Currently, to make a surround sound AC3 files, I export every speaker track from FCP as individual quicktime movies and in compressor I drop these into the "Add Surround Sound" pallet and add the Dolby Digital 5.1 preset and encode.
I wanted to know if I could just export a single multi-track quicktime movie from FCP, drag it into compressor and add the Dolby preset.
My only concern is- what should the track order be in my FCP sequence? Does anyone have any documentation on this?
Currently, my tracks are always set like this:
Track 1: Left
Track 2: Right
Track 3: Center
Track 4: LFE
Track 5: Left Surround
Track 6: Right Surround
The Dolby Digital Professional 5.1 preset orders the tracks as "Audio Coding Mode: 3/2 (L, C, R, Ls, Rs)" The LFE track is left as a check box option- "Enable Low Frequency Effects"
So, basically, it is unclear to me how the quicktime movie's track ordering should be in order for it to be properly allocated for 5.1 AC3 encoding.
From the "Audio Coding Mode" listed in compressor's inspector, my first guess would be that the FCP sequence's track order should be:
Track 1: Left
Track 2: Center
Track 3: Right
Track 4: Left Surround
Track 5: Right Surround
Track 6: LFE
But I would like to hear from somebody with experience or find some documentation that explains the process clearly. Unfortunately, I am unable to preview my final ac3's and I don't know of a way to view the waveforems of an AC3 (if anyone knows how to do that, I'd be able to check my final results and do some experimenting)
Re: Exporting 5.1 audio for Compressor AC3 by David Roth Weiss on Sep 13, 2008 at 4:33:05 pm
Jack,
I honestly don't know the track order as Compressor interprets the six files from a single QT. However, Compressor was really designed to work with the six separate 5.1 files that would be handed to you by a mix facility, so I would keep using the "Add Surround Sound" pallet if I were you. However, you might be able to check the results of what you are trying to do in Sound Track Track Pro, at least in terms of a visual check.
Meanwhile, I'm a bit confused by your workflow. Are you saying that you're creating this 5.1 mix in FCP? Please explain that if you will.
David
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
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Re: Exporting 5.1 audio for Compressor AC3 by Michael Gissing on Sep 13, 2008 at 11:30:12 pm
There isn't a standard for track order, which is why it is better to assign mono tracks to their correct channel on the ac3 encoder. I haven't tried putting a six track file into compressor but it might let you assign source tracks to encoder channels.
You can export aif files instead of quicktime which is lightning fast and much smaller without a video track.
