Right. there's only so much space on the tape for audio data.

If you really need 4 channels you might want to consider an external recording device like a DAT or something and then capture that and after you sync it up to your footage you can link them so the 4 channels are locked together.

I think you need to capture in 2 passes to get the 4 channels.

4 channels are going to be at 32khz sampling rate instead of 48khz. This is fine for dialogue but not so for music and anything with high frequencies (harmonics, overtones, etc.).

Thanks Boyd. This actually didn't work for me. Every time I dump the footage into a 4:3 sequence everything stretches up again. No idea what I'm doing wrong. I ended up just outputting it as a FinalCut movie and then squashing down the whole clip against a black background.

Real Time rendering on a G4
 

I am really intrested on upgrading to Final Cut Express 2 after hearing about the improvements in real time rendering. My question though is if it is possible on a g4. A friend has led me to believe that Final Cut Express 2 and RT Extreme is more or less for the G5 crowd. I am currentley running a G4 1.25 ghz mac with 1gb of ram.

I was just wondering if someone could clear up exactly what I would need to handle the improvements in real time rendering.

You can find the specs for FCE on the Apple site here. Yes, RT Extreme will work with any Dual Processor Mac. However, I would recommend getting as much ram as you can afford.

Fcp4 ///fix My Sound!!!
 

Hey FCP'ers...
after a weekend shoot, I wound up with some
60Hz hum over part of my dialogue.

I employed a FANTASTIC audio cleaning
program, Bias SoundSoap ($80...buy it!)
but ithad to extract so MUCH hum that it left
my dialogue slightly stark and 'tin' sounding...

what are my FCP options to bring just a touch
more 'fullness' back to that particular actor's voice?

I would also use an Apple EQ in FCP to dial in the hum. Apple makes one with a very wide band, all the way down to 20hz. Or try the FCP Noise Gate to cut out some of the background hum.

That's too bad, I hate it when that happends. I hope the hum is not really long. You should be able to clean it up.

Live Type titles not looking good in FCP
 

When putting in titles and backgrounds from Live Type to FCP 4, the colors are dull. They seem to lose the saturation. Then when I go to output, the titles blur on the final product.

Has anyone ran into this problem? In Live Type, they are how they should look, but on the time line in FCP they look bad. I haven't noticed it before, just on this last project that I did. I am using the Academic version of the software, could that be a problem?

Thanks,

Matt

Hi Matt.

I have run into it as well. I think I just used a different background. Some of them are very dark once out of LT.

Have you tried to full render them in FCP? Hit Option + R after a normal render (commadn + r). I noticed that some of my work looked a bit fuzz without the Option + R.

You can also try lightening up the BG in LT by choosing the layer you want and going to the Attributes Tab and usign the Hue / Sat / Lightness sliders. Kick them up a bit and the output to see what happens. At the very least, you are backt to were you were.

- Aaron

How do I capture stills from a DVD?
 

I need to get some still images from a DVD movie. How do I do that?

I can't find any functions in Apple DVD player that can grab stills from a DVD...

Any suggestions?

What version of Final Cut Pro are you using? Shouldn't matter if it is Academic. I haven't had this problem at all. Then again, I refuse to upgrade my Final Cut Pro from 4.0, but my Livetype is at 1.1.1.

I did the update so I am now using 4.1.1 I believe. I think a lot of my graphic issues have arised after i put panther on.

press apple-shift-3 and a screengrab will appear on your hard drive. Make sure your mouse isn't over the image you want to grab and that the image is shown at full size. You may also want to de-interlace the image with Photoshop.

what format for voiceovers
 

Greetings---
I am about to book some studio time for voiceovers I need for a piece I'm working on. What format should I record to? I presently edit in FCP 3, OSX, with G4. I do not have MP3 playback capability, 1/4 inch, etc. However, I am able to capture from CD or miniDV. Thoughts?

Thanks,
Tim

If I was you I would save the recorded audio onto a CDR at the studio as an AIFF 48Khtz and then when you get home copy this to your HDD and then import it into FCP.