Audio guy here, need help exporting in FCPX!

So, I just received a music video from my video guy, I am doing all of the audio for it and he did all the video and I have put it together in FCPX and added titles/credits. Now I would like to export it or "share" it as FCPX likes to label it. The video that was sent to me is already compressed and good to go, and the audio that I have added is completely done as well, so I dont want to compress anything AT ALL. Now when I go to share... master... I click on "source apple prores 422"... except thats not the source because the source as I received it from the editor is H.264... so It should give me that option right? There does show an option for H.264 but when I click it it shows me a file size that is smaller than the original I was sent, meaning that it will be compressed... dont want that. Also when I clicked the "source apple prores 422" option the file size it gave me was way BIGGER than the actual file I was sent, makes no sense. Not only that but when I click any of the options other than source, it says it will give me an AAC or some other compressed audio file, with no option to customize this. Ridiculous, I can see why the editors I know of still use the old FCP.

So, my question is how can I export without compressing anything more? The file size should end up roughly the size of the audio and video files are before I even imported them.

The video guy doesn't care about the video you're going to send him, or he wouldn't have sent you H.264. He's only going to use it for reference, right? Why not send him proxy video?

For full export control you should use a Compressor setting or send to Compressor.

devon8822 wrote: … Ridiculous, I can see why the editors I know of still use the old FCP. …

nice first-time-poster-intro on a board desingated to FCPX :silly:

a) weird to share highly compressed material (h.264) for further processing
b) when you add titles&audio you have to re-compress - in all NLEs
c) if you need customized export options, purchase Compressor (50$)
d) h.264 is 'Apple-Devices', and under Options switch to 'Computer'
=> again, that's no loop-through, that's impossible by your workflow ...

tell your video-maker to share a master-file, work with that...

"'source apple proves 422'"... except thats not the source because the source as I received it from the editor is H.264"

1- No, all rendering in your timeline is ProRes, so yeah, you're going out to ProRes 422. Reading the user manual helps. All those export options were in the old FCP, also. An no, few folks are still on the legacy version.
help.apple.com/finalcutpro/mac/10.2/

2- H.264 is as compressed a video codec as you can get. So you're starting with super highly compressed files (as stated previously).

3- ProRes will not lose any image quality, even over several generations, and is exactly what you want to use. You'll have the highest visual and audio quality as you can get in an export. And it is an industry standard. If you export the original H.264, you're not getting full image and audio quality. H.264 uses ACC audio, so even your audio started off super highly compressed and compromised.
images.apple.com/final-cut-pro/docs/Appl...oRes_White_Paper.pdf

4- You can't have "uncompressed" video AND "small" file sizes at the same time, just like you can't have zero gravity and stand on the earth's surface at the same time.

"So, my question is how can I export without compressing anything more? The file size should end up roughly the size of the audio and video files are before I even imported them."

5- I can see that you have zero education in video editing workflow and codecs. You're grossly misinformed. Not being mean, just trying to help you understand your misconceptions. Listen to the folks here, they're very knowledgable, very experienced. To the point, you started with SUPER HIGHLY COMPRESSED VIDEO, so if you want to export something uncompressed, it will, according to physics, be LARGER than that super highly compressed video codec you started with. That's just physics, and legacy FCP would do the exact same thing, just make the process more lengthy and painful.