Exporting aaf for sound mix at DVinfo.net

Ian Whelan · June 30th, 2013, 01:15 PM

Hope someone can help! I'm finishing my first project for TV at the moment and have to get a professional sound mix done. The sound guy asked to supply him with .aaf files. I tired exporting this in Sony Vegas 12 but it seems to give a load of errors and create a ton of extra audio files. I'm kind of bricking it now as I have to have this out to them by Tuesday! Have no idea what I need to so now, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

Mike Kujbida · June 30th, 2013, 07:24 PM

Do you have a copy of Pro 11?
According to an old thread on the Sony Vegas forum, the AAF export dll is 32 bit only.

Exporting to AAF format

Ian Whelan · July 1st, 2013, 12:26 AM

Hi Mike - I do have Vegas 11 - thr problem is I edited the whole thing in vegas 12 and its not backwards compatible!

Mike Kujbida · July 1st, 2013, 03:43 AM

Ian, no guarantees that it will work but you could try doing a copy/paste from 12 to 11 and saving it from there.
The other thing to try is to render out each of your audio tracks separately in whatever format he wants and give those to your audio guy. My guess is that he's using Pro Tools which is why he wants it as an aaf file. The reality is that individual tracks should work just fine. If he wants it, give him a video file (DV-AVI should be fine) as a reference.

Ian Whelan · July 1st, 2013, 05:55 AM

Mike - almost genius! I cut and pasted the project into Vegas 11... the video was abit messed up but the audio worked fine! However, when I go to the render options, there isn't any for .aaf files! Gah! What to try next...

Mike Kujbida · July 1st, 2013, 06:53 AM

Ian, aaf is a "save as" option, not a render option.
Search the online help menu for "Importing and Exporting AAF Files" as it has a lot of recommendations for doing this. Good luck with the project.

Ian Whelan · July 1st, 2013, 08:40 AM

Hi Mike - thanks for all your help. I discovered the save as option - however my Vegas 11 doesn't give me aaf as an option. I think I'm officially stuck!

Seth Bloombaum · July 1st, 2013, 02:29 PM

Ask if wav files are acceptable?

Ian Whelan · July 2nd, 2013, 03:33 AM

I think it will have to come down to that Seth!

Christopher Young · July 2nd, 2013, 12:26 PM

Try this.

In Vegas 12 you have your finished project. Let’s say that is saved as 'Project XYZ.veg' Ok, this is your master project. Now try the following.

Mute or delete all tracks that you DON'T want exported in the AAF export. Mark in and out points for the timeline and select the circular arrow LOOP icon at the bottom of your timeline window.

Now select your All Media icon in your 'Project Media' dock. This takes you to the Root directory of all the media you have in that particular project. Now in the Project Media window look for the LIGHTENING BOLT icon top left of your Project Media dock. Click on this icon. Doing this totally clears all unused media from the project EXCEPT any source media that is involved with the timeline. Example, you may have a five minute song in your Project Media bin but you may have only used one minute out of that song on the timeline. The whole five minute song will be saved in the export even though you only used a minute.

IMPORTANT! Now save your AAF project, using my example above it would be saved as 'Project XYZ_AAF EXPORT.veg' .

Under the File Menu go to 'Export' then select in the sub-menu /Pro Tools/Media Composer (*.aaf)...

Have a pre-prepared folder to save this export in and export away.

All things being equal you should now have an AAF export to keep your audio mixer happy.

Basically doing this means your AAF export will have only the material involved with the timeline. By way of simple explanation. If you have five bits of audio belonging to five video clips your AAF export folder will now have ten pieces of audio relating to those video clips. A left and right audio channel for each video clip. My example of the one minute of song used would show up as two audio files, left and right channels again. If one was to check the length of that song export it would be the full five minutes of the music even though only one minute of it was used on the timeline.

If what was agreed with the audio mixer was a final mixdown then he should be giving you back a fully mixed .WAV file that includes all interview dialogue, atmos sound, voice overs, sound FX, music etc. Inserting this .WAV master file should now be simply a job of syncing with you master timeline, muting all other tracks and then rendering out.

As an aid I usually render out an H.264 video of the project for the audio mixer to use as a guide video as to where various element sit.

BTW, Vegas 12 64-bit now has the 64-bit AAF .dll in its architecture... finally!

Hope this helps.

Chris Young
CYV Productions
Sydney

Ian Whelan · July 4th, 2013, 05:05 AM

Thanks a million for that Chris - I'm going to try that today. I really appreciate your help!

