best settings for FCPX and macbook pro 13 2010

Hi all

Got a project to do abroad (golf charity event) and the footage needs turning around to view via projector in 24 hrs or less). Here in the Uk I have a 27 iMac, 32gb i7 680 mx etc etc BUT I will have to use my macbook pro 2010 for editing (core 2 duo, 8gb ram)

As you can imagine it will be like going from a ferrari to a skateboard in terms of speed.

Does anyone have any ideas as to how I can speed up my workflow (capturing 1080p) ? I.e. move events projects to external drive, work with proxy, exporting file format or size etc?

Hope you can help

Hi Phil, and welcome.

Putting your Events and Projects onto an external drive is always a MUST. Use a drive that's fast enough (7.200 rpm) and also use the fastest interface you can have on your MBP. In your case I think that will be FireWire. Do not, EVER use USB 2.0 for editing.

If you have the time to convert to Proxy media while importing: that is the best way of speeding up your workflow on an slower machine. The seamless Proxy workflow is unique for FCPX.

For the rest the usual things: turn background rendering OFF, only use waveform display when you need to work on the sound, avoid thumbnail display in the event Browser if you don't need it, etc... If you make sure to relieve FCPX from any unneeded strains 8 GB RAM is good enough, we used late 2011 MBPs with 8 GB RAM at the Olympic Games and had no problems whatsoever.

How you import and export pretty much depends on the format of your footage and the format you will need to export for projection.

- Ronny

Thanks Ronny, great tips there which I will follow.

I always capture in 1080p 50 fps. Im taking a projector with me and wondered what the best output format would be with regards to size without losing too much quality?

Normally I import directly from the SD cards.

However, I may also have to narrate over the footage so I am taking a zoom H4N and will capture the narration as I watch and then insert into the footage (a gamble i know)

FCPX can handle 50p without any issues. If you already have worked with FCPX and the camera you will use for that gig you will have no problems. If not: test it before you go.

The output format depends on your projector and on what device you will use to play the video to the projector.

The zoom H4N is a good recording device. Recording live VO while you are shooting can indeed be kind of a gamble, but if you have done this before it should work. If not: test it before you go.

- Ronny

I play back from a projector quite often. I usually do a ProRes 422 QT file, and play it back in QT 7 Play using View > Present Movie > Actually size. We've found for my local FCPUG over 6 years that it is the best quality we ever get.

Wow thats great I will try that out BenB as I use Qlab to cue the videos I play.

Rony, I was going to play my final edit back (on mute) and narrate on the zoom h4n and somehow add it to the edit afterwards.. madness i know

That should work well. OTOH if you have a little audio interface and a good mic you also can use the Voice Over tool in FCPX to record your narration. It gives you an immediate VO track without having to import or sync anything, and you can do the narration live on your edit. If you make a mistake, just start again anywhere you want and go on from there. Much faster than recording externally, importing and trying to put all the parts together.

- Ronny

I considered that Ronny but wondered if it would slow my system down?

I will send you links to my free tutorials on recording and editing VO in FCP X.

I'd not record live while showing a video. Even though FCP X can continue recording while you switch to using an other app. It could, with full res HD playback in another app, slow your Mac down "potentially". Maybe set it up at home and try it out first.

Since you're going to record the VO to add to the edit later, well, that's a backwards way of doing things. Do the VO first, add it to the edit NOW, so that it is polished and professional, and just show the video with your great VO work as part of the video clip itself. Live VO is never as good.

And, if you have some specific reason for recording live VO, you could always invite some family and friends over for a private screening, and narrate that live, then edit it in, before the real, professional presentation.

Just thinking out loud, may not mean anything...

No, of course you should not record anything while playing back to a projector. I think I misunderstood what you meant. The only good way of doing this is to finish your edit, put the VO on it and only then show it to anyone. That's super easy in FCPX. Recording a VO in a room full of people is a recipe for disaster.

- Ronny

Hi Ben/Ronny

Sorry, think I may not have explained myself properly. I was going to finish the edit, then play the completed edit back on my laptop and record the VO on my Zoom H4N.. Then add the VO to the edit and show the completed version on a projector screen. Sorry for the confusion.

