Roles & Media Stems

This has come up here and other places largely, I go into detail in my Media Management In FCP X course at macProVideo. I thought I'd give a nutshell explination here for those new to the terms.

Media Stemas for anyone who's never heard the term before have been around for ages, Apple didn't just make it up. Roles are based on the concept. Used a lot for foreign distribution of films, and for sending sound tracks to audio engineers (befor digital OMF was invented).

Say I have a U.S. made film, and I get picked up by an Asian and a European dist companies. They will ask for Media Stems: Video only, dialog only, music only, SFX only, titles only. Each of those is a separate print/output.

The dialog will be replaced with new localized language dialogue. Titles will be replaced with localized language titles. Some music may not have permission for use, or may lose cultural significance and will be replaced. When coming from other countries to the U.S. some sections of scenes may be censored out of the video section, too.

Then the foreign versions are reassembled from the localized Stems into the final print for that country. And that is were "Media Stems" comes from.

In order to do this digitally Apple developed Roles. Remember you can customize Roles to use in any way you want "Roles" allow for management and PREVIEW in the Timeline, and for Media Stem OUTPUT during the Export (Cmd+E) phase.

For example, I have Italian and Japanese versions of titles, I assign one set the role of "Italiam Titles" and the other "Japanese Titles" In the Timeline I use Roles and the Timeline Index to locate, manage and playback specific roles for preview. I'll use the Roles output option in the Export (Cmd+E) window to create Media Stems for customized delivery.

And now you know.

As always, thanks for this Ben.

FCPX add roles,but I did not konw how to add other post workflow in future.:huh:

was thinking abuot roles and stems yesterday after teaching in a class

I can see a problem with roles in that a classic M+E music and effects track is undipped

only way I can see you can produce this properly is to use compound clips with keyframes for dipping and audio effects then duplicate the project and remove anything which is affecting the dipping so its no longer happening

shame really as roles is a great concept

I'm not following why you'd have to duplicate the Project and remove stuff?
I'd never put music and SFX in the same Coumpond Clip, they should always be handled separately.

its not so much the music and sfx in the same compound clip
can be 2 separate ones

I am referring to getting different stem outputs based on roles

good explanation of m and e here
digitalfilmmaker.net/dv/features/soundpp/index4.html
In a documentary, a mix minus narration is used. The narration track is turned off and the music and effects are undipped, which is to say that where the volume of backgrounds and music has been turned down while the narrator is speaking, they are now flattened out. This is because the new foreign language narration that is added may not be the same length as the original narration. On and off-camera interviews are left in the original language and are not typically dubbed, though dubbed interviews are not unheard-of.

so you cannot export both full mix and separate stems undipped, its not possible with fcpx unless using the method I am suggesting with compound clips for the dipping and duplicate projects for the outputs

Yes, in that situation, you can't do one export for both versions in any NLE.
I'd simple duplicate my audio Compound Clip, give it a new, unique Role, remove all my key females (reset in the Inspector). Then you can output both from one Project.

But what you discribe is true of any software, you'll have to set up two manual output situations. Roles are not a magic "reconfigure my edit" button.