Error converting FCPX xml with Sync Clips

Graeme,

I haven't tried the Trim Embedded Audio option, that does sound like it could be helpful for shorter form things. My concern is that eventually I'll be delivering 20-minute reels and the expectation that it'll stay under the 2GB max at that point seems unlikely.

Re: Sync Clips - Yes, the audio in the Sync Clips plays when not disabled, I solo'd the tracks to confirm this. I may have misunderstood what audio FCPX was displaying however. The "Storyline" audio in the Audio Inspector (from the screenshot in my previous post) looks like it's actually just referencing the audio tracks in the video clip inside the Sync Clip. The Connected Clips are the WAV files within the Sync Clip. Apparently ProTools will not accept audio from video sources, so perhaps this is what the original issue was.

So I guess as long as the audio in your video clips is just for reference and not necessary for the audio mix, then it should be fine.

I still wish there was a way where you didn't have to individually turn off each of audio tracks from the video clips in the inspector before exporting though.

Geoffrey,

Is an AAF with embedded audio too large even if you use the option to "Trim embedded audio"?

Does the audio from the sync clips play in FCP X before you disable it? If so then X2Pro must include it in the AAF because it may contain audio that is needed. Disabling the audio tracks (or the whole clip) would stop X2Pro from putting the clip in the AAF, which is what you have done.

It sounds like X2Pro is working as designed, unless I have misunderstood?

A little more research and I think I was able to find a solution. The issue does appear to be with the FCPX Sync Clips.

The Sync Clips act as a container for the synchronized Video and the Audio clips. However in the Storyline it appears as a single clip with its own audio channel. So technically, FCPX is seeing the Storyline audio channel, plus the clips inside it with those various audio channels. This is where problem occurs in the conversion - it doesn't know how to translate all those audio channels.

The Solution
So, you have to select the Sync Clips in the Storyline, go the Audio tab of the Inspector and un-check the Storyline audio channels. (Screenshot attached.) The audio clips inside Sync Clip will still be active, it's just the redundant audio channel in the Storyline that needs to be disabled.

I did that with each clip in my sequence and exported the XML and XtoPro was able to generate a Referenced Media .aaf without any problems.

So yeah, is this a great solution? No, that's a significant amount of prep work just to get the XML out. But for now, it does work.

Hopefully an update to XtoPro will address this issue soon.

Thanks for the response Graeme.

My audio mixer is running ProTools, but I don't believe there are any issues with multi-track WAV's for him. He was also the sound recordist, so his files are prepared for his post pipeline.

We've used the Embedded Media .aaf's and they work great. The issue is, we're cutting a feature and I'll need to deliver reels (~20 mins) to him. The file size of the .aaf with embedded media for a whole reel will be huge and will cause problems with after the handoff. So that is why it's critical that I provide an .aaf with Referenced Media.

Hi Geoffrey,

Some audio finishing tools (for example Avid Pro Tools 10.0 and possibly later versions too) might not import all audio channels from referenced multi-channel WAV files.

There is an option in the X2Pro preferences to "Reference multi-channel WAV files", but you should only select this option if you are sure that your audio finishing tool supports AAF imports that refernce multi-channel WAV files.

There is also another option in X2Pro preferences where you choose what X2Pro should do when there is media that "can't be referenced" (e.g. multi-channel WAV files if "Reference multi-channel WAV files" is turned off). You can choose to "Embed the media" instead of referencing it - this way Pro Tools would be able to open all the single-channel referenced WAVs, and would also be able to open the embedded audio that was extracted from multi-channel WAVs by X2Pro.

I am getting an error when I try to convert my FCPX xml from a project with Sync Clips.

I need to export an .aaf with Referenced Media, so using the embedding scenario doesn't solve my problem. (It does, however, create the .aaf successfully with embedded media.)

My project has multiple Sync Clips, each with multichannel WAV's as part of the Sync Clip. Each WAV only has 2-4 channels in it.

Error Message:

"Writing AAF file
Getting audio characteristics for asset [51B_T2_BKH6-12047]
Error trying to create reference for asset (not a WAV file or too many audio channels)

No AAF file has been generated."

Using FCPX 10.1.3
Mac OSX 10.9.4
XtoProLE with the recently purchased Pro upgrade.
Attaching the fcpxml in question.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.