This month we explain how to get the video and its associated sound files into a Pro Tools Session ready for you to start work. Last month, I explained the choices you need to make when setting up a Pro Tools system to work with video. Following on from that, we are going to look in detail at how you get your audio from a video editing package such as Avid Express or Final Cut Pro into Pro Tools, using Digitranslator for TDM systems and the DV Toolkit for LE systems. Digitranslator is a software add- on for Pro Tools that enables it to open OMF, AAF and MXF audio files, video files and sequences. With the Digitranslator v. Pro Tools supports the import and export of OMF media files and sequences as well as AAF sequences directly into Pro Tools 6. How To Consolidate Pro Tools Sessions Ready For Archiving. When I am done mixing a Pro Tools session, I like to consolidate it for my archives and store it onto Blu Ray. Compact in the Pro Tools Clip List Contextual Menu. Consolidate and Embed Media – Use this one with Pro Tools This selection will only duplicate the media that you have used and link to this newly created media. So the first thing you will notice is that your bin will create. Explore a powerful round-trip workflow between Avid Media Composer and Pro Tools to quickly mix dialogue, sound effects, and music for film. Avid Pro Audio Community > Pro Tools Software > Pro Tools 11 Discussion: Consolidating Clips/tracks. A free and intuitive web app to help you memorize default Pro Tools 10 keyboard shortcuts. 1 QuickTime AMA Plug-in Guide. QuickTime AMA clips to AFE (Avid File Exch ange). Transcode or consolidate the clip or sequence first. Sessions without launching a separate application. From v. 6. 9 Pro Tools supports import of MXF video, as well as import and export of MXF audio. Finally, with Pro Tools 7. AAF files with embedded audio. If all these different standards are confusing you, take a look at the box on the next page. DV Toolkit is a post- production bundle for Pro Tools LE 6. TDM systems, so providing you with the opportunity to 'work to picture' using a very cost- effective LE- based system. Firstly it enables the Time Code functions, including the Time Code ruler, and so enables you to edit to picture with time code accuracy and convenience. It also includes Digitranslator 2. OMF, AAF or MXF exchanges. Included in the bundle are Synchro Arts' Vocalign Project, which enables you to sync up replacement dialogue very accurately, and Digidesign's DINR Audiosuite plug- in to help with de- noising any dodgy audio that might come along your way. This is nice, though it has to be said that DINR is getting very long in the tooth these days and can't really compete with the likes of Waves' and Sony Oxford's restoration bundles. Having looked at the tools available to you, let's go through the process of getting an OMF into Pro Tools in more detail. Always remember that most problems with OMF imports stem from OMF creation problems on the video editing system. It is very important to co- ordinate in advance with the video editor to make sure they create the correct format of OMF file. The only other file you will need is the video . It is very helpful if this includes 'burnt in' time code so you have a continual visual read out of the time code on the video screen. First, import the video, following the instructions described last month. Remember that Pro Tools will always put the video file at the start of the session. Your Session will now contain a Video track and a Movie. Go to the start of the Session and view the first frame of the video. Look at the burnt- in time code and set the Session Start Time in the Session Setup window to the same time code value as the first frame. Alternatively, you can set the Session start time to a value before the video start time to leave space for line- up tones and the like. To do this, Change the Session Start time in the Session Setup window to the desired time; when you hit Enter, a dialogue box will come up. We need to make sure the video stays at the correct time code position so select Maintain Time Code and you will see that the Session now starts earlier but the video has remained at the correct time code. The Import Session Data dialogue contains numerous parameters which will help you to ensure that data from the video editor is translated in a useful way in Pro Tools. We can now import the OMF into this Session to bring in all the audio that has been laid up by the video editor. To do this you must have Digitranslator 2 installed and authorised on your machine. Select Import Session Data in the File Menu of Pro Tools and the usual navigation window will open. Select the appropriate OMF file, click on the Open button, and a variation of the normal Import Session Data window will open, showing a list of the audio tracks as they were in the video editing package. Leave all the tracks set to New Track, but before you click the OK button you need to look at some of the tick boxes and pull- down menus. Take a look at the bottom left- hand corner (see screen on previous page). For instance, I tend to change the pull- down menu from 'Ignore clip- based gain' to 'Convert clip- based gain to automation'. I also untick the 'Pan odd tracks left/even tracks right' box as I find these defaults are more often wrong than right, and anyway I tend to rearrange things on to different tracks very soon after importing the OMF into my Session. Then take a look at the left- hand middle section. I prefer to