Can you speak Media Composer?. In this article, we share 4 tips for getting what you need to get the best possible audio from Avid’s flagship video editing software into Pro Tools.

Learning The Language

To me, the  most useful non-audio training sessions I’ve ever attended were the 3 days of basic Media Composer training I received in preparation for the 2006 Winter Olympics broadcasts. I was chosen by CBC Sports to work as part of the Toronto Torino production team because of my comfort level with nonlinear editing. But I knew almost nothing about Avid’s Media Composer.

A few days of ‘one on two’ expert training sessions and I, along with a broadcast production audio engineer counterpart, were empowered to do basic audio editing,  mixes and recording inside Media Composer and push our sequences to Avid’s ISIS server (later to become Avid NEXIS) via their Interplay interface. 

I am not a video editor but being entrenched in a unit largely populated by picture editors for a month, I received a unique level of insight into how picture editors work. Not long after I returned to my regular job, the post production department I worked in dumped our reference video tape machines (Digital Betacam and Betacam SX) and went with a fully nonlinear workflow. Since I had received training for the Olympics, I helped co-author the CBC’s ‘Best Practices Manual’ for the new Media Composer-centric workflow. The workflow now included Media Composer, Interplay, ISIS and of course, Pro Tools.

Since 2006, I’ve imported and exported media between Avid’s Pro Tools and Media Composer systems hundreds of times, to the point where while I’m working with picture editors and their assistants, I’m able to effectively stave off issues before we start post production on any given project.

Though I often refer editors and mixers to our article How To Export A Pro Tools Friendly AAF From Avid Media Composer the aim of this article is a bit different. This time, armed with a copy of Avid’s Media Composer supplied to me by Avid, I can provide insight to aid in the critical interactions between audio and video operations. These 4 tips form the basis for my interactions with our picture editing counterparts and keep my projects rolling smoothly.

Before We Begin: The Language Barrier Has To Come Down

There are some terms we need to reference in order to speak the same language as our Media Composer counterparts. Here’s a short list of relevant Media Composer structural terms and, if there is one, their Pro Tools counterparts:

Project: In Media Composer, a project can contain multiple sequences and bins with all the accompanying files. ‘Projects’ doesn’t have a counterpart in Pro Tools. This is the wrapper in which all related data for a specific production is held together.

Sequence: This is analogous to a Pro Tools session’s edit window timeline (pictured above). These ‘sequences’ can be exported in AAF/OMF format to Pro Tools to form the basis of our audio edit.

Bin: A bin in Media Composer is a lot like our clip list in Pro Tools, in that media resides here but so then, too, do sequences and effects. 

Tip: When sending back printed audio deliverables to Media Composer, I usually send an AAF with all the audio material on named tracks. I suggest the editors create a separate bin to import the AAF into and then point out that there will be a ‘sequence’ in that bin that has everything lined up on tracks exactly as it was in Pro Tools. This cuts down on a LOT of work for them, since they can copy and paste the tracks they need for their various outputs, straight into their timelines. In this workflow I always export from Pro Tools as an embedded AAF but I ask first if they want multichannel or multiple mono tracks. 

Tip 1: Ask To Name Tracks Early On In The Edit

Organization is ‘putting things in their proper place’. In Media Composer, a right-click in the sequence on the track name (usually defaulted to A1, A2, for audio and V1. V2 etc for video) brings up a little menu where the editor can select ‘Rename Track’ and then a pop-up opens up to allow for naming. If the editor names tracks in an agreed upon format, this can be a huge timesaver later on when importing sequences into Pro Tools.

On bigger projects, it’s often the case that production arranges a meeting with the post production staff prior to commencement of our work, which can save an awful lot of money and time if the right questions and answers are brought to the table. For TV, we agree upon 48kHz, 24 bit, .wav as our audio media resolution and format. The next logical step is to talk about track layout. I always suggest naming tracks like this:

VO

DIA or Dx

MUSIC

SFX

SYNC BG or BROLL

DNU or REPLACE*

*That last DNU track name is to accommodate unlicenced materials that must be replaced later but can be used as reference when audio editing. 

