MXF and Audio Roles

Good evening to everyone.

I updated my copy of FCPX from 10.3.4 to 10.4.4 and i can see that some things have changed regarding mxf export and audio roles.

I am editing a TV show and always export the master file with just a master stereo mix. The client doesn't expect or need multiple audio roles in different channels but just 2 tracks with music baked in (L. R) with everything in dual mono configuration. I am assigning every audio file as either Dialogue 1 or Dialogue 2 (including music)

Until today i was leaving just a stereo track in FCPX's exporter with everything selected (All video, all dialogue). So the final file had always 2 channels assigned as Dialogue 1 and Dialogue 2.

Now in 10.4.4 no matter what i am selecting in the exporter, the final file always has 8 dialogue roles. The first 2 contain my audio mix (dialogue 1 and 2) and the rest 6 are blank, but they are there.

I suppose i can open the role editor and delete the unnecessary roles but is this the only solution?

Which is the most common way to export an mxf file with just a stereo master mix?

Thanks in advance for time and your feedback.

Unless you're telling it to export with separate audio channels, it doesn't matter how many roles you have or how things are assigned, it will mix it all down into stereo (if that's what your project is set to.).

I personally think you should be setting your music as a 'music' role because roles only really become important for export when you're doing multitrack audio or choosing not to export certain roles. But if you leave everything as default, it should just give you a stereo mix.

what codec do you use in your MXF ? Since our TV stations all want XDCAM HD 422 as a MXF codec which is not good enough for me to archive, I export a Prores Master from FCP X (2 or 8 channel) and do the conversion in Compressor , There are presets for mxf and you can specify how many channels you want ( our TV station for example whants allways 8 even if 6 are empty ) . works better for me than direct MXF export

Thanks for your answers guys! I am exporting in XDCAM 422 50 mbps.

It actually gives me a stereo master when i select to include all audio into in a single stereo track.

What concerns me is the fact that when i am importing the file back to FCPX i can see 8 channels (dialogue one to eight). The first 2 are the audio master in dual mono configuration and the rest 6 are empty.

I don't know if this might be a problem for the TV station, but all my mxf exports from previous FCPX versions had only 2 tracks, containing my master out and not 8.

Did apple change the MXF format in a way that it always includes 8 channels, no matter the configuration?

I wrote too much before so i will sum up the issue in one sentence in case that someone can help.

Since 10.4.x version I can't export a dual mono audio mxf file. Everything i am exporting is 8 mono (with 6 empty tracks)

Is this normal? Thanks again guys!

If I export MXF with two mono audio channels based on roles I get two tracks. I'm not seeing eight channels in the QT player or on reimport to 10.4.5.

Tom Wolsky wrote: If I export MXF with two mono audio channels based on roles I get two tracks. I'm not seeing eight channels in the QT player or on reimport to 10.4.5.

Hi Tom! Are you exporting an mxf master file from FCPX? Can you please attach a screenshot of your configuration in the roles tab of FCPX's exporter? I would really appreciate it. Thanks!

Looks like this

Thanks Tom, sadly whatever i set, the final export has 8 mono channels. My project is set to stereo and even if i choose to export a single stereo audio channel (with all the dialogue roles in it) in the exporter, my file will have 8 mono channels. This is starting to drive me nuts. Maybe a 10.4.4 bug?

There is no difference between 4.4 and 4.5. I'm exporting two mono tracks.

I am attaching 2 screenshots from my exporter and the file i am getting (imported in FC)

I think your best bet would be to export a ProRes Quicktime .mov and then create your MXF file using Compressor, rather than creating a multitrack MXF which is why this is happening for you.

Doug wrote: I think your best bet would be to export a ProRes Quicktime .mov and then create your MXF file using Compressor, rather than creating a multitrack MXF which is why this is happening for you.

Thanks Doug, this is definitely a solution but it will double my export times as this a 45 min. long tv show.

Looks like you can't do it directly from FCPX the way you used to. Normally I would set the video to Broadcast MXF but that doesn't look like its an option any more, probably because they're considering it a 'legacy format' and are phasing it out. That's my thought anyway, I've attached a screen grab of where I would have set it to MXF.

Pic didn't attach, trying again:

Working for me. Maybe it’s your project settings.

You're totally right, it's the project I was using. I tried another one in a different Library it was available.

This is what i am always using too. Broadcast MXF

An editor suggested a simple solution which seems to solve this problem. I didn't know that Compressor and FCPX share the exact same export engine.

So i created a custom setting in Compressor (MXF with 2 discrete channels) and then loaded this as a destination in FCPX. Now i can export anything in this setting directly from FCPX without re-encoding.

What seems strange though to me is that some of you didn't have this issue in 10.4.4.

In above solution is the resulting file a MXF file with XDCAM HD 422 50 Mbps?
What are the settings please?