While working on a basic project for my editing class after exporting the video using .mxf after using Media Encoder to make a quicktime .mov (Avid will not do this directly using Catalina on a Mac) right before I was about to submit the finished version of my project I noticed something odd.
The EQ that I had applied to several audio tracks were not applied to the finished version of the .mxf or .mov file. I can't really confirm if the .mxf file does not have the plug-ins because I am unable to open the .mxf to check. Once I have created a .mov file using Media Encoder I thought I would be able to submit my final project. The EQ, the Limiter and the compressor were not applied to the .mov file. After hours of trying different settings, extensions, options and wrappers I finally decided to extract the video and the audio separately.
I extracted only the audio from Media Composer and made a stereo mix. The goal was to open up a Final Cut Pro Library to see if I could make a .mov file from FCP by adding the video and the audio separately. It was clear to me that the issue was with Media Composer and not Media Encoder because the two track audio only export had the correct audio that was in my MC timeline. Once I added both the Video (with the audio) .mxf and the audio only into FCP's timeline the audio and the video were in perfect sync.
Once I had both files in sync I simply muted the audio from the .mxf video and I was just using the audio from the audio only file in FCP. I exported 2 types of .mov files one using H.264 and one using ProRes. Both files played the audio perfectly using a .mov file. The ProRes file was 4.48 GB and the H.264 file was only 758 MB.
The point is... Avid Media Composer for some reason did NOT export the audio using the effects that I selected. Sense the effects are plug-ins this could be a plug-in issue with Avid using its own Native plug-ins. Or this is an effect issue where the mix will not export using any effects.
I'm a firm believer of testing other software or other files to see if you have the same issue. I went back to my previous project which also involved mixing audio in MC. I discovered but did not notice that the plug-ins for that project were also not extracted with the .MxF file, therefore I turned in a project that did not playback the way it played in Media Composer's timeline. I re-checked both projects and playing the timeline in Media Composer showed NO issues with the same Effects and or Plug-ins.
To confirm that the audio was different in both the original audio and the audio only file. I created a new Final Cut Pro timeline and I brought in 4 files. Both original audio that never had the plug-ins active. I created audio only versions from MC for both projects (SEE IMAGE). You can see the difference in the waveform that both files were NOT affected by the plug-ins.
Summary: Media Composer will not export the desired audio plug-ins or effects. These plug-ins are built into Media Composer (native). If you export audio only, The plug-ins or effects are applied to the mixed audio. Only when you export both Video and Audio from Media Composer does this issue exist.
Possible causes:
1. Catalina issue with Media Composer
2. AMA Plugin
3. Some simple setting for exporting audio in Media Composer
4. A corrupt installation of a plug-in to
5. an audio Rendering issue
6. a Transcoding issue in Media Composer
I do not have any possible solutions for this issue.
I'd go back into Media Composer and make an audio mixdown of your timeline and check that.
If thats got issues then you need to dig further at whats going wrong.
If you can make an audio micdown thats correct then you can make a duplicate sequence of the final edit and replace the audio with the new audio mixdown.
Now you can export Audio from MC as WAV or AIFF
And you can export from MC on Catalina as an MP4 or MOV (they show up at the bottom of the export options list.)
Those exports can be PorRes, DNx or H264 as well as a few others.
Currently the audio has to be PCM uncompressed but we will see AAC as an option soon.
Broadcast & Post Production Consultant / Trainer Avid Certified Instructor VET (Retired Early 2022)
Still offering training and support for: QC/QAR Training - Understanding Digital Media - Advanced Files * Compression - Avid Ingest - PSE fixing courses and more.
Mainly delivered remotely via zoom but onsite possible.
T 07581 201248 | E pat@vet-training.co.uk
You didnt carefully read my post....
I already thought of and did what you said... that did not fix the MC issue... It just helped me get my project submitted.
In my original post I statated that I was able to export a mix of the audio only.... I said that a few times. The audio only export had no issues...
In my post I stated that I took that exported MC audio only file and I inported it into FCP and I was able to bring in the video from MC and I exported both the audio and the video from FCP to complete my project.... but that did not fix or answer the question about MC not being able to have the plug-ins work inside of the exported file...
This was all explained in the original post.
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