OK I have Final Cut Pro 4 and am trying to figure out Soundtrack and LiveType, both programs seem to have no mention in the encyclopedia-sized manuals that come with FCP4. How can I get these to work in FCP4? I opened up Soundtrack as a standalone app and it just sat there. It made no attempt to impress me. I am not sure what I am supposed to do here. I want to play!

well there is the help button... I haven't loaded livetype yet but here's what you do.

1) make sure you've opened Soundtrack and not sountrack utility.

2)either leave the soundtrack disk installed or go to your soundtrack samples under the browser. (they're usually located under your documents catagory. NOW keep following the paths to say i don't know MAcintosh HD>Documents>soundtrack loops.POwerFX loops>complete music beds>looping music bed 01

You'll know it's a soundtrack file because it has an icon that's a mix between FCP and itunes. When you click on it you should hear a short burst of sound repeated over and over again seemlessly, this is a loop.

Drag the file to your canvas (default to the right)you'll get a square box use your mouse to make it longer and shorter . go back to the file browser and click the <-- button. Pick another file, perhaps a piano track.

Place it as your next layer. experiment. When you have a decent sound start playing with your time signature 4/4 or your tempo (120) or your key (A) play have fun make music don't get sued by BMI become rich and famous remeber the little guys who helped you with thsi tutorial and fund his movies.

OK I've experimented a bit more. It is hard to make something incredibly tangible in Soundtrack since all of the melodies are basicaly prerecorded and you can't control it on a note by note level, nor can you really control the drums (not beat by beat, anyway). It's fun for a goof, but it's not a replacement for Reason. I'd really like to hear what others can do with this. If anyone makes something that they are really proud of, please export to MP3... I'd like to hear it.

LiveType is pretty cool. Not sure why it needs so much space as it doesn't have a ton of fonts or anything (it has a lot though), but you can create animated titles and then import them into FCP4 and it does the keying automatically.

From the Apple support forum, music made in Soundtrack

http://www.jupiterproject.com/site/music/

This thing is amazing. I fooled around with Soundtrack on someone's computer, as well as Live Type. You can manipulate it enough to sound like original music. All this plus Cinema Tools and Compressor for just $1000. Of course 4 has some bugs. 3 had more and went on to become a classic. I've only been working on FCP for about six months, but a guy I met at a NYCFCPUG meeting said to get as many features on a system he'd have to work on a Quantel something or other, which cost two or thee hundred grand. Patience. Apple has spoiled us rotten(No pun intended).

I will admit, FCP 4 is a great bargain, especially when upgrading from 1,2, or 3 (only $400). So you could have spent $1,000 way back in the day for FCP1 and used it to your heart's content for several years, and then spend only $400 and upgrade to FCP4. Awesome.

I must chime in here, and i agree with Claude, this is simply an incredible suite of apps Apple has sold to us under the FCP banner. Soundtrack is worth the $399 upgrade price alone, simply wonderful. My life just got more fun, a good thing.

I second that Eric, and LiveType givs me just as much fun.