Every time I bring audio into FCP it has the "beeps" in it, I have a music video I am cutting together right now and I can use the audio as a guide for cutting but I sure can't use it for my final audio track. Any ideas? The audio is at 44.1khz and the video is at 48khz, could that be the problem? I have some footage I shot at a punk concert, and am cutting it to an album track of one of the bands.
Thanks!!!!
Mark

There are a couple of possibilities. You've exceeded your Real Time track limit, applied filters, or (the most likely) your capture settings and your timeline settings don't match. Depending on the version of FCP you used to be able to just drop 44.1kHz audio into the timeline and it would play. Since FCP3 you can no longer do this (at least I can't). You can render the audio, or use QuickTime to fix the audio before you import. Drop the audio into QT and export at 48kHz and then import it into FCP.

Jeff

It's a real pain though because I use tons of stuff from CD's and I guess the means yet another step every time you need to import audio. :(
Mark

I have the same beeping problem but mine is from 48k audio, with no filters or anything else added. But if I play it back to a deck through the firewire, i plays fine. Any ideas?

What hardware and OS are you running, Jeff? Under preferences, reduce the number of Real Time Audio Tracks. Try two and see if that fixes it. Post back your results, Please.

Jeff

The other possibility is the audio is not a perfect 48kHz. Use Command (Apple Key) 9 to bring up item properties. The audio needs to be a perfect 48kHz. If it is not ( might me something like 48.07kHz) then delete it from the time line and re-import.

Jeff

Mark,
It sounds to me like a sampling rate problem. I've found that importing audio from a CD is best done through the QuickTime Pro player. Bring your track into QT then export it as an .aif file with a 48k sampling rate. In FCP import the .aif into your project and, voila, no more beeps. It's not really much of an inconvenience at all.

I thought Quicktime Pro came with FCP3.0 but it's not on my system anywhere? I recently had to re-install OSX and it might have messed something up. I guess I may have to pony up some bones for the upgrade. To test the theory I have to use a PC with "Spin Dr." to grab the audio, post in on my server (Win2k) then load it into Protools on OS9, then export it as 48k AIFF, and I now need to reboot my system into OSX for the gazillionth time to see if it works. THE AUDIO TOOLS IN FCP SuK!!!!! Every other thing I need to do with audio is SO EASY, except trying to load it into FCP and have it work, it's no wonder audio is the black art of DV. Maybe FCP4 will include some "eMagic Logic" functionality, I HOPE!!!!!! Sorry to b!tch but as you can probably tell It's not been a happy time at the old edit bay today :(

Mark,
QT Pro does come with FCP3 but your license would probably have to be reinstated after reinstalling OSX. (You might want to update to QuickTime Pro 6.02, the latest version. Yes, you'll have to "pony up" for the Pro license but it will bring you up to date.)

Mark,

Tell us a little about your system, hardware, software etc. It can make a big difference if your OS 9.xx or OS 10.2x etc.

Jeff

My Mac is a Dual 1Ghz, I only have FCP3 installed on the OSX side, but I guess that will have to change. I had some problems when I first installed 10.2.2 so I had to go back to 10.2.0, I have since installed the xx.x.1 & xx.x.2 patch and everything seems okay. The other gotcha is that ProTools 5.3.1 (audio heaven) is only compatable with OS9 (OS9 is at the latest patch) until 6.0 comes out next year. I have been using the mini globes to monitor out of FCP then do a confidence check on the big system once everything is complete. One of the problems is that I can't record directly into FCP because I don't have a setup that allows that, even thought I have $2500 in ProTools software & hardware! I'm going to try hooking up my mixer output to the MA300 and try that, it's a hokey solution but hey if it works, it might be a short term fix.

I wouldn't get too worked up over it just yet. FCP 4 is due out soon and it wouldn't surprise me if audio import is made friendly again.

Jeff

A bit off-thread-topic but noteworthy within this context. One of the kinks in Apple's OS-X migration parade has been audio tool vendors' foot-dragging in converting their products. Apple's October edict that no 2003-manufactured Macs will be bootable into OS9 was promptly met by howls from folks tied to these products.

Also, in my opinion, Apple hobbled standard audio input by eliminating the audio-in jack from their 2002 models. I use a Griffen iMic USB adapter for audio input (voice-overs, mainly) but why should such a basic facility on a premium-priced system be left to 3rd parties?

Of course this is all stuff that Mark already knows and apparently has to deal with each day. OK, getting off of my soapbox.

Duh, I feel like such a dork! All I needed to do was render the audio and presto - no more beeps, so much for real time audio. I'm not sure if I'm slow or if this is some unique feature I'm being punished with. I actually imported the file at 48k and still had to render it. I still have to tame flying monkeys to get the audio in but hey, that's the easy part.
Thanks to all..I'll post the Punk Rock video clips in a few daze...(is has some cussin' in it, will it be okay to post?)

