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• Importing audio from CDs: You can also directly import tracks copied from audio CDs.
It’s important to copy all the tracks you want to use from the CD to your scratch disk
before importing them into Final Cut Pro. Otherwise, they’ll go offline when you eject
the CD.
Clip Organization
You can use Final Cut Server to organize audio you want to share among multiple users.
Locally, audio media is principally organized by filename prior to import. You can use
applications such as iTunes or third-party database applications to assemble libraries of
music or sound effects with additional organizational data, but this data won’t necessarily
translate into a format that Final Cut Pro or Soundtrack Pro can use. After the audio media
is imported, you can use the Final Cut Pro Browser to add notes and comments to each
clip for easier searching and sorting.
Dual system media, where the audio and video are captured using separate devices, can
be synchronized and put together as merged clips. See the Final Cut Pro documentation
for more information.
Tracking and Organizational Information
QuickTime audio and BWF files support timecode tracks, which are useful for synchronizing
audio and video that are recorded on separate sources. All other audio formats are tracked
using filename and media duration.
Ingesting Individual Still Images
Final Cut Pro and Motion both support the import of most popular still-image formats.
For the best-looking images, you should consider restricting stills in your project to
uncompressed formats such as TIFF. If you use JPEG files, make sure they’re saved at high
quality to avoid compression artifacts.
Final Cut Pro has no real limit on the resolution of imported still images, and in fact you
can use images that are larger than the frame size of your sequence to create pan and
scan animations, where you zoom in to or out of an image in either Final Cut Pro or
Motion. However, for the sake of rendering efficiency, it’s wise to keep the frame size of
imported images to a reasonable maximum. In particular, frame size limitations in Color
and Motion might affect you if you’re sending clips or sequences to either application:
• Color is limited to a maximum frame size of 4096 x 2304 pixels. If you’re importing a
still image into a Final Cut Pro sequence that you intend to send to Color, you should
either limit the image file’s frame size to these dimensions or be prepared to replace
the image with a version of the clip that is exported as a self-contained QuickTime
movie before you send your program to Color.
• Motion supports resolutions up to 8K, although the maximum resolution that’s
supported on your computer depends on the amount of VRAM of your graphics card,
the bit depth of your project, and the number of displays you’re using. It’s more realistic
to limit the resolution of your images to 4K or lower.
42 Chapter 2 Ingesting and Organizing Your Media