They can have any number of tracks in their sequence and they can be mono, stereo or multichannel up to 7.1 surround if they want. All I ever ask is that the materials on the tracks match the track widths. So, mono materials on mono tracks, for instance. No mono materials on stereo tracks please.

Naming tracks helps the editor organize their materials from the onset and actually reduces/eliminates the need for this to happen later. The track names do come across into Pro Tools so we have a basic reference once we import from Media Composer.

Tip 2: Ask To Ensure All Audio Media Is Online 

If you’ve worked in this business a while, you’ve probably encountered ‘MEDIA OFFLINE’ in a video file before. There are a few reasons for this. A Media Offline notice often stems from linked media drives not being present during the output, video files or effects or renders* not being accessible on a volume or server, or because the Avid database files are not refreshed and need to be rebuilt. In any case, offline media results in a black hole visually or if audio media is offline, can cause issues for us in a few ways I’ve encountered. Firstly, the audio will be missing from our timeline and that’s if we manage to open the AAF/OMF sequence at all. I’ve also had issues in the distant past where offline media rippled the audio upstream from the missing clip)s), putting swaths of a track or tracks out of sync. 

We want all audio and video media online, in a perfect situation. This doesn’t always happen visually but for audio, we need this to be the case. There’s also a situation where mp2 audio is present in the sequence and cannot be exported. If you’re encountering problems, this is something to dig into and discuss with the picture editor as a potential solution to audio related issues. 

* A ‘render’ fixes an effect to a video file or audio file so the effect can be seen or heard. Often, effects in a Media Composer sequence can go unrendered while the editor is working but if they do a mixdown– video or audio- the unrendered effects will be rendered for this ‘mixdown’ file, which is analogous to the ‘commit’ function of a single track in Pro Tools, or potentially the Pro Tools ‘offline bounce’ function if all audio tracks in a sequence are selected for inclusion in an audio mixdown. 

A mixdown is a non-realtime bounce of a track or selected tracks of audio or video. More on this later.

Tip 3: Some Audio Effects Can’t Import Directly To Pro Tools Unless Rendered

Here’s the thing:  Media Composer can write volume and pan automation we can import to Pro Tools. Media Composer can also provide us with clip-based gain and audio fades. We can also receive ‘track effects’ which show up as plugins when we import these data to Pro Tools. These are the things that can be done. What’s less clear is what can’t be done.

Track Effects are exactly like our real time track plugins in Pro Tools. In Media Composer, multiple plugins can be applied to the same track, just like in Pro Tools. These plugins cannot be automated. If the plugins used aren’t the stock Avid plugins— which are also the same set we use in Pro Tools- the likelihood of these track effects retaining their settings is not very great.

There is, however, a workaround for track effects settings so we can import them as real time plugins and restore missing settings from third party plugins. The simple way is for the video editor to save the track settings as presets, named for the track and the plugin, then send these presets files along with the AAF sequence so we can import them to Pro Tools and apply them to the right plugin on the right track. If there’s a quick turnaround on a project, this could be a big timesaver if the video editor did a decent mix.

The other challenge coming from Media Composer and into Pro Tools is their clip effects. Media Composer allows for audio and video effects from virtually any plugin to be applied directly to clips in a sequence and there’s also a separate EQ Tool (that’s been around for years) that can be accessed outside the AudioSuite interface. 

In the audio clips, the effects must be rendered to be heard. The little plugin icon will have a tiny blue dot next to it if the effect isn’t rendered. As I mentioned before, audio mixdowns render these effects. 

It has been the case many times when I have been asked by an editor to include or emulate an effect they had in their timeline and if I didn’t import rendered effects, I wouldn’t have it in my session, except possibly in the video track’s guide audio. 

There is a way to include rendered audio effects in a Pro Tools session we import from Media Composer but the cost is the effect is written to the audio file we import. We cannot undo this. The easiest way to make everyone happy is to import the session without the rendered effects and then if asked, is to import the session again with the rendered effects included, as a completely separate copy. If the track with the desired effect on the clips is known, this can be as simple as importing a single track twice: Once without the rendered effect and once with the effect rendered. 

