Update: Commenter Cameron points to this Apple Kbase article that should resolve this problem. So hooray for that. And for Cameron.

I have more problems with Soundtrack Pro than any other application on my Mac. Between crashing, and the seemingly endless file save progress indicators, I have managed to tip-toe my way through several successful projects. But it’s the looming uncertainty that puts fear in me whenever I send a project from Final Cut to Soundtrack Pro.

Recently I had the unique pleasure of being treated an an error I haven’t seen before, the curiously named CNSExceptionWrapper. I say it’s curious because most methods in the OS X frameworks start with NS, a remnant of NeXTSTEP — of which OS X is a direct descendent. The C prefix is a little peculiar however, and I wonder if it has something to do with one of the Core Services. Perhaps Core Audio? Who knows. I was only able to find a few references to the error after searching, and still haven’t found an explanation for what caused it.

Last night I ran into an issue I’ve had off and on for quite a while. Let’s say I’ve recorded a project using two different audio sources; a shotgun on the left channel and a lav on the right channel. I bring them into Soundtrack Pro and mute the left channel (I usually just use it for backup), and proceed to do my work on the right channel. When it’s ready I export the master mix back to Final Cut Pro and… WHAT?! None of my changes/edits made it through! In fact the sound I hear couldn’t have possibly come from a lavaliere microphone. So, completely confused and demoralized, I switch back to Soundtrack Pro and play the sequence. The audio now sounds the same as it did in Final Cut, but completely different than it sounded just a minute ago in Soundtrack Pro.

What’s going on?

For whatever reason, it appears that Soundtrack Pro sometimes decides that the channel you think you’re working with isn’t the one it thinks you should be working with. So it changes it for you at export. How helpful.

To correct this (and trust me, this is a huge pain) right-click on the clip in the timeline. Choose Channel Select > Mono > 1 (or whichever channel isn’t currently checked). You’re picking the channel you DON’T want. Then right-click again and choose Channel Select > Mono > 2 (bringing it back to the channel you do want).

Repeat for every single clip in your sequence.

When I discovered this solution (and I’m using that term loosely) I was working on a project that’s only 60 seconds long. You can see how this could be a major issue for projects that are something like 60 minutes or longer. Even manually changing the tracks for every clip in a five minute sequence would be a chore. It’s something I really hope to see fixed in a software update in the future. It’s hard for me to believe that I’m the only person that’s experienced this issue.

I haven’t posted anything in a while. You may have noticed. To make myself feel better about my own blogging failure I thought I’d pass along a tip that the people at Creative Cow recently wrote about; key bindings.

It’s a $10 name for describing how to create your own keyboard shortcuts within Final Cut Pro. This can be a huge time saver. For example, to get started in Soundtrack Pro I normally have to right click (or control-click) on a sequence in the Browser, select Send To, then choose Soundtrack Pro Multitrack Project. Alternatively, one could bind the action to their very own fancy-shmancy keyboard shortcut and accomplish the same task in a fraction of a second. On my system, I have this action set to Option-Shift-S.

The process of actually editing these shortcuts is as simple as you might expect something in FCP to be (meh). Start by hitting Option-H to open the keyboard layout editor, then click on the little lock icon in the lower left to allow changes. From there you can have at it by choosing the key combination tabs along the top of the window, and searching for the desired command in the search area. Simply drag the command onto the key you want to bind it to.

Creative Cow lists a bunch of great shortcuts in their post, but I’d also suggest setting Render All to the letter Y. It’s a letter that’s not used by default for anything, and it’s something you’re probably going to be doing a lot of. Consider also binding Send to Color and Send to Motion to Option-Shift-C and Option-Shift-M, receptively.

The last thing you’re going to want to do is to save your layout (and if you really want to blow your own mind, you can even set a keyboard shortcut for that too!). From the menu bar choose Tools > Keyboard Layout > Save Keyboard Layout… and give it a name. Something like, “Jason’s Keyboard,” or, “Master of space and time” would do nicely.

And finally, if things get too crazy in there, you can always hit the reset button to get yourself back to the Apple-supplied shortcuts.

This summer has been pretty crazy what with moving across the country and everything. I haven’t had the time to write about everything that I thought was interesting, so I thought about creating a linked list (no affiliation to this guy, of course) to catch up on what’s been going on around here.

• The biggest news is that Meagan and I have moved from Orlando, FL to Salem, MA. We love it. Salem is amazing. You should definitely take a look at all of the pictures I’ve shot since moving.

