Exporting a Media Composer edit to Soundtrack Pro

Tutorial: Page (1) of 1 - 08/18/08

Exporting a Media Composer edit to Soundtrack Pro Why Media Composer editors should not overlook Final Cut Studio 2 By Kevin McAuliffe

For the second of my three part article series, I will look at the second most important part of your edit, and that is the sound mix. In many cases, the sound mix can make or break your show. Avid has always been the leader when it comes to taking an edit from the Media Composer (MC), and sending it via OMF to ProTools for a mix, and then sending it back to MC for the final output. Why should things be any different here? Let's take a look at how Soundtrack Pro can take the place of ProTools for you to do all your mixing.

As you can see from the image below, I have my piece finished, with the sound from my wedding on channels 1&2, and music on 3&4, and I want to send it to Soundtrack Pro (STP) to do a mix with.

The process to get the OMF from MC to STP is pretty straight forward. First, mark an in point at the start of your sequence, and an out point at the end of your sequence, and activate all your channels. Next, select your sequence in your bin, and navigate to FILE>SEND TO>MAKE NEW. Now, we are going to create an OMF export template for STP. Change your "Export Setting 1" to "Untitled," and click "Options." You should now be looking at a window like the one below.

We are going to set up our Export Settings so that they look like this.

And finally, we are going to click on "Save As," and we are going to call our new Export Setting "OMF for Soundtrack Pro." You will now notice that your "Export Setting 1" has changed to "OMF for Soundtrack Pro." Now, since we want a video reference as well, we are going to activate "Export Setting 2," and select "QuickTime Reference DV Codec" as our setting. This might change depending on what type of footage you are editing. Finally, we want to make sure our "Auto Launch" is set to Soundtrack Pro, and we have "Reveal Exported File(s)" selected. Your final template should look like this:

Finally, we are going to save a template called "OMF for Soundtrack Pro" that will appear in the "SEND TO" window any time we need to access it. Last, but certainly not least, we can now click "OK," and MC will start exporting. Once it has finished exporting, MC will automatically launch STP, and now I can import my OMF file, and drag and drop my QuickTime reference file, and I'm ready to start mixing in either stereo or surround sound.

Once you are done with your mix, you can either export back to a two channel AIFF file, or export six individual streams to output via the MC, or you can simply export a Dolby Digital AC-3 file for DVD creation. Avid pretty much wrote the book on taking OMF files from Media Composer to ProTools to do your mixing, but with Soundtrack Pro able to import OMF files, you can now have the best editor working along side one of the best mixing programs to give you and your clients a better end product. Coming up in the last of my three part series is a look at DVD creation with DVD Studio Pro 4 and Avid's Media Composer. For more information on Media Composer, you can check it out at www.avid.com, and for more information on Final Cut Studio 2, you can check it out at www.apple.com/finalcutstudio.

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Kevin P McAuliffe is currently a Senior Video Editor working in HD post production in Toronto, Canada. He has been in the television industry for 12 years, and spends his days onlining on a Final Cut Pro HD. Kevin's high definition onlining credit list includes concerts for Coldplay, Sarah McLachlan, Barenaked Ladies, Snow Patrol, Sum41, Paul Anka, Il Divo and Pussycat Dolls, to name a few. Also, Kevin is an instructor of Advanced Final Cut Studio 2 at the Toronto Film College. If you have any questions or comments, you can drop him a line at kevinpmcauliffe@gmail.com

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