4 simple questions about audio and FCPX.

Hello,please help me.

1) Is it appropriate to import my audio files from "Music and Sound Browser" tab into FCPX) or its a better idea to arrange all Audio files
what I am going to use in a folder and then import from finder window?

2)Is it possible to drag and drop music tracks from "Music and Sound Browser " tab to Event Browser without put the audio
in sequence?how?

3)How to import a part of a music / soundtrack? (Can I mark in / out BEFORE I drag to timeline)? I mean,set IN / OUT directly from
Music and Sound Browser" tab.

4)How to connect music / sounds what I have in "Music and Sound Browser" tab TO connected clips (NOT to primary story line clips)?





thank you

This was answered on the Apple forum, but I'll repeat the information here for the benefit of those who use this forum.

1) The Media Browser is to access audio media that you've added to your iTunes, or that was installed by FCP X and Motion themselves (and STP if you previously had that). If you want some music or audio that you want to access regularly, add it to iTunes. All of my 3rd party SFX and canned music is in my iTunes library, with Genre, Artist, and all of the necessary metadata so I can find it quickly and easily. Hint: I created a new Genre called Stock Audio.

2) You can drag and drop directly from the Media Browser into an Event, or directly into a Timeline, either way. Be aware that either method will create a duplicate of the file in your Event folder. Placing it directly into a Timeline, will place the copy into that Timeline's Default Event that was specified when you created the Project or Compound Clip.

3) You can't set In/Outs in audio files before importing them. Not sure why I'd want to anyway.

4) Highlight the audio file in the Media Browser you want to use, click the Edit button you wish to use (Connect, Insert, Append). The edit keyboard shortcuts don't work, as hitting letters while in the music browser helps you search, by jumping to the first audio file that begins with that letter.

@Christian.Frank

If you're not a big fan of cluttering up your iTunes library with sound fx like myself, then I have a better solution for you. From my own point of view iTunes is a music app for my personal pleasure, and while it's capable of being jury-rigged into working as a media archive for stuff other than your Beatles collection (or if you're me, 90GB of obsessive-compulsively organized and archived _music_) I think I'd rather keep my already slow-loading iTunes from bogging down under the weight of gigs of sound FX I then have to see every time I do music searches.

Here's what I do (while imperfect it works better than the above aforementioned)....

FCPX will look for your FCP7 and FCPX sound fx files and display them in the media browser. This is great news! Moreover, I've found that when it looks into the appropriate folder (listed below) it will properly display symlinked folders (or folders you create aliases to) within that sound fx folder. Check it....

Navigate to here in Finder: Macintosh HD > Library > Audio > Apple Loops > Apple > Final Cut Pro Sound Effects

Now if you're like me, you want to keep all your audio and video on an external array (or even just an external drive). So what I've done (and do whatever works for you for this step), is create a folder like so:

Big Geek > Sound Effects > Gun Shots > M4 Rifle.wav

Big Geek is the name of my drive. It's a movie reference (name it for an attaboy) but whatever. The important part is that inside Sound Effects I keep subfolders and my audio files. The cool thing is that if you create an alias to any of these folders, inside your "Final Cut Pro Sound Effects" folder FCPX will display the folder in the Media Browser as well as let you work with the sound files inside.

Once you have both finder windows open, I suggest doing a command+option+drag of either your top level folder (e.g. Big Geek > Sound Effects) and drop that into your Final Cut Pro Sound Effects folder, or get a bit more granular and command+option+drag each subfolder (e.g. Big Geek > Sound Effects > Gun Shots) into your Final Cut Pro Sound Effects folder. Whatever works better for you and keeps you sane.

Last really cool note!

You can rename your aliases! If you don't want to maintain the original generic (but appropriate) folder name inside your Final Cut Pro Effects folder, you can rename the alias to whatever you want. In my case I drag Big Geek > Sound Effects over and rename the alias to " My Clips". That's not a typo either, it has a leading space so that the folder ends up at the top of the folder display in the Media Browser.

Ok one more pro-tip before I go!

If you really REALLY want to get anal retentive about stuff, you can use an alias named "Final Cut Pro Sound Effects" to point to any folder and organize it the way you want. Frankly I'm not quite there yet in the OCD department but frankly now that I'm thinking about it I may just go and do this and keep all my audio on my RAID. The example would be to option+command+drag Big Geek > Sound Effects into Macintosh HD>Library>Audio>Apple Loops>Apple and then rename the alias as I mentioned above.

Hope some of this is useful for you!

No one said jury rig iTunes, not in any way shape or form! Why do you say that? I'm using it as it was meant to be used, I'm not cluttering anything up, I'm keeping things VERY organized. Not sure why you wouldn't use an audio cataloging system for exactly what it was meant to be used for?

The OS uses the "system folder" you recommend for specific types of files. Dump what you want in to it, but I wouldn't.

Just use iTunes, it's not cluttered up, it's how it was meant to be used. I prefer cleaner, safer workflows.

