumbnail:
FrameOffset: 0
ThumbnailFormat: BMP
Width: 80
Height: 60


----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

File Path: K:\removed\removed.mov
Type: QuickTime Movie
File Size: 835.1 MB
Image Size: 960 x 720
Pixel Depth: 24
Frame Rate: 23.976
Source Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 16 bit - Mono
Project Audio Format: 48000 Hz - 32 bit floating point - Mono
Total Duration: 00:02:22:08
Average Data Rate: 5.9 MB / second
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1.3333
QuickTime Details:
Movie contains 1 video track(s), 4 audio track(s) and 1 timecode track(s).
Video:
There are 3416 frames with a duration of 125/2997ths.
Video track 1:
Duration is 0:02:22:11
Average frame rate is 23.98 fps
Video track 1 contains 1 type(s) of video data:
Video data block #1:
Frame Size = 960 x 720
Compressor = DVCPRO HD 720p60
Quality = Normal (3.00)
Audio:
Audio track 1 contains 1 type(s) of audio data:
Audio data block #1:
Format = 16 bit - Mono
Rate = 48000.0000 Hz
Compressor = 16-bit Big Endian (uncompressed)

Audio track 2 contains 1 type(s) of audio data:
Audio data block #1:
Format = 16 bit - Mono
Rate = 48000.0000 Hz
Compressor = 16-bit Big Endian (uncompressed)

Audio track 3 contains 1 type(s) of audio data:
Audio data block #1:
Format = 16 bit - Mono
Rate = 48000.0000 Hz
Compressor = 16-bit Big Endian (uncompressed)

Audio track 4 contains 1 type(s) of audio data:
Audio data block #1:
Format = 16 bit - Mono
Rate = 48000.0000 Hz
Compressor = 16-bit Big Endian (uncompressed)
Timecode:
Timecode track 1 contains 1 type(s) of data:
Timecode data block #1:
Start Time = 10:32:26:16
Reel name = NO NAME

[David Jimerson]

You do the source mapping before you put the clips in the timeline. Premiere audio tracks can only hold one kind of audio; you're changing from mono to stereo (most likely).

What do you mean by "clean the audio with room tone?" Do you mean using room tone to fill in gaps, etc., or do you mean you have background noise in your audio that you want to get rid of?

Where did you get the footage which is .mov? That won't come from any P2 source, so it's not part of the P2 workflow.

[ihatedv]

Premiere audio tracks can only hold one kind of audio; you're changing from mono to stereo (most likely).

What do you mean by "clean the audio with room tone?" Do you mean using room tone to fill in gaps, etc., or do you mean you have background noise in your audio that you want to get rid of?

Where did you get the footage which is .mov? That won't come from any P2 source, so it's not part of the P2 workflow.


RE: Premiere audio tracks can only hold one kind of audio; you're changing from mono to stereo (most likely).

What exactly do you mean? Ive been doing some reading on the dvcpro50 and I understand somewhat how and 'why' the audio is split up the way it is.
But is the 'norm' for editors to make it a simple stereo track or leave as is?

RE: What do you mean by "clean the audio with room tone?"

You know how you remove audio from a clip, maybe a second or two. Than you cut some audio background noice so you dont hear a difference in the sound.

RE: Where did you get the footage which is .mov? That won't come from any P2 source, so it's not part of the P2 workflow.

This job was a hack job, Im on cleanup duty. I think the guy converted 30 or so clips in .mov.
The frame size and rate are the same so this is what I assume.

[David Jimerson]

What exactly do you mean?

If you bring in the MXF files as-is, you'll get four clips of mono. These must go onto mono tracks on the timeline. If you use the Source Channel Mapping to create a stereo clip from two of the MXF mono clips, that stereo clip can't sit on a mono track on the timeline; it has to sit on a stereo track. Thus, the option to map is foreclosed to you once the clip is on the timeline.



Ive been doing some reading on the dvcpro50 and I understand somewhat how and 'why' the audio is split up the way it is.
But is the 'norm' for editors to make it a simple stereo track or leave as is?Depends on what the recording is. There are a number of ways you can record audio, and different types of audio you can record.

If it's dialogue, I'll often simply import a single mono track, as long as that track is all good.





You know how you remove audio from a clip, maybe a second or two. Than you cut some audio background noice so you dont hear a difference in the sound.At its most basic, you can do this right on the Premiere timeline; a really slick, polished, professional sound track would be done in other apps, like ProTools.



This job was a hack job, Im on cleanup duty. I think the guy converted 30 or so clips in .mov.
The frame size and rate are the same so this is what I assume.Well, as I said, the .mov files are no longer MXF files, but they certainly appear to be 720p DVCPRO HD files, so they should cut flawlessly with the MXFs. It wasn't necessary for them to be converted to .mov, though.

[ihatedv]

All went well. Finished the job @ like 2 am this morning. The client came back and waited during the last couple of hours.

It was actually better that the audio came in as 4 mono tracks because a few of the clips had a track of all white noise. Not sure where that came from.

Everything else went well except when I tried to export to H.264 I got some type of error about invalid frame size and/or frame rate. At that point (1am) I just switched to .wma and all was good.

So all-in-all my 1st experience with dvcpro50 was a good one.