Ideally, I would of Liked to record the VO direct to FCPX but :-

1. I am worried at slowing the system down.
2. Unsure as to whether I need a USB mic or something first (But as I have the H4N I thought I would utilise that.

Hi Phil,

So I did understand you correctly. I would advise you to connect your H4N to your system via USB and do the VO right on the FCPX timeline while you are playing the edit. This will save you a lot of time not having to import the zoom file and not having to manually sync every single take after the import. If you make a mistake while recording the VO just go back until the last good bit of your recording and start recording again. All your takes will be in perfect sync with your edit.

Ben has made an excellent tutorial on how to record VO in FCPX, including recording different takes and merging these takes into one single clip with only the good audio. He will send it to you.

Here's how you connect your H4N via USB to your Mac:

1. Connect your H4N to your Mac via a USB cable
2. Select "USB" from the Menu button on the right side of your H4N
3. Select "AUDIO I/F"
4. Select "CONNECT"
5. Open up "Audio MIDI setup" on your Mac
6. Select "H4" which should appear at the bottom of the list on the left

Then in FCPX you open the Voice Over window and you will see the H4N listed in your Input Device list. Just select it and start recording. This will not slow down FCPX in any way. We did exactly the same thing at the Olympics recording voice overs on 2011 MBPs (we did use a different mic there, but I think the H4N will do really well). At the facility we have a professional recording booth where the VO talent sees the FCPX edit playing with TC overlay on his monitor and we record his voice directly on the edit. Works perfectly and we haven't experienced any slowdowns.

- Ronny

Excellent Ronny,

That works great on my main mac so will test it out on my laptop later (and the quality of the zoom H4N will do perfectly (especially as I dont have a sound booth but will have a quite hotel room!

I haven't seen any links from Ben as yet but will look forward to them.. I have never used the voiceover enhancement plugins either so might do some prep work on them also.

So to Recap: Turn off Real time rendering, edit in proxy (when i come to export do I need to switch something over so it uses the higher quality media?), Edit final version, Capture audio via H4N and usb... This sounds all too easy

FCPX has some really great VO enhancement features and plugins that come with the app (the same professional plugins you can find in Logic). The Voice Over Enhancement filter actually holds three essential plugins for VO enhancement inside one filter. Here's a video explaining that filter: vimeo.com/64066383

I'm not a professional audio guy, so others may chime in here to give you some further tips. But IMO the best way of learning how to deal with VO enhancement is to actually record a VO in FCPX using the mic you will use on the job and then experiment with the tools to see how they can improve your particular voice. If you are not familiar with audio enhancement filters the presets inside that filter will already get you very far.

Yes, turning Background Rendering OFF is important. If you need to render anything you can do this manually.

Using the Proxy workflow helps a lot when you feel your computer is not able to cope comfortably with the media you are working with. And yes after editing in Proxy mode you must switch back to "Original Media" to export your project in full quality. You do this in FCPX Preferences > Playback options.

But if you can work comfortably with the Original media (or with the media optimized to ProRes 422) you do not necessarily NEED to use the Proxy workflow because transcoding to Proxy media does take some time. Again this is a matter of testing your workflow on the system and with the media you will be working with.

Once your edit is finished you connect the H4N to your system, you record the VO while playing the edit and you clean up the different takes, getting rid of the bad ones. Then you put all your good audio takes that are on the timeline into a Compound Clip (select the audio clips and ALT+G. This will create one single clip from the different tales, allowing you to do the audio enhancement on the entire CC and not having to copy/paste them from one clip to another.

Finally you export your edit to a ProRes 422 master file for projection.

It is, in fact, much easier to do this than to explain it

- Ronny

Just sent the links. I will say this, and it is in the articles I sent you links to, with the magnetic timeline, doing "auditions" is a waste of time. If you flub a line, or want more than one take, just repeat the line, keep going. Being able to cut up with the razor tool (Cmd- and insert gap clips (to insert pauses, Opt-W) make it way to easy and fast to just work straight through the magnetic timeline.