• The real bombshell here, however, is that Meagan is going to be working with legendary, dragon-slaying designer Dan Cederholm, of SimpleBits fame. We’re all pretty excited about that, and I can’t wait to see what kind of mind-expanding creations these two come up with in the months to come.
• A week (to the day) after arriving in Salem, Meagan and I found ourselves attending the first ever gathering of The Build Guild. The Build Guild is a collection of web developers and designers from the greater Salem area, who meet to talk shop and eat some delicious Salem food. The first meeting was a lot of fun, thanks in a big way to the Guild’s founders, Marc Amos and Angelo Simeoni.

• A fews days prior to leaving Orlando, I wrote about my MacBook Pro having a logic board failure. After I got the computer back I decided to try and restore the system from my latest Time Machine backup. Something I wasn’t aware of is that Time Machine uses your computer’s MAC address to identify it for a backup. When that address changes (such as when you get a new logic board), you have to perform a bit of Unix voodoo to get it to work again. I found a great walk-through on the topic over at Mac OSX Hints. If you’re having a similar issue, this should straighten things out.
• I’m a big fan of The Edit Blog for it’s fantastic production-related content. On a recent post Scott linked to a post by a very frustrated filmmaker trying to work with Soundtrack Pro for audio mixing. He lists his grievances and calls for it’s immediate execution by Apple. I’ve had my share of frustrations with Soundtrack Pro, but I’ve never wished death upon it before. He makes some great points though. Definitely worth a read.
• Lastly, I’m going to bookend this post with another mention of moving. One of my new favorite blogs, Big Contrarian recently had a post about moving that I loved. Read it and subscribe immediately.

If you’re not already familiar with B&H I suspect you soon will be. For many it’s considered the Mecca of the imaging community. Countless travelers make the journey north every year, just to stand among the superior camera technology.

I once heard that at if you’re lucky, and if you’re standing in just the right spot, you’ll experience a feeling akin to euphoria. This, of course, comes directly before you realize you just dropped $1200 on a 70mm lens, at which point you begin to justify the purchase (and the journey) by calling it an investment, a smart business move, or simply blame it on mind-control.

But quasi-religious fanaticism aside, what interests me today is this email. In it were links to several fantastic articles from B&H about things that matter to videographers like myself. I was actually astonished at how relevant the information was. Their article on CCD and CMOS sensors was top-notch, covering the basics of each technology. It even went on to compare the technologies by giving fantastic animated examples for each.

Another article about transferring mom and pop’s VHS tapes to DVD was also a good read. They covered several valid options for executing the task, and even offered up options on what kind of gear you might need to pull it off. And since they’re still a store, they’ll even sell it to you!

I suppose that’s a good – and bad – side-affect for these kinds of articles. Good because you know exactly what you’ll need and how much it costs. Bad because they’re blatantly pushing these products onto you, making me wonder if maybe at least this article has more to do with being overstocked on a certain analog to digital converter than concern for your parent’s degrading memories.

The last article pinpointed several ways to capture great sound even if you’re the only one on the shoot. This is something I’ve run into on just about every project I’ve worked on lately. It’s nice to see somebody offering good real-world solutions for this ever-present problem. Even better since it’s from a place I look to for most (if not all) of my production needs.

I’m not sure if these kind of email newsletters are new for B&H. I’ve been getting their stuff for a while, but usually just gloss over it. I think this is the first time I’ve seen articles instead of advertisements from them. But it’s definitely a welcome change. I look forward seeing what comes next from them. If only they would turn this into a regular blog instead of just an email newsletter.

The most publicized feature in Mac OS 10.5 Leopard can also be one of the most useful for your Final Cut Studio workfow. This, of course, is Time Machine.

My setup right now consists of two external hard drives. Both are 500GB FireWire 800 drives. One is for capture and all of the extra goodies that come with Final Cut Studio, and the other is for backup via Time Machine.

I previously mentioned how using Final Cut Studio’s Media Manager can be useful while needing to stay mobile. Another option is to use Time Machine to store your current, but not quite active, projects for later while you focus on what needs to get done immediately.

Here’s how it works. When you import your tape go ahead and capture it right to your laptop’s internal drive, instead of your external. I usually keep about 30GB free for this kind of thing, but that sort of flexibility may vary wildly depending on you and your lifestyle.

