Hi Avid,

   I've been banging my head against a wall for the past 24 hours trying to get Broadcast Wave Files (six separate ones) that originate on the same track (A1), imported and separated out to unique tracks (A1, A2, A3, A4... and so on). It would be amazing if the latest versions could import these with directives on where you would like the specific tracks to land. To be fair, I've named the tracks beforehand to achieve the desired result; 01_STEVEN_01, 01_SARA_02, 01_BRYAN_03, etc. But Avid's not following suit with how it used to do in previous releases; v6, v7, v8.  What gives?  And can we get that piece of code written back in or have easier control on how these are imported by designating in a dialog box where we want them to land, or change them once they've been imported?

Thanks!

Mike

System specs: MacPro 2013, 64GB RAM, 12 Core Intel Xeon E5, Avid Media Composer v2021.3

Hello,

Not quite sure what you mean?  Are these tracks all containing the exact same time of day timecode or some other means to sync them up?  If not, then they should simply be imported separately, and then placed into the timeline wherever you see fit. 

I'm probably just not fully understanding what your end goal is. 

Hey Chris,

    Here's an image of what I'm dealing with here... Notice the Start times are all the same and the tracks all fall on A1, yet within the master file name prior to import they should in theory fall into separate tracks when autosequenced and added to a sync stack for grouping.

I think that only happens (and only used to happen) when the file names are identical, save from the channel number, and choosing 'Autodetect' upon import.

In this case, however, MC just sees a stack of similarly name files, all of which are a monophonic import, ending up on A1 -- therefore

I agree it would be nice to have an import feature that would let us determine on which tracks you want a stack of source files to end up. It would also be great if individual channels could carry channel ID metadata.

Yes, I agree. I believe the older versions were coded to include a bit more metadata, than the 2019 and up revamped releases. It would be absolutely a major win to be able to allocate where the tracks fall in an autosequence and even moreso where they would land in a multigroup. As an AE, it's a pain to do a manual stack and then to let producers and editors know that because of a glitch in Avid's wiring, the tracks are all combined in one track on A1, as opposed to meted out to their own exclusive tracks. Like I said, the older code in Media Composer v7 at least abided by the track naming and placed the tracks in their own individual channels. For this reason, I still need my coveted copy of Media Composer v7 to import my audio correctly for my reality tv work.

Mike Catucci:

Yes, I agree. I believe the older versions were coded to include a bit more metadata...

Hi Mike. I'd like to dive into this a little deeper with you. I'm looking to investigate exactly which metadata you might be seeing more of in the MC7 app. 

Could I trouble you for your assistance here?  Email me at chris.bove@avid.com -- I'd love to either get a conversation going about it, or even screen grab of a MC7 bin showing more metadata. 

This way I could pass that info to the engineers and they could see, first-hand, if something is missing. 

Let me know. Thanks!

Do you need Autodetect Broadcast Wave Monophonic Groups checked in your import settings? That should bring everything in on seperate tracks? If they are definitely discreet WAVs then I'm on 2018.12.15 and simply adding a number at the end of the file is bringing them in with the corresponding track number e.g. I add a _02 at the end of the file name and avid shows me A2 as that file's track number? Then when I group these files they show up in the group on the track I want them to. 

Are you saying adding the number at the end of the file no longer works?

Andi

Yes, I always tick that box in the import settings.

And you summed it up correctly. The newer versions don't operate in the fashion that you are currently used to. I'm hoping Avid can reinstitue this functionality, or at the very least provide capablity on changing the tracks after importing to the routing of our choice.

-Mike

That's really weird and annoying if true. Like I say, I am on 2018.12.15 and it is working perfectly so you could at least upgrade to that version over version 7 if needed.

Andi

I've just tried it on my copy of 2022.10. With files ending 1 through 5 I get 2 landing with A1 and the rest landing with A2, A3 and A4. So out of 5 tracks, 2 are doubled up and the rest come in offset by one - i.e. the one with _3 at the end now comes in as A2 etc. 

Another set I tried that I know is definitely working in 2018.12.15 is not respecting the added number in 2022.10. So yeah, I can confirm I am also seeing this behaviour. 

The 2022.10 version is on a PC (Win 10 Pro) and the 2018.12.15 is on a Mac (mojave 10.14.6).

Andi

It is odd AND annoying. We've unfortunately passed version 2018. We've were on 2020 and then migrated to 2021.3 for all workstations over SAN for our television work. Luckily I have a legacy version 7 machine, that operates on a local level that I have to import all my dialogue tracks thru in order to get them to work right in v2021.

Wow, this is quite a huge bug then. I hope this gets fixed and I'm quite surprised it hasn't been discovered already, there must be tonnes of assistants out there dealing with this daily.

Definitely would love a cleaner system for doing this too. They just need to have the Modify > Set tracks command dialog be brought up upon import and let you chose where you want everything to go at that stage. And then make the "Tracks" column editable so you can literally just change a dropdown to the track you want. 

Yet another reason my work machines are all 2018 then!

Andi

There IS a workaround to this....

Yesterday I discovered the exact same bug/change with BWAV track numbers vs Avid tracks. Mine was the same issue but in reverse. I had numbered BWAVs, _01, _02 etc and wanted to import them all as Avid A1 clips. Normally I just need to strip off the BWAV suffixes or append a + to the names before importing them. Now that doesn't work.

I did however discover a workaround....

Instead of importing the audio wavs, AMA them instead, so ALT drag them into a bin. The original behaviour before 2022.12 is preserved, eg. wavname_23 becomes an A23 linked AMA clip. Then transcode the AMAs if you need actual avid media. Luckily it's just one additional operation.

Avid must reacting to some deep level metadata associated with the BWAVs and not just their filenames as I originally thought. So it MUST have been designed in and not a bug.

But just like you Andi, I wish there was a way of reassigning track numbers to clips AFTER they've been imported.

Perry