Here’s some stuff you should know about how to get the most out of X2Pro, whether you’re going to Logic or Pro Tools:

– Export your XML from FCPX after doing as much role tagging with your components as possible (see part 4), and then import this into X2Pro.

– Set the Destination where you want your AAF to be saved (if you’re not referencing media, expect a large file, especially if you’re doing long handles).

– If you want all of your audio directly embedded into your AAF (likely if you’re delivering to a sound designer), you’ll want to make sure Trim Embedded audio is turned on or you’re going to have a massive sized AAF. If you want your AAF to reference your original audio files, leave “reference WAV files in place” checked, and when you get to Logic, your audio will be referencing the same files it was in FCPX.

Ordering your Roles in your AAF:

When you hit the “Roles” button, all of the roles from your XML are going to pop out to the left. These will reflect the order that you’ll see them in Logic. To change the order, select the role you move and use the up/down arrows to change where it appears in your track stack.

X2Pro Preferences:

General Tab – General rule of thumb is that you keep your transitions, but don’t really expect them to be 100% accurate. I discard my disabled clips, and I’ll convert my audio to PCM audio, usually at 16/24 bit (you need to do this because most DAW’swon’t read .mp3 or AAC audio unless it has been converted… also, expect Logic to convert this audio to the project’s sample rate when you import your AAF).

Media Handling: I’ll generally set this to 20 seconds (or whatever my sound designer wants)… and I’ll typically not “reference multi-channel WAV files” as that isn’t supported in Pro Tools anyway. Also, the next one is a big one… You’re going to want to keep “embed media, optionally trimming” turned on… otherwise, expect a bunch of unexplained errors that will drive you crazy… basically, this option ensure that if there are any problem clips, they’ll just get embedded into the AAF with handles.

Roles: I can’t think of a good reason why you wouldn’t want to keep your roles on separate tracks if you bothered to take the time to tag them in the first place.

Media Locations: Because of App Store sandboxing, this is necessary… X2Pro can’t just search your computer for files unless you give it permission. If you’ve used the consolidate feature in FCPX, the good news is that you’ll only have to put one directory there. Also, X2Pro will scan your XML and tell you the folders that you need to give it access to. You don’t have to give it access to each individual folder either. Rule of thumb is to give it access to a folder early in the tree (or a hard drive), and then X2Pro can do the digging to all the subfolders on its own.

Anyway… that’s a general overview of how to make X2Pro work for you… and whether you’re creating AAF’s for yourself, or for a sound designer, if you understand how all of the above works, sound turnover should be pretty painless.

Here’s a link to past blogs in case you missed them:

Part 1: Intro
Part 2: Logic Pro X Tutorials
Part 3: Logic XML Roundtrip Really Does Work
Part 4: (sub) Role Management

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sam Mestman, FCPWORKS.

This blog post contains the personal musings of FCPWORKS’ Workflow Architect, Sam Mestman. Sam’s also a regular writer for fcp.co and MovieMaker Magazine, teaches post workflow at RED’s REDucation classes, and is the founder and CEO of We Make Movies, a film collective in Los Angeles and Toronto which is dedicated to making the movie industry not suck. If you’ve got any FCP X questions or need some help putting together a system, drop him an email at workflow@fcpworks.com and you can follow him on Facebook or Twitter at @FCPWORKS.

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