With audio mix, many editors use the on-board tools in FCP and Soundtrack Pro to do their own mix. But not every editing studio is capable of doing a high quality voiceover recording or a sound design. That’s when going to an outside record and mix studio makes good sense, if your budget can afford it.

If your mix in the FCP timeline is acceptable as final, then skip this and go to the Build the Master section. If your budget can afford it, an audio mix session at a studio provides many benefits, even though you will be tempted to do it all yourself. A mixing studio can give you:

• The creative results that only an audio mix specialist can provide.
• Access to extensive sound effects and music libraries.
• Overall program loudness level control with sophisticated tools.
• A high quality microphone and recording booth that most editors cannot afford.
• Better sound editing software compared to editing systems.
• Better room and speaker engineering.
• A great creative experience for you and your client.

If you are working with a mixing studio, you will need to provide them with an OMF file that contains your audio clips and the sound level automation. Go through your audio clips and arrange them on your audio tracks according to the following guide:

• Dialog clips should be single track mono, and checkerboarded alternatingly on tracks 1 & 2
• Sound FX should be stereo, and placed on 3 & 4
• Music should be stereo, and placed on 5 & 6
• If you need to checkerboard SFX and Music, do so on adjacent pairs of tracks, such as music on 5 & 6/7 & 8
• Try to contain everything in 8 tracks if you can. It will make your mix engineer happy.

A note on dialog audio: a well-recorded production will usually include dual mono dialog audio on adjacent tracks. Sometimes track 1 is lavalier audio, and track 2 is boom microphone, or it will be the same microphone source recorded on both tracks. Presumably, you had made the decision to use one track or the other for your edit based on which was a better quality recording, but if you had been working with both tracks simultaneously, you should decide now which is the one to use, or use both if there are unusual problems. For recordings where the same microphone source is recorded on both tracks, one of the tracks is probably set to a lower recording level on purpose in case the other track’s recording peaks over zero and distorts. In this case, the lower level recording will still be good. If you do not encounter this problem, always go with the track that was recorded higher.

At this point, you need only to export an OMF file with embedded media according to the specs provided to you by the recording studio. Most facilities use OMF 2.0, but always check first. The end result of this process will be an audio-only OMF file that will import into the mix engineer’s software console precisely the way you created it in your edit. If the mixing studio asks for it, be prepared to export an MPEG4 with the rough mix to use for reference. ProTools systems can accept an MPEG4/h.264 at 640 x 480, 29.97fps, but check with them for exact specifications. Otherwise, output the rough cut to a scrap tape for them to digitize.

Another note on Final Cut Pro’s OMF export function: prior to FCP 6.x, the OMF file included the audio media, but not the mix levels or “rubber bands” of your mix automation. The only way to include this critical data prior to FCP 6.x is to use the Automatic Duck Pro Export FCP plugin ($500) which is capable of including both the media and the automation. Be sure to let your engineer know if your OMF does NOT include automation, and listen to them groan.

Once you’ve finished the OMF export, gather the OMF file and the reference video, burn them to a disc or upload to ftp. Save these files in your archive collection for the project as well.

Video Demo: Making the sequence and exporting an OMF for an audio mix session