June 30th, 2013, 01:15 PM	#1
Ian Whelan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wick Posts: 72	Exporting aaf for sound mix Hope someone can help! I'm finishing my first project for TV at the moment and have to get a professional sound mix done. The sound guy asked to supply him with .aaf files. I tired exporting this in Sony Vegas 12 but it seems to give a load of errors and create a ton of extra audio files. I'm kind of bricking it now as I have to have this out to them by Tuesday! Have no idea what I need to so now, any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

June 30th, 2013, 07:24 PM	#2
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Do you have a copy of Pro 11? According to an old thread on the Sony Vegas forum, the AAF export dll is 32 bit only. Exporting to AAF format

July 1st, 2013, 12:26 AM	#3
Ian Whelan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wick Posts: 72	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Hi Mike - I do have Vegas 11 - thr problem is I edited the whole thing in vegas 12 and its not backwards compatible!

July 1st, 2013, 03:43 AM	#4
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Ian, no guarantees that it will work but you could try doing a copy/paste from 12 to 11 and saving it from there. The other thing to try is to render out each of your audio tracks separately in whatever format he wants and give those to your audio guy. My guess is that he's using Pro Tools which is why he wants it as an aaf file. The reality is that individual tracks should work just fine. If he wants it, give him a video file (DV-AVI should be fine) as a reference.

July 1st, 2013, 05:55 AM	#5
Ian Whelan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wick Posts: 72	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Mike - almost genius! I cut and pasted the project into Vegas 11... the video was abit messed up but the audio worked fine! However, when I go to the render options, there isn't any for .aaf files! Gah! What to try next...

July 1st, 2013, 06:53 AM	#6
Mike Kujbida Inner Circle Join Date: May 2005 Location: Windsor, ON Canada Posts: 2,770	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Ian, aaf is a "save as" option, not a render option. Search the online help menu for "Importing and Exporting AAF Files" as it has a lot of recommendations for doing this. Good luck with the project. Attached Thumbnails

July 1st, 2013, 08:40 AM	#7
Ian Whelan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wick Posts: 72	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Hi Mike - thanks for all your help. I discovered the save as option - however my Vegas 11 doesn't give me aaf as an option. I think I'm officially stuck!

July 1st, 2013, 02:29 PM	#8
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Ask if wav files are acceptable? __________________ 30 years of pro media production. Vegas user since 1.0. Webcaster since 1997. Freelancer since 2000. College instructor since 2001.

July 2nd, 2013, 03:33 AM	#9
Ian Whelan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wick Posts: 72	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix I think it will have to come down to that Seth!

July 2nd, 2013, 12:26 PM	#10
Christopher Young Trustee Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Sydney Australia Posts: 1,571	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Try this. In Vegas 12 you have your finished project. Let’s say that is saved as 'Project XYZ.veg' Ok, this is your master project. Now try the following. Mute or delete all tracks that you DON'T want exported in the AAF export. Mark in and out points for the timeline and select the circular arrow LOOP icon at the bottom of your timeline window. Now select your All Media icon in your 'Project Media' dock. This takes you to the Root directory of all the media you have in that particular project. Now in the Project Media window look for the LIGHTENING BOLT icon top left of your Project Media dock. Click on this icon. Doing this totally clears all unused media from the project EXCEPT any source media that is involved with the timeline. Example, you may have a five minute song in your Project Media bin but you may have only used one minute out of that song on the timeline. The whole five minute song will be saved in the export even though you only used a minute. IMPORTANT! Now save your AAF project, using my example above it would be saved as 'Project XYZ_AAF EXPORT.veg' . Under the File Menu go to 'Export' then select in the sub-menu /Pro Tools/Media Composer (*.aaf)... Have a pre-prepared folder to save this export in and export away. All things being equal you should now have an AAF export to keep your audio mixer happy. Basically doing this means your AAF export will have only the material involved with the timeline. By way of simple explanation. If you have five bits of audio belonging to five video clips your AAF export folder will now have ten pieces of audio relating to those video clips. A left and right audio channel for each video clip. My example of the one minute of song used would show up as two audio files, left and right channels again. If one was to check the length of that song export it would be the full five minutes of the music even though only one minute of it was used on the timeline. If what was agreed with the audio mixer was a final mixdown then he should be giving you back a fully mixed .WAV file that includes all interview dialogue, atmos sound, voice overs, sound FX, music etc. Inserting this .WAV master file should now be simply a job of syncing with you master timeline, muting all other tracks and then rendering out. As an aid I usually render out an H.264 video of the project for the audio mixer to use as a guide video as to where various element sit. BTW, Vegas 12 64-bit now has the 64-bit AAF .dll in its architecture... finally! Hope this helps. Chris Young CYV Productions Sydney

July 4th, 2013, 05:05 AM	#11
Ian Whelan Regular Crew Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: Wick Posts: 72	Re: Exporting aaf for sound mix Thanks a million for that Chris - I'm going to try that today. I really appreciate your help!