set the upper pull- down menu to 'Copy from source media' so that Pro Tools creates new audio files in the Session's audio files folder. This way, the Session doesn't remain dependent on the embedded OMF file, which may get lost if the Session is moved around to different drives and/or systems later on in the work flow. On this occasion you can ignore the Video pull- down menu, as embedded video files in OMFs are not supported by Pro Tools and anyway you already have your video file on its track in the Pro Tools Session. Finally, you can click OK. Pro Tools will start copying the audio files across and they will appear on the Edit window as each one is done. Avid's Open Media Framework (OMF) was the first 'transfer file format' to come into widespread use, but two new standards, Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) and Media Exchange Format (MXF), have evolved to resolve the various interchange limitations. They are robust enough to contain all the information that any sequence contains and are extensible, meaning that new features can be added later. OMF has become a 'standard' because Avid, who designed it, have a hold on the video- editing market and not because it came from a recognised standards organisation. However, there have been a number of obstacles to it becoming a universal standard. First, it has a history of instability, and second . Finally, not all third- party companies wanted to support a standard with proprietary origins. To be fair, Avid made serious attempts at moving OMF into the public domain through both the SMPTE and AES standards bodies. Unfortunately, the attempt foundered for several reasons, the main one being that OMF uses an underlying technology called Bento, which is a 'container' format for recording data on disk. Although it is freely licensed to OMF developers, Bento was developed by and is owned by Apple, and for SMPTE or AES to standardise something, all proprietary issues, including patents and copyrights, must be formally waived, which Apple refused to do. From the start, both the AAF and MXF formats were designed to avoid the limitations OMF came with. To speed this along and to gain some independence, an organisation was created called the AAF Association. AAF was initiated by Avid and Microsoft, who have since been joined by many other important companies and organisations. Avid and Microsoft worked together to replace Bento with a new container format, and the resulting AAF design is derived from OMF and retains its power and flexibility while refining the details and adding significant capabilities. In a further step to aid take- up and improve independence, the AAF Association have made the software developer kits to support AAF 'open source', meaning that they can be freely copied and are available at Source Forge. Meanwhile, in true 'standards form' (why have one standard when you can have three or four?) another effort was under way. Industries beyond the professional production business, such as telecoms, Internet and computer companies, now require a universal way to transport video and audio media around. The Pro- MPEG Forum (another consortium) was formed to take up this challenge, and, in co- ordination with the European Broadcast Union and SMPTE, helped create MXF. Even though the standardisation process is not complete, more and more companies are supporting both the AFF and MXF formats in their software. Together, AAF and MXF offer the prospect of data interchange between picture, audio and effects systems and thus the ability to cut a sequence on a picture system, hand it intact to sound, move it to the mixing stage, and finally load it back into the picture system with everything visible and audible everywhere. Through Digitranslator 2, Pro Tools supports them both as well as OMF2s. Now you can start work. One the first things I do is to reorganise the track allocations making new stereo tracks where appropriate. This is necessary as, like older versions of Pro Tools, neither FCP nor Avid supports stereo tracks, so all stereo material will have been split across two tracks by the video editor. I move all stereo material across to stereo tracks and reorganise the other material on to tracks that suit my way of working. Then I can start work on the material. We will look at the following stages in next month's article. If you don't have Digitranslator or a TDM system, it is still possible to do some work to video in Pro Tools. Here's how.. When you import an OMF into Pro Tools, stereo parts will be split across two mono tracks, and the order of the tracks might not be very helpful (top). The first stage in working with such a project is usually to reorganise and rename the tracks to make it easier to see what's going on (above). In your video editing package, create a copy of the finished sequence. Then you will need to consolidate each of the audio tracks so that all the material on each track is bounced into a single file, with each file starting at the beginning of the sequence . Then export the audio from each track and the finished video, making sure that you have a version of the video with 'burnt in' time code (a time code reader is one of the video effects in Avid or FCP). This will make working in Pro Tools without a time code ruler much easier. Remember to make sure the video file is a Quicktime movie and don't use the Avid codec as Pro Tools doesn't support it . Pro Tools: Heal, Consolidate, and Group Clips.
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