Solution for getting audio from r3d into Avid on PC.

[Sean]

As we await some kind of Avid PC solution for audio, here's something you can do in a pinch:

After much trial and error, I found a freeware program that is able to read the 32-bit audio file within the r3d QuickTime proxies. Avid won't accept the 32-bit audio files. And it's difficult finding a program that will convert the 32-bit audio to a wav file that Avid will accept.

There's a great little freeware program called Front End Convert Drop from K-werkx Inc. I downloaded it from www.download.com. Anyhow, you can actually drag an r3d QT proxy directly onto this little application and then choose to convert the file to Wave audio. And voila, you can now import the audio into Avid. I'm sure there are more pro-audio solutions that will do the trick, but this one is free and the only one I could find that would actually read the 32-bit Big Endian file within the proxy and convert it (realplayer pro might do it, because it seemed to play the file, but I wasn't going to pay $35 to upgrade that crappy software from the non-pro version).

At least there's a PC solution for exporting audio that you can manually synch in a PC Avid to the video you've exported from RedCine.

[MichaelP]

Excellent - did it preserve timecode or just make a WAV file rather than BWAV? Once could always edit the metacheater ALE file track column and bring that in to get the metadata then do an AutoSync in Avid for VA clips.

Michael

[Sean]

Hm. Good question, Michael. I'm not sure. All the clips have timecode that start at 1:00:00:00, and so does ththe audio. So maybe these r3d's aren't files that can determine whether timecode is preserved or not. I'm only just starting to get up to speed on dealing with timecode/offline/online. Speaking of which, when you're talking about ALEs and XMLs, etc., is there a reference publication that might offer me an Avid primer on the subject? I haven't found anything introductory yet.

[Terry Wester]

Sean,

Thanks I will give this a try. We have been using Audio Converter from River Past the trial will do 2 minute clips, but I was just about to buy it. I think I will give this a trial first. I don't think it will to BWAV files either.

As we await some kind of Avid PC solution for audio, here's something you can do in a pinch:

After much trial and error, I found a freeware program that is able to read the 32-bit audio file within the r3d QuickTime proxies. Avid won't accept the 32-bit audio files. And it's difficult finding a program that will convert the 32-bit audio to a wav file that Avid will accept.

There's a great little freeware program called Front End Convert Drop from K-werkx Inc. I downloaded it from www.download.com. Anyhow, you can actually drag an r3d QT proxy directly onto this little application and then choose to convert the file to Wave audio. And voila, you can now import the audio into Avid. I'm sure there are more pro-audio solutions that will do the trick, but this one is free and the only one I could find that would actually read the 32-bit Big Endian file within the proxy and convert it (realplayer pro might do it, because it seemed to play the file, but I wasn't going to pay $35 to upgrade that crappy software from the non-pro version).

At least there's a PC solution for exporting audio that you can manually synch in a PC Avid to the video you've exported from RedCine.

[Terry Wester]

Michael,

Are you saying If all my quicktimes are named the same as my wav files then I could just edit the metacheater ALE file and find and replace .mov with .wav and save to a new ALE. Then batch import both .mov and .wav into the Avid with the ALEs and run an AutoSync? I will give this a try next week.

Thanks, I have my fingers crossed that this will work.

Excellent - did it preserve timecode or just make a WAV file rather than BWAV? Once could always edit the metacheater ALE file track column and bring that in to get the metadata then do an AutoSync in Avid for VA clips.

Michael

[MichaelP]

Correct. Batch import wants the Name in the bin to match, but AutoSync only looks to the common timecode in any one of several columns. In this case they would both be in the Start.

Michael

[Terry Wester]

Michael,

You are awesome. I owe you a beer, tequella.... something. What is your poison?

I just put all the audio and video in the same bin and selected Bin>AutoSync with source timecode and wabam 36 clips with matching audio ready to edit.

Thank you, this was the last laborious task in the Red/Avid process, and it can only get better from here. :)

[MichaelP]

Excellent! I am glad this worked out for you. The next time I am in Dallas I will take you up on the Tequilla... I can imagine there are some good ones there!

Michael

[gbalaji]

Excellent - did it preserve timecode or just make a WAV file rather than BWAV? Once could always edit the metacheater ALE file track column and bring that in to get the metadata then do an AutoSync in Avid for VA clips.

Michael

Did it preserve timecode in wav?

[Seth Larney]

Hey Terry,

I'd love to know how this worked out for you? Do you have a smooth workflow for creating AV clips now? Just getting to putting this part of the workflow together myself.

Thanks!
S