Once the capture is complete let Time Machine grab it. If it’s something you anticipate working on immediately, go for it. If not, delete it from your internal drive and move on to something else. Time Machine will save it for later, and since it’s always going to be captured under Final Cut Pro Documents > Capture Scratch, you’ll know exactly where to look for it.

I recently did a lot of work for a Web-based promotional company that required juggling five projects simultaneously. Three of which were awaiting final approval, but the other two hadn’t been started. I trashed the first three projects after ensuring a successful backup, and just kept on trucking. When the time came to burn the projects to disks I trashed the current projects, restored the old files, burned the discs, trashed them again, and restored the projects on which I was currently working.

This sort of workflow can take some time to get used to. Deleting your source files is kind of a big no-no in the world of non-linear editing. So it’s not going to be for everybody. Especially if you’re a bit squeamish. But if you find yourself in a pinch, this is a useful technique that’ll keep your workflow moving even when working with limited hard drive space.

For real.

It also has something called Media Manager.

What does it do? Lots. Why should you care? Because if you’re like me and you do all of your video work on a laptop with limited hard drive space, this can be a life-saver. Media Manager allows you to capture all of your footage to an external drive, do your editing at home, then apply the polish when you’re out of the dungeon.

Here’s an example. Say you’re working on a project that you’ve just finished editing. There’s still a bunch of work left to do (color grading, motion graphics, and some audio work), but you’re leaving the apartment for a bit since the place needs to be fumigated because your idiot roommate dog-napped a flea-ridden mutt from one of the hobos under the overpass. The client doesn’t give two flips about it and still wants the video done NOW. Time to take it to the coffee shop where you can suffocate your pain with some caffeine.

Oh wait. The source files take up something like 24GB on your external, but you’ve only got 2GB left on your MacBook Pro. Your mind turns from caffeine dreams to blood-red visions of the apocalypse. But alas, unlike your roommate (or your client), Final Cut Studio is ready and willing to help you in your time of need.

From within the Browser in Final Cut Pro, right-click on the sequence you’re working on. Select “Media Manager…”. A dialog box pops up that gives you a couple of neat bar graphs and a handful of options. You’ll mostly want to leave those alone for now. Just take a look at the graphs near the top. This shows you just how much unused crap you’re about to leave out of your soon-to-be modified project file.

Once you select a destination for your files (I chose Desktop because this junk needs to get done NOW), go ahead and hit ok.

Media Manager copies only the parts of the source files that you’re currently using, then places them in the destination folder, creates a new project file for you, and automatically links the referenced clips in the timeline to the new source files. Pretty slick, no?

If you’re thinking ahead you may have realized that this isn’t entirely foolproof. If you need to change an edit by making it slightly longer you’re out of luck. It is what it is at this point. That’s why getting a lock on your picture edit is so important. But you’re completely free to play around in Color, add in your Motion content, or send it onto Soundtrack Pro for a little audio massaging.

Media Manager has some other helpful abilities, but this is the one I find the most useful. Especially when the client won’t stop calling and the exterminator is screaming at you to stop what you’re doing and get out so he can do his job, which he so very clearly despises.

What a sack.

$10 bucks says he steals something from my room.

If you’re the kind of person that spends any amount of time in Final Cut Studio, and you’re also the kind of person that went out and bought Apple’s 30in Cinema Display, chances are good you’re somebody who is a fan of keyboard shortcuts. So here’s one I think you’ll like.

As you’re working hard on an audio project in Soundtrack Pro, you’re likely to be switching between the timeline editing tools rather frequently. Given the relative size of the toolbar to the rest of the screen (that’s you’re 30in screen that everybody told you was WAY too big), traveling back and forth can become something of a pain.

Enter the world of the grave accent. And yes, it’s every bit as dramatic as it sounds.

At any time, and at any location from within Soundtrack Pro, simply hit the grave accent (`) key and wham-bam-shamina you’ve got yourself a HUD. This little trick gives you easy access to the selection tool, timeslice tool, both blade tools, both lift and stamp tools, and the scrubbing tool. Anywhere. Anytime.

So the next time somebody makes fun of your massive screen because it takes a minute and a half for the mouse to travel from one side to the other, tell them to shove it and show them this sweet little trick. They’ll not only be super impressed with your in-depth knowledge of Final Cut Studio, you’ll also give them one more reason to feel shame over buying the 23in model just because it “seemed more practical” at the time.

No regrets.*

*I’m still paying off that screen. But it looks AMAZING.