No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

Hi,

I wanted to try elastic audio. I tried to turn it on but PT tells me it´s not possible because the files are read only (wich they are not in the finder).

Is this because they are files related to OMF/AAF media? Similar to the pencil-tool restrioctions that apply to AVID files?
thanks,

frank.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

I bet that is probably why, yes. But the easy fix is to click on the "copy" selector rather than the "link" when you import your omf media. When it makes a new copy of the media, pencil restrictions no longer apply.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

This is not an option for me because I work with referenced AAF only. I have to deal with too many recuts that create extreme amounts of redundant media. I thought elastic audio was a real-time process wich is why I wondered about the message.

But thanks for the tip. AE isn´t that interesting for me anyway at the moment I just wanted to try it when this message came up.

frank.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

You like to live on the edge.
I never, ever, ever like working with referenced audio.
I personally have witnessed too many problems, and failure to find referenced files at critical times.
And when the session has gone through several re-cuts etc. I'll do a "save copy in" And create a fresh session with new files.

As a result I never have missing files when sessions get restored from a backup.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

Hi Frank - a bit of a design limitation here:

Finder says read-write. PT can’t write to OMF though as it contains some crazy internal references to the file in the OMF chunk ( which basically violates the RIFF standard). If we wrote to it we’d have to re-write the OMF chunk which I don’t think we can do. In short PT treats OMF as read only. EA is not supported on Read-only because we cannot store anaylsis data in the metadata header.

"and so it goes...."

-tv

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

which the technical explanation for why the pencil tool does not work when you link....

thanks for that.

filing that tidbit away for the next cocktail party.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

Hi Tim,

when you say "can not write to an OMF" do you refer to an embedded OMF-file or the actual media file? The media-files I´m using are all .mxf (wich I understand is just another container for the BWAV audio). I also tried an AAF. Does this contain an OMF-chuk too?
I´m confused.

Thanks,

frank.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

I was just struggling with this last night. My tracks with files that were imported from AAF (and they were copied) would not switch to elastic audio, getting the same error quoted above. Even tried re-copying the session and files using "save copy in..." and the problem persisted. The only solution we found is to move the region that you want to elasticize to an AAF-free track, and consolidate the audio (losing the handles), which gives the sound a fresh new identity.

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

Yeah this is just crazy.
I spoke a few weeks ago with an Avid rep and that's the answer he gave me: "Apparently MXF files do not have the same space in the header as BWF or AIFF which is where we store the elastic audio metadata. In order to get MXF audio files to work with elastic audio we would have to change the way that we store the metadata".

I never worked with mxf media before, because I always copied the AAF media to a new session. With Pro Tools 10, even if I copy the media, they audio file remain MXF (if I don't choose the option to force the fiel to the session format).
My workaround (I'm on PT10) is to use the Duplicate audiosuite plugin set to Whole File before moving the region(s) to an elastic audio track: this way I create new file(s) but my edits and all the metadata are preserved.

I posted this request on Ideascale some time ago http://protools.ideascale.com/a/dtd/...cks/91680-3779

Cheers

Davide

Re: No elastic audio with AAF/OMF tracks?
 

I think I have figured out a workaround that works if you are not using tons of elastic audio. Here is how I did it.

Create a new empty track with Elastic Audio enabled.
Separate and consolidate the clip you want to work on.
Move it to the Elastic track.
Make your changes there.
Consolidate the clip again.
Move the clip back to it's original track.

It's not elegant but it seems to work and you will not need to copy all of your audio to the local drive.

J.R. Chappell