Can I use "roles" to trick FCPX into making 16 mono audio tracks?

I've been trying to do this with Compressor, but it occurs to me that it might be possible to do it from within FCPX using roles.

I really only need two channels of audio, but apparently the BMD HyperDeck Shuttle will only playback audio if it's in the same configuration that it records: 16 mono channels.

I don't have a HyperDeck, but you certainly can export a multitrack quicktime using roles. You'd need to make sixteen new roles, like Track1, Track2, etc. Then on export you can change the roles settings to "Multitrack Quicktime File" then add all the roles you created one by one with the "Add Audio Track" button. The order you select them determines the track layout. Make sure you set them to be mono and it should work.

I don't use a Hyperdeck Shuttle, but it surprises me that it does not allow you to allocate the number of audio tracks you effectively use in ProRes, as it only records 2 channels in DNxHD. I have looked inside the manual and indeed it seems to need 16 discrete audio channels for ProRes playback. Darren's advice is perfect for achieving this.

- Ronny

Thanks for your replies, Darren and Ronny. I was able to make a Quicktime with 16 mono channels.

Hopefully the deck will play this. I'll find out today.

And hopefully BMD will fix this issue, they acknowledged it as a bug back in February.

I hope it will work. And good to know about this bug, thank you.

- Ronny

Thanks to help I received here, I was able to create a QT with 16 discrete audio channels but still couldn't get this file to playback on the HyperDeck Shuttle 2. I had very limited time yesterday, might be able to play a little more today.

Next question: Can I change the audio bit depth that's exported in my master file? In this post , a BMD employee suggests that audio needs to be 16-bit (although I'm pretty sure recordings I've made on my deck have been 24-bit).

Thanks again for the help!

Just because I'm curious, why do you need to use the hyperdeck to play that file back? A perfectly acceptable answer can be 'Mind your own darn business."

Is that device capable of capturing from bm Media Express? If so, why not just record it from the computer via hdmi or a broadcast monitoring card or box's hdmi output?

Darren, there are a couple of reasons:

1. My MacBook Pro can't always reliably play back my projects. I work in TV trucks on the road, so everything is done on a laptop.

2. In the environment I work in, there isn't always a place to set up a computer, I/O, etc. But the HyperDeck fits anywhere. And it does SDI in & out.

Workflow wise would it work for you to make a master file in fcpx and then capture it via the HyperDeck™ using Media Express?

Does that add too much time to the process? It's really strange that they haven't fixed that.

One thing you can try doing is making a compressor setting with 24bit audio. That's how you made custom export settings before 10.1. I'm not there yet on all the new export capabilities.

That is an option, but then I'd need something like the UltraStudio to handle playback. That would give me a nice option when there is space available to be able to record & playback right into the computer, but it also means more to carry. Everything has to fit in my already-very-heavy backpack (I do a lot of editing on airplanes, etc.)

Sometimes there's lots of time, I've finished editing on the plane or in the hotel. Other times, I need a quick turnaround (I'll take something in, throw a quick effect on it, and spit it back out)

I was in a truck last night and couldn't get any of my files to play with audio. Very frustrating.

I recently bought compressor, I'll have to play around with it a little bit.

There is also the bm mini monitor and the Aja t-tap. They are tiny and inexpensive, but yeah every ounce counts.

Yeah, both those are possible options.

I was hoping (still am) to be able to do all of this with one box. To be fair, the HyperDeck does what it was designed to do (capture video then play it back) very well. Using it to playback content created elsewhere is a bit of a hack, but one BMD admits it should be able to do.