Appendix 1

The Filmmaker’s Guide to Final Cut Pro Workfl ow
However, simply letting the DAT or Nagra “soft lock” to its internal clock and patching the audio
outs into the Pro Tools audio inputs will hold frame-accurate sync for quite some time. And if the
levels are properly matched, the audio quality of the transfer will be good with very little addition
of noise. While this system would not be good enough to transfer an entire fi lm, it will hold sync for
all but the longest production takes.
The fastest and simplest way to capture from tape is to capture the entire tape or tapes, cut up the
takes in the Pro Tools timeline and export the takes as fi les ready for import into Final Cut Pro. If
necessary, the takes can be pulled down during this export. For audio recorded to chips or drive that
needs to be pulled down, the audio takes can be imported into Pro Tools and then exported with pull
down.
Track Management
First, create a new Pro Tools session (see Figure 3.6). The audio fi le type can be broadcast WAV
(BWF) or AIFF. Both of these formats can be imported directly into Final Cut Pro with no need to
render the audio. The bit depth can be 16 or 24 bit. Final Cut Pro supports both, but best practice
would be to match the original bit depth from the production recording. The project can be expanded
to 24 bit later in sound design if a 24-bit fi nish is planned.
Figure 3.4 The Pro Tools new session window. From here the audio format, bit depth and sample rate
is set
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