Hidden Roles Warning - Gotcha on Export

So I was finishing up a project for a presentation in Hong Kong yesterday. Super tight deadline. I'm in the US, client is in Hong Kong. Everything looked good, reviewed my final edit twice. Then uploaded to YouTube direct from FCP X, at 720 p. Previewed the first few minutes and sounded and looked good. Added my transcript for closed captioning, updated the web site and then fired of a email to the client.

About 20 minutes later I hear from my client, he said the audio is "doubled" throughout and the talent is talking over himself. Huh? I knew it was perfect in the last review. I found the problem, and inactive Role. The draft VO was on a disabled Role. The VO was not itself disabled but rather the Draft VO Role.

So Be Forewarned: Disabling roles has effect on playback but not export.

Workarounds:
- If Sharing to YouTube, Viimeo, etc. Disable each clip individual to ensure it is not heard.
- Or just Export Media and then use "Role as Multitrack Quicktime Movie" and then shift select roles as needed.

I'll send a [strike]bug repot [/strike] feature request to Apple for an option to keep the Roles state when sharing to YouTube, etc. I would encourage all of us to do the same.

(Also posted on CreativeCow)

No, not a bug, it's how they work by design. You assign Roles for two purposes, preview during playback in the Timeline, or Export as Media Stems. Technically you skipped the step of assigning your Roles at the Export stage. Chose the "Roles Multitrack QuickTime Movie" option after you hit Cmd+i. You then configure if they export as separate files, one file, and what Roles are or are not included. But no, Roles do NOT effect output when you're using them in the Timeline for PREVIEW purposes. They are more complex than that. It's all in the user manual.
help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.0.1/#verb71cbcbe
help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.0.1/#verdbd6a7b

Ben,

Fantastic catch in the manual. I actually looked for it and couldn't find it.

I can imagine as a fellow who also has a background in Audio, however, that the way I set a mixer and playback my project, I would expect the "mix" to be the same upon export.

I can see Apple's point in using it as a preview tool. For example I was using it on a independent film, that was separated into many compound clips to sweeten the audio and to tweak only the music. Now if I forgot to re-enable the MX I would definitely want FCP X to "fix my mistake" and export a complete mix.

However, I think there would be some added flexibility to Roles, not to mention avoiding the problems that I had, by adding and option to "Obey Role Visibility" when Exporting Media, Sharing to YouTube, etc.

Export as media streams, that's what it's for. Yes, would be nice to set it up in the TL. Feedback form. But as is, it's pretty easy.