Upgrading production company from FCP7. Question about Sound mixing in Final Cut X

[montezumeflex]

Hi there,

I'm working at a small production which produces two television programs on a weekly basis. We have been working on Final Cut 7 for the past 4 years, been holding off the upgrade to a newer NLE, because we used to work with FinalCutServer on our NAS.
The server has been upgraded now and we have a few new Mac's coming our way and because of this I really want to change to a more modern NLE.

We have 6 workstations now, in the near future this may expand to 8. Because of this Avid is almost out of the question because of the price.
I'm doubting between Adobe (monthly costs, but familiar user interface) or Final Cut X (Really like the potential, but not sure if reliable enough)
Since we are working with an external sound editor to deliver our soundmix at -9 or -12 we are used to exporting an .omf. Mainly because I want to make sure the levels are correct, our TV shows have roughly 6-7 audio tracks so not really complex.

I read that with x2pro i can get my mix to an external editor, but i was wondering if it would be possible to do the audio mixing within Final Cut X.
Can anyone give me some advice, for example people who use FCPX and are creating their own audio mixes.
Do you work with an external editor? Do you mix it yourself with protools/audition/logic? Or can you manage to do this within FCPX.

Any help is much appreciated, I would also love to hear your experience in your switch from FCP7 to FCPx/Premiere.

Kind Regards,
Martijn

 

[ryanjf]

Hi Martijn,

In short, while I don't have any intense experience with FCPX, I'd go with Premiere Pro. The most recent update to Premiere Pro this month has done some major improvements in the audio part of their program - it's what Final Cut Studio should've been. The improvements are related to OMF/AAF/iXML/BEXT metadata handling in Premiere Pro, which us post sound folks love to see. The fact that it is within their own program is a plus versus having to buy an additional third party application like X2Pro just to export audio reliably for your sound team. However, X2Pro works great as well, but I personally prefer an "all in the box" solution for any NLE/DAW.

Given your situation, I think it would be more beneficial for you to hire out an external sound editor/mixer. They might have better tools to mix your television programs. For many networks, they have extremely strict loudness limits and regulations that would be better handled by a professional sound editor/mixer with the proper tools. I personally use Pro Tools to mix and rely on it and other plugins to get my broadcast mixes in good shape.

 

[arniepix]

You may also want to take a look at Lightworks. A 1 year subscription is $175, and a perpetual license to use DNxHD with it is $65. It supports aaf and omf exports & imports and will work with all common codecs and formats. It's currently available for Mac, Windows and Linux. It's the only pro NLE on Linux.http://www.lwks.com/

 

[NoahK]

Really depends on your deliverables. If you are in a position to deliver finished 5.1 or stereo outputs ready for air, then Final Cut Pro X can absolutely complete them. If you are required to work with an outside sound designer/mixer via Pro Tools, X2Pro will be required in order to prep the FCPX audio in a way that those apps can readily accept.

We recently worked with the folks at TED who are constantly delivering programming via both workflows and they're obviously working through tons of material all the time. More info here: http://www.fcpworks.com/ted-goes-fcpx-help-fcpworks/

If you want to know more or need help setting it up- please feel free to drop us a line: http://www.fcpworks.com/contact/

-Noah