In the example above, I managed to import the audio cleanly on the first track, named ‘Voiceover’ and on the second track, I renamed ‘VO Rendered’ after import, the clip effects are applied and the file name reflects the processing (ie.Voiceover_1,Channel_Strip,3.new.0). I also imported the track effects, the markers and the volume automation from Media Composer. This is about as optimal as it gets for importing a sequence into Pro Tools. Markers, though not really part of the scope of this article, can be as helpful as they are in Pro Tools, for location purposes or identifying lines or areas where help is requested.

Tip 4: What To Include In An Edit Decision List

Edit Decision Lists (EDL’s) are created in Media Composer using the List Tool, which is the successor to the older EDL Manager.

‘EDL’s’ can be the single greatest timesaving data sets in post production, as they provide information regarding the what, where and sometimes how for the media locations and other data contained in a sequence. These data can help us conform location audio to our Pro Tools timeline, conform one picture cut to another version of the picture cut, show us where effects are, or as explained in the article How To Create A Picture Cut Track For Audio Post Production, an EDL can be used to assemble a visual cue track for cuts reference within the Pro Tools edit window’s timeline. 

The question is what to ask for? We need to know some things first.

1. What formats of EDL’s does our conform software support

2. What or which data we really need included

3. Whether we need an EDL or whether an AAF will do instead

Depending on your conform software, you can import a variety of EDL formats from the venerable CMX 3600 (with its limited character set and events limited to 999) to File_129 with its potential to include a whopping 129 characters in tape names and to support thousands of list events. These choices need to be made with a mind towards the software being used to conform and the post audio workflow for the project at hand. 

In the List Tool, a Media Composer operator can load the active sequence or drag and drop other sequences from any bin into it without having to close out their current active sequence. They can choose the tracks to include, the output format, and even other non-media data can be included. It’s certainly a powerful set of options, designed to make the most out of any list.

Typically, I use video only EDL’s for picture cuts and I ask the editors to include only the video tracks that contain media, not video effects layers tracks. I find this streamlines the process.

In Media Composer there’s this hierarchy that video tracks follow in that V1 is the main track and as the editor goes up through V2, V3, V4 etc. the higher number tracks are effects layers that apply to the lower number tracks. It’s usually the case then that a cut track need only include data from V1-V4, or less, depending on how many video tracks contain actual footage. 

For audio EDL’s, there’s also a finite amount of data that’s typically needed for conforming one picture cut to the next. I tend to concern myself with only the tracks and the clips. I often ask to omit elements like the music tracks if I’m going to replace much or all of the music, as these data would be redundant. Some modern conform software can actually compare AAF compositions so the List Tool isn’t always necessary for EDL generation. It’s good to know the List Tool is there though and what to ask for it if an EDL is needed. It has been my experience on many occasions when I found myself dealing with someone who had never created an EDL that knowing about the List Tool proved to be extremely valuable.

Pro Tip: ASK for an audio MIXDOWN track to be created before versioning starts! For any project where there are multiple versions of the picture edit, have the editor create an audio mixdown track (it’s just like a ‘bounce’ of the full mix in Pro Tools) in the original version, then use that mixdown track as a dummy cut guide, mimicking all the cutdown edits by removing the accompanying parts of the mixdown. This way, a conform EDL can be generated using just this mixdown track. It’s simple, elegant, and is a widely used method for tracking changes in picture edits. 

Conclusion

By learning a bit about the Media Composer editing environment, we audio engineers can avoid a wide range of issues and communicate our needs effectively with our collaborators who may speak a slightly different technical language to us. As recently as a couple of years ago, I was working for a company where the video editing and final audio outputs were all done onsite at their production house. I remember the Production Coordinator (who is also the main editor for the company) telling me, after a few days of me interacting with the video editors, that he felt that I understood them as people, and also showed them ways to streamline the post process because of my audio-centric understanding of Media Composer’s software. This helped me quickly integrate with the team and to make friends. Work is so much more enjoyable when everyone communicates well.