FCP 6 to Protools - Best way

[Free Gumbo]

Hey all,
I have a project that needs some foley work, audio sweetening and a good surround mix.The project is edited in FCP 6 and my audio guy uses Protools.
What is the best way to deliver the audio and a video reference file to protools? I have about 8 channels of audio with in the project.
Thanks in advance
Patrick

 

[Alex H.]

Export Audio to OMF. When the OMF export window pops up, be sure to tell it to ditch the fades/transitions (the sound editor is going to redo them anyway), and specify handles of at least :03 (this tells FCP to export the audio with three seconds on each side of each region, so that the sound editor can pull them out if needed for some wiggle room).

A few things to consider:

- How long is the overall project? OMF has a size limit that isn't an issue for most half-hour or hour-long programs with 8 tracks.
- If this is a feature-length project it should be split into working reels of roughly 15-20 minutes. If you've done this already, each sequence will need its own OMF and reference video.
- Be sure to let your sound editor know what the starting time code of your sequence is, and what the first frame of program is (first frame should be at 01:00:00;00).
- Add a 5-sec countdown with 2-pop to the head of the sequence, and make sure that the 2-pop is on all 8 tracks.
- Create a copy of the sequence. On the copy, ditch the audio and nest the sequence, then apply a TC window set to read. Export this as the reference video. Export a Quicktime, video only, and customize the settings to lower the frame size and quality (but don't change the frame rate). Be sure to export the whole sequence.

The 2-pop will help the sound editor check for sync issues on import. The TC window (called BITC, or Burned In Time Code) will also aid in keeping everything nice and neat.