My only two grips about VO work in FCP X, is that you can't record VO directly to the Primary Storyline. What a PITA. And when you retime audio we get that weird, inside a metal tank sound. Something that did not exist in original versions of FCP X.

But aside from those two, I do VO work almost daily, and have never gotten through them as fast or as easily as I do now. Love working in it.

Side note: The FCP "VO Enhancement" filter is nice, but it processes compression first, not last, which makes it useless to me as a professional. Compression and limiting should always be the last thing you throw on audio for sweetening. But, that's just me. Sweetening and mixing audio can get in to personal taste occasionally. I highly recommend the book "The Mixing Engineer's Handbook" by Bobby Owsinski. Easy to page through, great information, Amazon has it for under $30. All the info applies directly to the "digital plugins" you're working with in FCP X or Logic X.

I will say this, and it is in the articles I sent you links to, with the magnetic timeline, doing "auditions" is a waste of time. If you flub a line, or want more than one take, just repeat the line, keep going.

That may be so when you just have to read a text from paper. But for live commenting (what the OP wants to do) you always have to SEE the video while you are speaking. In this case it is makes more sense to stop when you make a mistake, trim the recorded audio clip to where you want to start over and start recording again from there. At the end of your VO this gives you a series of audio clips with nothing but good audio perfectly synched to the video. Saves a lot of time.

- Ronny

What do I class as 'Good Audio' here gents? I am unfortunately blessed with a liverpoodlian accent which is never the best BUT in the short amount of time I have left here, I am happy with a 'preset' option (Voice over enhancement if it works)

However when i return, I would love to learn a bit more about sound editing so will certainly pick up that book.

Just to clarify, saving as prores 422 (for a 15 min video would that be around 6gb?) will that cause any complications playing live through the projector (I use Qlab software at present) i.e. with the file size being very large?

I simply LOVE the Liverpool accent, don't change this

With "good audio takes" I just meant the actual content (no slip of the tongue, no mistakes...), not the quality.

Once you have your good audio takes on your timeline you can further enhance your entire VO using the tools inside FCPX if you wish. As Ben said this can get really personal, as everyone has his own idea on how "good audio" should sound. The presets will indeed give you a decent sounding result without having to dig into the complex art of audio sweetening, so go for that.

Your ProRes 422 master will have a size around 6GB, that's correct. I haven't used Qlab, I just went to have a look at their site. Looks like a terrific software, I'm definitely going to have a closer look at it. So thank you for this tip.

I see Qlab is based on AV/Foundation, just like FCPX. And ProRes 422 is fully supported for video streaming, so that should not be an issue at all. If you are afraid of the MBPs performance I would just export any 15 minute edit you can find to ProRes 422 and see if it streams comfortably in Qlab on the MacBookPro just to make sure. Bt I think it will.

- Ronny

Ahh thats good News.

Yes, I use Qlab live as I also sing and produce my own video backgrounds of a weekend, its a great way to automate your video show (although it can do much much more)

Last year I made a terrible mistake of doing some 'on golf course interviews' thinking the furry windjammer would suffice (oh how wrong was I). I just couldn't get the sound right as when editing I couldn't get rid of the noise. ( I looked into some ryecote windshields but a little expensive, especially as I put everything into my mac setup this year.)

If I use some background music, is there an industry standard 'setup' for audio levels when using VO and background music?

If you are delivering to broadcast there are indeed some technical rules you have to comply with. But for projection just make sure the audio mix sounds good on your MBP and it will sound good during projection. For your final mix an average of - 6dB on your fcpx audio meters will do fine. Some like to push the audio as close as possible to zero in the mix, I don't do that but it's OK as long as you never get any peaks going over zero.

If you edit in a hotel room use a decent set of headphones connected to your MBP and set the volume loud enough while listening to your final mix. The louder you project the more you will hear the music interfere with your voice. So it is safer to keep the music level low enough under your voice. People won't mind if the music is not really prominent, but they will if it blows your voice away. You always can push the music up a little bit on parts of the video where you have no VO, to emphasize the action.

- Ronny