Final Cut (and other editing apps) will accept many kinds and formats of audio for import into the Browser or Timeline.

However, just because they will, doesn’t mean you should!

If you import compressed audio, for example, in MP3 or AAC codecs, or audio in a different bit or sample rate than your Timeline (such as 44.1 KHz, 32 KHz or 12-bit), you will often hear clicks, pops, and audio dropouts while editing, which is distracting for your creative process, and in many cases your audio will require rendering before you can even hear it, which sounds like “beep-beep-beep-beep” and wastes a lot of your time.

Our solution is to batch convert all audio to 48KHz, uncompressed, stereo or mono for editing before importing.

We use DV Kitchen for this, it comes with a preset already designed for this.

Have you ever found yourself changing the file names of a whole folder of clips, graphic or other files on your hard drive one by one? Here is a Warp Speed Workflow showing how to change hundred of files names in one click.

Click here to ask a question about Final Cut Pro workflows.

For more info, check out:

Final Cut Pro Foundations

Final Cut Express Foundations

Notable points:

• Final Cut Studio 2 will be available in May for $1,299, or $499 for the upgrade
• Final Cut Pro 6 has an Open Format Timeline that lets editors mix and match virtually any video format and frame-rate in a single Timeline without transcoding. Hope this works with nesting and media management!
• ProRes 422 format for uncompressed HD quality at SD file sizes and support for mixed video formats and frame rates in a single Timeline- nice feature. ProRes 422 will run at about 18-20 MB/sec (normal quality) or 27-30 MB/sec  (high quality) for HD, or 5 MB/sec (normal) to 8 MB/sec (high quality) for SD. So, 6 – 10 times more hard drive space than HDV, but faster rendering and editing (because it’s all I-frame, no B-frame)
• Livetype is still included
• The ability to edit Motion templates with video drop zones and editable text fields directly in Final Cut Pro- this could be a real timesaver.
• Motion 3 has a "multiplane" 3D environment, meaning not true 3D, but flat layers in 3D space, lit by 3D lights and "shot" by cameras that can move through 3D space, like After Effects, which is cool. Individual (flat) letters can move in 3D, and even cooler, 3D particle systems, which could be rotated in tandem with the camera moves of the underlying footage, leading to more realistic composited particle effects.
• Motion 3 has vector based paint tools to allow editors to create brushes with color, particles, video or pictures.
• A motion tracking feature, if it works well, will be very useful.
• You can now use audio volume and frequency to affect any affectable parameter
• Optical Flow retiming means generating inbetween frames that could produce very smooth slow motion.
• From Apple’s Final Touch acquisition comes Color, a separate program with more advanced color grading than Final Cut Pro’s 3 way Color Corrector. The primaries in Color include advanced color correction tools such as gamma, lift and gain adjustments, as well as custom R, G, B and luma curves, and the secondaries provide the ability to isolate specific areas of an image with soft- edged mattes and custom-shaped vignettes. This was a $25,000 program, then $5,000 that is included at no charge in the Studio bundle.

  Professional scopes provide precise monitoring of chrominance and luminance values via waveforms, histograms and new 3D scopes. Color offers a seamless roundtrip workflow where projects can be sent from Final Cut Pro 6 directly to Color for grading, finishing and final rendering with 32-bit float 4:4:4 image processing.

• Soundtrack Pro 2 adds an interface upgrade and surround mixing tools enable users to create 5.1 and stereo mixes in the same project.

  There’s also a royalty- free library of over 5,000 professionally produced foley and sound effects, including over 1,000 surround sound effects and evocative multi-channel music tracks. A powerful new Conform tool enables users to synchronize and track changes between
  picture and sound editorial.

• Apple today also introduced Final Cut(R) Server, a powerful new server application that works seamlessly with Final Cut Studio 2 to provide
  media asset management and workflow automation for post production and broadcast professionals.

Final Cut Studio 2 – Upgrade from Final Cut Studio

Availability: Ships in May
Price: $499.00

Final Cut Studio 2 – Upgrade from Final Cut Pro 1,2,3,4 or FCP HD

Availability: Ships in May
Price: $699.00

Final Cut Studio 2 

Availability: Ships in May
Price: $1299.00

1. Download iTunes from Apple
2. Double click iTunes Setup.exe to install
3. Launch iTunes
4. Go to the Edit Menu > then click Preferences
5. Click on the Advanced tab
6. Then click on the Importing tab
7. Now, in the “Import Using” dialog box, choose .WAV Encoder.
8. Then in the “Setting” dialog box, choose “Custom”
9. For “Sample Rate” choose 48 kHz.
10. For “Sample Size” choose 16-bit.
11. For “Channels” choose Stereo.
12. Then click OK.
13. Then OK again, to close the Preferences Box.Now your preferences are set up to convert audio files to an uncompressed file that will play smoothly in your editing software.
14. Now, insert a CD, or drop MP3s, AACs or files in many other kinds of audio formats into iTunes
15. Highlight all the items you want to convert, right-click, and choose “Convert Selection to WAV” from the popup menu.
16. Locate the items in your Music folder and put them in your project folder.

If you’d like to batch convert audio files on OSX, click here!

http://www.filmsound.org/foley/

http://www.soundsnap.com/

http://www.findsounds.com/types.html

 http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/searchText.php

http://flashkit.com/soundfx

http://www.stonewashed.net/sfx.html

http://www.acoustica.com/

http://www.grsites.com/sounds/

http://www.koumis.com/soundfx.htm

http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml

http://www.f7sound.com/snd.htm