Not enough extra media to create audio crossfade

One thing that really annoys me about FCPx - especially when I am in a hurry: I have to add crossfades to my whole timeline very fast when working for news and there are only minutes left. Often I then get the message "There is not enough extra media beyond clip edges to create the crossfade. Trim the clips to create media handles then try again." Then I have to add the crossfade to only parts of the timeline so find out which edit point is affected and adjust is manually. It takes a lot of time I dont have in those situations. Does anyone know a faster way to do it? Other LNEs give you the option to move the center of the crossfade by a few frames left or right automatically when there is not enough media - is there anything similar in FCPx or do you know a workaround?

May not benefit this situation but others might find this helpful:

Speed ramp down / up tail / head of transitioning clips. Only a small % needed to get enough padded content to make the transition stick and nobody will pick up on the sleight of hand. Freeze frame the clip is another look / alternative.

(Odd that you're using so many cross dissolves as most 'news' segments, immediate or otherwise, run ~2:20 involving jump cuts. It's rare an editor worries about making these things stylish since "there are only minutes left".)

Thanks.. Its not to make it stylish or not. Its about audio klicks when crossfades are missing. Usually it just takes one click to crossfade everything and its done.

Ah. maybe I forgot to say that I am talking just about AUDIO crossfade, I am not crossfading video.

Stupid me. I missed the AUDIO component of your post which DOES explain the necessity for numerous crossfades. I was focused on the video side of things, overlooking the audio problem you're dealing with.

Apparently there's nothing to work with that could be remedied by J or L cutting the audio or fade out/in of the audio and mass copy those adjustment to all the clips.

FinalCutdown wrote:

....Its about audio klicks when crossfades are missing. Usually it just takes one click to crossfade everything and its done.

With either FCP or Resolve, you cannot add audio crossfades if there are insufficient handles. You get a similar warning with either NLE. I think Premiere does not raise a warning, but without telling you, it functionally reverts from a cross fade to a regular one-sided fade.

With FCP you can select the entire timeline and do an audio fade (not crossfade) between all clips. By default that is 0.5 sec but you could try adjusting it in FCP Settings>Editing>Audio Fade to something like 0.1 seconds. Maybe that would be enough. By default there is no keyboard shortcut for that but you can add one. The procedure is discussed in the Creative Video Tips episode "How to Crossfade Audio in FCPX Tutorial":  

joema wrote:

With either FCP or Resolve, you cannot add audio crossfades if there are insufficient handles. You get a similar warning with either NLE.

You could be right.. Its been some time I worked with them. I switched from Premiere to Resolve to Avid to FCPx.. So I worked with every one of them for about three years.. FCPx only recently. I think Avid warns you and lets you select options for every crossfade that doesnt fit.

VTC wrote:

Stupid me. I missed the AUDIO component of your post which DOES explain the necessity for numerous crossfades.

Its not your fault, I added AUDIO in the headline after your post to make it clear.