2 New Articles: Alternative Media Production Apps | Using iTunes To Organize Stock Audio

I don't think these have been formally announced, at least in this forum:

Alternative Apps For Media Production
www.fcproxuniversity.com/FCPro_X_Univers...edia_Production.html

Using iTunes To Organize Stock Audio For FCP X
www.fcproxuniversity.com/FCPro_X_Univers...dio_For_FCP_X_2.html

Excellent info from BenB! I will likely be picking up Pixelator and Sketch when I get some time to play with them.

I hope in the future, whether you authored the article or not, posts can be added here with links to helpful material like these. The material may be already echoed in a thread here, but a new post will be helpful for future forum users.

Thanks,
Dave

Thank you, David. I also have a list of free short written tutorials at macProVideo.com/HUB

Ben,

I just read your newest blog, "I want my QT 7 Pro!"
www.fcproxuniversity.com/FCPro_X_Univers...it/Extra_Credit.html

I could not agree more. If Apple doesn't do something for Moutain Lion that is comparable, I may be on 10.6.8 for a very long time. I use it almost daily for a multitude of tasks.
--

By the way, since we were talking about the design colors here a while back, your site is similar, but ultimately a bit easier to read then this website. I still would consider in the future switching to a black or dark gray font on a light background. Many studies have shown that it's just easier to read. There's a zillion articles on the web about this. Here's a quote from one I just googled:

"Regardless of the artistic merits of a black or dark background, it has been known for years that white-on-black is very hard to read. Speed and comprehension drop dramatically, and the web site will lose visitors. (I would add gray-on-gray to this statement also- dg)

There's a reason why virtually ALL commercial web sites use a light-colored background with dark text. They're in it for the money, and they've done the usability studies. Dark backgrounds lose customers. The only exceptions are web sites where the graphical/artistic content outweighs the text, such as a "batman returns" site, or a photographer's site."

If you want to talk off-forum about it, I can also give you some suggestions about your site like your link rollover and visited color choices which are important part of usability to the visitor and very easy to change.

As much as I enjoy video and hope to use it profitably on my websites, I don't pay my mortgage or bills shooting or editing video. But, I do via my website income. I hope you find this helpful. I certainly don't mean to offend.

Thanks,
Dave

It's an iWeb template, I'm not that concerned. It's being revamped totally in Hype, too, to be HTML 5, but very, very, very slowly. I simply don't have the time to dedicate to it.

I would advise upgrading to Lion, even if you don't go to Mountain Lion. FCP X 10.0.5 is more stable on it than SL. And I find the navigation and other enhancements very useful.

BenB wrote: I would advise upgrading to Lion, even if you don't go to Mountain Lion. FCP X 10.0.5 is more stable on it than SL. And I find the navigation and other enhancements very useful.

I'm still nursing some old Adobe CS 1 software and a few other audio programs that get broke in 10.7. This will mostly get solved though when I finally go to Mountain Lion and buy Pixelator and Sketch.

Also, I do have Lion loaded on an external drive that I use for Xcode so I'm familiar with its advantages and disadvantages. And, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones that has no problems with FCPX in 10.6.8 (at least so far).

Thanks,
Dave

I do color grading and FX work so I need broadcast monitor output. So I have to be on Lion. It's really nice.

There will be more regular updates to that blog, so doing an RSS subscription may be an idea. Here's the latest, and pay attention to the non-video file type info!
About Original, Optimized And Proxy Media

About that "I want my QT 7 Pro" article:

I've had an issue 2 times over the course of very different projects, where I had exported an audio track out of Soundtrack Pro OR one from FCP X, and matched it back with a video file in FCP 7. And it was out of sync.
And I tell you, both were exactly (to the frame) as long as the other. Really weird problem.
I checked the settings on the audio, all was good, 48khz, 16-bit, AIFF.

I looked on forums and after 3 hours of searching and trying out many different things, I read someone who had the same problem and said he would open a new window in QT 7 pro, and the video file separate and the audio file separate. Put an in and out point on the video file, copied it to the new player window, and then did the same with the audio but used 'paste and stretch' or something.
And then it was sync.

I've read a couple of these problems online too, and the only solution was that.

Please Apple. Fix QT X. I literally know no one who likes it.
Putting video on a second display, having controls no in your video window, more export support, ...
Apple seemed to say that QT X was just the first release of a better Quicktime, but they are taking too much time for a corporation their size.

I'd question some of what's going on. When you say out of sync, is it that the audio is out of sync the same amount all the way through? Or does the audio "drift" out of sync more and more as the video plays?

A drift, but in my mind (and it could be I remember it incorrectly, it was a while ago) the out-of-sync already started very early in the film (maybe after a couple of seconds.

And at the time, I tried all things of re-exporting, re-importing, trying different settings, trying from the start again, etc. ...
The only thing that helped was the method I described and at that time I found some other people on the Apple Discussion Forum that had the same, and I thus read about this solution.

And to be clear:
my first audio-export from the video was EXACTLY the same length as the video - as it should be.
the altered, cleaned up audio of the audio track (letting it run trough FCP X's auto enhancements) had EXACTLY the same length too. Putting them on the same timeline in FCP 7 (snapping, again, being exactly the same length) still it was out of sync.
It was such a strange problem.
The persons on the Apple Discussion Forum had the same problem.

Not a good idea to capture in one version to edit in another. There's some glitches between legacy FCP's QTFramework and X's AVFramework under pinnings.

Hi Ben,

that's not what happened.
I had a finished cut of a simple cut cut video in FCP 7. Not captured material, only solid state media, XDCAM quick times. I exported an AIF out of FCP 7 and once did some tweaks on it in Soundtrack Pro. The latest example was the same but tweaking in FCP X.
Not cutting, just filtering out some background noise and/or I really like how the Loudness filter in FCP X seems to adjust the volume, but also add a Compressor and Limiter to it (not sure, but I think it does). It can give you quickly better volumes.
I then exported that AIF out of Soundtrack Pro/FCP X, and put that under the timeline in FCP7.