The ProTools crowd has been screaming pretty loud, but the first v6.0 updates will go to the HD systems ($9000 and up) then the Mix systems (a meer $6500 and above) then us cheapo users will get it :)

Mark,
Don't break out the champagne quite yet. I should have pointed out that you could render the audio to (at least temporarily) get rid of the beeps. (This is a common problem for folks who try to import iMovie footage audio.) But if you manipulate the audio at all (ex: add fades, adjust levels, etc.) you'll have to re-render it all over again. This might not be a problem for you, in which you can case pop the cork now. But on most projects it will drive you nuts. Recapturing is the only solution in this case.

a walk in the park? (just kidding) I have already worn out my patience rendering everything everytime I do anything. If I go get a cup of coffee, I'll probably have to render somthing again.... I guess I should take a class to learn the basics, it'll probably save me tons of frustration. And I may be able to avoid learing to do everything the slow way. Maybe I'll call pixar and see if they have a few unused SGI's I might borrow to render my 3 1/2 minute video...
Mark

This has worked many times for me in this situation, and it's painfully simple:

Go into the Preferences and lower the Audio Playback Quality a notch (if on High, go to Medium etc.). Sometimes this is all it takes to eliminate "the beeps". When doing final print to tape, you then perform your final audio render.

I'll try it now.
Mark

<<<-- Originally posted by Ken Tanaka :
Also, in my opinion, Apple hobbled standard audio input by eliminating the audio-in jack from their 2002 models. I use a Griffen iMic USB adapter for audio input (voice-overs, mainly) but why should such a basic facility on a premium-priced system be left to 3rd parties?
-->>>

Ken,

That was one of the first things that I noticed when I got my Mac. It amazed me that there were no audio input jacks. My question is why would Apple leave this critical option out?

Mark,

This is from my first post <<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : You can render the audio, or use QuickTime to fix the audio before you import. Drop the audio into QT and export at 48kHz and then import it into FCP. -->>>

Charles' solution works. It is one of the fixs for slower machines (like mine). I set mine to medium. Reducing the number of RT audio tracks (even if your not using them) will cure it also. But with the speed of your machine, you've got other issues (audio mismatch).

Jeff

I got the answer to my problem from one of Ken's posts. I had imported some footage that I had captured with iMovie before I got FCP. Rendering solved the problem, and there is no problem with footage that I capture through FCP. I have a lot to learn coming from a PC background and having very little experience on a Mac. I get to learn the OS and FCP all at the same time:) I will confess that my prejudices against the Mac (except for what I feel is overpriced hardware, although I may reconsider that one too!) are evaporating, I like what I have experienced so far, especially the interfaces. Thanks for all the help. Now if I could just talk my school into gettin me a lab ful of iMacs for my students...

<<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : Mark,

This is from my first post <<<-- Originally posted by Jeff Donald : You can render the audio, or use QuickTime to fix the audio before you import. Drop the audio into QT and export at 48kHz and then import it into FCP. -->>>

I guess I'll have to get QTP 6 and give it a whirl, I did reduce the resoultion of my audio so I'll see how that works next time.

At least my audio is complete before I bring it on board, I have spent lots of time with the audio tracks, recording & mixing etc. so once it's rendered I don't have to touch it again (I hope) I have all my fades & levels set in advance.

One weird thing: once I figured out I need to render it, the AIFF I copied from the CD sounded fine, but the files I monkeyed with (ProTools export) were way too quiet? I had to raise the levels to +14db of thier input level, and that was as far as I could go, the other tracks (CD import) were a little too loud so I had to back them off a tad.

<<< No audio input on the Mac?>>>Every Mac I own including my ten year old LC has audio inputs, so I was surprised when I discovered the lack of any on my "Quicksilver" box. I believe that Apple may have actually done us a favor though by not putting crappy converters in the system. It sort of forces use to use any one of a number of firewire or usb based converters. Now if one of them actually worked with Apple software that would be way cool eh? (iMic excluded) I guess the day when all software and hardware plays nice is still in the future, but it's a whole lot better now than it has been and way better on the Mac than the PC (I gave up hope on anything for the PC playing nice years ago).
My 2 cents.
Mark

Just to add to the resounding bleeps (sorry).

I've just finished editing a 10 minute behind the scenes piece for Runner's World Magazine, but had a similar problem when it came to digitizing. I think my problem was related to timecode breaks. I would often get the error msg, but when checking the footage frame by frame, there was no timecode break. My settings were all OK but I noticed that the audio was digitized at a weird rate, 48.01kHz or 48.03kHz. The audio was recorded from a Sennheiser ME-66 at 16 bits and played fine in QT but, randomly, when dragged into FCP3, dem bleeping bleeps. Took me 3 days to digitise 6 hours of footage!!

Well, it's done now and everyone is thrilled. can't wait to see it on the national Sports channel, M-net Supersport.

In preferences do you have sync adjust set? If not, check the box and set the time to 5 minutes. when the audiois off you do not need to recapture the clip. After capture look at the clips properties. If the audio is not a perfect 48.000 then go to your scratch disc and find the captured file. Move the movie out of the original folder and re-import the file. Audio should be perfect 48.0000 and no need to capture footage again. If you ever lose sync between the picture and sound, this will fix that too.

Jeff

Thanks Jeff, I'll try that next time. I had my capture time set to 10 minutes, but even while I was having problems, I would capture a few seconds and then check, sometimes it was good and sometimes it was beeping?

I think I will also get my tapes black and coded beforehand.