The fact of the matter is, iTunes let's you sort, search, tag, and organize your audio files in a very sophisticated way. Just like FCP X does with your Event files. Nothing wrong with using it for the purpose it was built for.

Just my 2 cents.

I don't use iTunes to organize my sound files for the reasons I mentioned, but I'll spell them out:

- it slows down my already slow iTunes (because I already have 90GB of music in there)

- it's clumsy because every time i want to look at just music it's cluttered with sound fx (even if you genre tag everything religiously) that if nothing else you gotta scroll past

- if I want to search for a song with the name "car" and i type "car" into the iTunes search box it'll give me "in my car" the song I'm looking for, and also 30+ unrelated files because "cartoon effect" just so happens to be in my fx library

- if you're inside FCPX and you want to view your collection of FX clips, in your workflow you'd have to click "Media Browser" then "iTunes" then "Music" to see them. How's that make any sense?

- if you take the time to make a smart playlist in iTunes that pulls just "sound fx" genre-tagged clips you can at least have a clean view. But it's still a kluge.

And last but not least....

- Genre tagging and archiving is meaningless inside iTunes because once you import the file you still need to rebuild the meta data inside FCPX's database. Moreover, genre tagging files in iTunes can't be displayed in the Media Browser's list of columns. All you get is Name, Artist and Time. While I did notice you can type "hip hop" and get all your files genre-tagged as such, there's no display of WHICH meta data field corresponded to your search.



So what's wrong with placing your media into an aliased folder inside the Final Cut Pro Effects folder? Moreover, what's wrong with moving the Final Cut Pro Effects folder to another drive entirely, organizing it the way you prefer, then dropping an alias to it back into the Apple Loops folder? What havoc would that wreak about the unwashed masses who dared defy the Apple Gods?

If "it's not the way BenB does it" is the only real answer then I'll keep doing it because so far I've had pretty nice results and nothing that's ruined my day. Genuinely though, if it's gonna screw things up I'd like to hear how so I can stop right away.

Oh and two more good reasons NOT to use iTunes for me.....

SCENARIO: I have just tagged all my iTunes managed FX files with snazzy new genres and it's taken me several minutes (let's not say more than a few hours) to handle it all. Now when I import those files into an Event, oh wait, it doesn't care what their "genre" says and doesn't maintain that info at all. Crap!

SCENARIO: I have iTunes setup to organize my music. I also have it set to make a copy of the music file inside the iTunes Media folder. So if I used iTunes to organize my sound FX too, it would copy the large, uncompressed files, into my iTunes Media folder then place them into "Unknown Artist" until I gave them some sort of meta data (extra steps). Now I have TWO copies of a large file and need to delete one (the original). However, when I import the file into FCPX to be managed inside an Event, it will want to create ANOTHER copy of the file inside the event folder. So now if I delete the original from iTunes, it's 1) no longer managed by iTunes which defeats the whole purpose under your system, and 2) it's extra files to store. I could of course just disable "copy file into iTunes" but then all my music which i DO want handled that way is screwed up.

In my scenario: You put all your media files in whatever damn folder(s) you want and drop an alias into the Final Cut Pro Effects folder. You browse, search, listen to them, in the Media Browser. When you're ready you import them into your Event as linked files. You now meta tag them however you want. You're done.



I have no clue why anyone would use iTunes as a makeshift FX manager considering all of the reasons I just mentioned. But hey whatever works for people I guess? I've seen many an artist with a house or studio that looked more like something out of "Horders" and it seemed to work for them!

But I never said I wasn't anal about file management also.

Since you have launched into a very vicious and uncalled for attack on me personally, let me defend myself.

I'm sorry, I have to STRONGLY disagree with you. You said I was "jury rigging" things, but you're putting stuff in exotic folders that don't have any organizational structure, and are not meant for that purpose. Let's get the facts straight here. I offered an organized way to do things that I and others use and works just fine. Let's take a look.

- iTunes does not slow down when you add stuff to it. It's a simple flat DB that loads and sorts super fast no matter what.

- If you have that much music in iTunes, it's cluttered anyway. That's why you can click on column headers to sort, type in the Search field, etc. It's very fast and easy to find what you want. I also make Playlists for my music to organize it, as well as my SVX and canned music files. It has never been a problem for me.

- FCP X will show your playlists. "Playlists", it's a form of Smart Collection. It takes just as long for me to make one mouse click and look for a Playlist or type in a search term as it does to to search an Event. Besides, your method lists them in the same Browser in the same way, but without Playlists to sort them cleanly. It makes lots of sense. And you're solution uses the Media Browser, also, and the organization is very manual.

- It's not a "clug", whatever that is.

- Not clue what you mean by rebuild the metadata database in FCP X, it simply reads the DB in iTunes. And with Playlists, which you can use Genre's to make very fast and easy, you can in fact sort your files and search them easily in FCP X.

