Media Composer plugins carry to AAF / Pro Tools

[cunninghamaudio]

Has any one out there run into issues with an AAF coming from media composer that has plugin effects throughout the timeline?

I had a show where the picture editor used time compression or speed ramps (not sure what it's called in MC) but essentially they sped up picture and audio in MC in various places here and there on words and parts of syllables and the time compression effects used in the MC timeline didn't carry through the AAF and into Pro Tools, even when you check the import rendered effects option. It was only discovered when the sound rolls where out of sync on those sections.

After working through it a bit we found out that having too many audio plugins in MC can either cause the AAF or Pro Tools not to import them all. We had to have the editor apply all the time compression effects to all the sound rolls on those effected clips and then render them as wav files and export that as a new AAF to even get the show in sync.

Has anyone else seen something like this before? I've been doing post for more than 10 years and this is a first for me. I know picture editors have been doing more and more sound work in their edits but is this something that post audio folks are going to see and have to deal with more often?

[FajitaTone]

there should be a "render all effects" check box in the export window of Media Composer. That way, importing all the rendered effects is applied to the timeline.

[Brandonx1]

Originally Posted by FajitaTone

there should be a "render all effects" check box in the export window of Media Composer. That way, importing all the rendered effects is applied to the timeline.

Then you don't get handles or access to the source audio. I always tell the pic editors to give me a mixdown of all the as effects used in the last 2 tracks of the aaf.

[conleec]

Sorry, i'm a picture editor, but it sounds like that editor needs to be slapped upside the head. What the heck was he/she doing speeding up syllables in MC?

Chris

[cunninghamaudio]

Originally Posted by FajitaTone

there should be a "render all effects" check box in the export window of Media Composer. That way, importing all the rendered effects is applied to the timeline.

That doesn't always work. In this case the editor used too many audio plug ins in MC and the assistant had to remove everything but the time compression. Even then there were still a couple lines that don't sync up, even with the MC rendered effects.

[V5V]

Originally Posted by cunninghamaudio

I had a show where the picture editor used time compression or speed ramps (not sure what it's called in MC) but essentially they sped up picture and audio in MC in various places here and there on words and parts of syllables and the time compression effects used in the MC timeline didn't carry through the AAF and into Pro Tools, even when you check the import rendered effects option.

We had problems with time-altered audio from MC when we used Interplay, but perhaps not the same as what you're describing. Either the end of the region would be cut off (with no handle), or there would be a bit of digital noise somewhere in the region.

The only solution I came up with was to have the picture editor send me the original audio and speed it up or slow it down myself.

Since we quit using Interplay and went back to sending an AAF I still find instances of audio being out of sync, but I don't know if it's an issue with the AAF export, or Pro Tools just doing a lousy job of keeping audio in sync with desktop video, or a case of the producer deciding that the sync issue arising from a certain creative decision was "close enough" for a disposable 30 second promo. At least now we're not having the problem with regions being cut short or containing random noise.