You can in fact use Events to do this, also. But Events wasn't part of your workflow. I said moving it into an esoteric System Folder it doesn't belong in was unnecessary and not what that folder was meant for. It doesn't really achieve anything if you're still going to be inside the Media Browser (as your original solution did).

Look, all I did was answer the OP's questions. Work how you want, but I offered legitimate workflows. I and others use iTunes and it works just fine. You seem to have some chip on your shoulder about it, and that's your business, but don't attack me for offering a legitimate workflow that works just fine.

It takes just as long to make an iTunes Playlist as it does to create folders inside of folders, make Aliases, copy them, delete the originals, etc.

Just my 2 cents. Didn't ask for a fight. Just answered some direct questions. I didn't say anyone HAD to do it my way. Just relating my experience. It's ok to disagree and have a different workflow. I said in my previous post, "just my 2 cents".

Take a deep breath, calm down dude, don't be so mean.

Cool your jets, turbo. I'm not "on the attack" or worked up. It's just the internet, it's not like I'm outside of your training facility picketing with "BenB doesn't know what he's talking about" signs. I'm just offering an alternative approach.

Also, I had a response a minute ago but the forum logged me out and lost my post. Bah. Damn forum software! I'll keep this one brief.....


iTunes does slow down, just like H264 isn't an edit format and regardless of what you claim, Ben, your words don't jibe with the demonstrable reality. You ever watch iTunes "generate gapless play" or "updating your database" for no reason? Is "no matter what" just hyperbole on purpose or do you really think a 1000 song XML database file sorts as fast as a 1,000,000 song database? Come on now.

Also, my iTunes isn't cluttered. You think if I pay this much attention to file organization my stuff is all willy-nilly in there? Every song, every album, is consistantly genre tagged, uses accurate meta data, and has album artwork so I never see that box with a music note when I use coverflow. This is meaningless to the discussion, but don't presume to know what's up with my iTunes. Just speak about your own (in the same way I only speak about what works for me and how things are....for me).

Kluge is a word. It's not even marked as misspelled by Safari, which means it's in the Dictionary app. Look it up.

Now onto the stuff that matters. Again, only from my own experience and to clarify what you're misrepresenting (maliciously, because you don't get it, or ignorantly to further your points, it doesn't matter which).

Re: rebuilding the meta data.....

Once you've importing a song into an Event from your iTunes library, where does all that genre meta data (that lives in iTunes) go? Does it turn into Roles? Does it get carried over? No. Hence you'll have to "rebuild" or assign new meta data to the SFX regardless. I call iTunes a kluge because you're trying to act like iTunes picks up the slack where FCPX falls down organizing your SFX pre-import. Your scenario involves meta-tagging your songs once in iTunes, and again in the Event after import. It's duplicated effort and a waste of time and money.

Re: esoteric system folders and all that nonsense....

How esoteric are they when Apple puts the SFX you paid for in those folders? Moreover, you're dropping an alias in the folder, not a man on Mars. It's not rocket surgery. And this all comes about because Apple hardcoded the Media Browser to only look in 5 different folders under the Media Browser: Final Cut Pro Sound Effects, another Final Cut Pro Sound Effects presumably for FCP7, iLife Sound Effects, Apple Loops for Soundtrack Pro, and iTunes. All it would have taken was the ability to tell FCPX "hey look in this other folder also for my SFX" and we wouldn't have to make a simple Alias. Am I whining about it being hardcoded? No, because I have stuff to edit and dropping an alias in there takes all of 5 seconds of my life and 3 of my brain cells.

I honestly don't know how it is you can read through a simple description of telling someone to make an alias and act like it's a lengthy process. Hell it takes less time than waiting for iTunes to import your media if you drop it into the Automatically Add to iTunes folder! LOL!

So yeah, this is just another workflow that might make more sense to people.

One last reply before I head on outta here for the day (and really this thread because it's just tail chasing at this point).....


Would it be a terrible idea to take and make an "All Sound Effects" event and add all your files to it? At that point, your entire library (if you have enough of them to call them a library) would be right there at your disposal ready to be dropped into any project. You (one) could then sort through your files, tag them with Roles and subroles, mark your favorites, and then never have to work about duplicating data across multiple events each time you want to pull Dog Bark 01 from your Media Browser.

Hell you can keyword everything all nicely and whatnot, do all this one time, and be done with it. Granted, it's gonna be a real pain in the ass the first time around but it might be worth telling an intern to do it (LOL).

That said, I can see a case being made that even if you're duplicating Dog Bark 01 a couple of times across multiple events, it would probably make the event, vis a vis the project, easier to maintain in a portable chunk. Then again suddenly that's kind of a "Bins in FCP7 vs Event Library in FCPX" kind of debate if you follow that line of thought to a practical conclusion.

I like FCPX's way.

I explained a workflow and facts based on what I and many of my students and clients around the country use every day. It's all tried and true. And I answered the original question posted, that's all.