Retrieving orginal sound file names?

[Joe Riggs]

Sunk original audio (file named by take) with video file.

Merged the clip and the audio file now takes on the video file name.

Edited the film.

Now the Post house, needs the original audio file names for all the audio files used in the edit.

Is there any way to get the audio used in the edit to revert back to its original name?

Maybe there's some 3rd party program that can help with this?

 

Edited August 1, 2015 by Joe Riggs

[Marc Wielage]

What editing software did this? Don't merge the clips if it's going to create a new file with a new name.

If this is a feature, you're in for a huge degree of expense for the dialogue/FX editor to go in and reconform the entire project from scratch. It can be done, but it's not cheap or easy. Conformalizer can work, but it hinges on the metadata and sound file names being absolutely accurate:

http://www.thecargocult.nz/conformalizer.shtml

Lesson learned: ask the sound editor first if what you're about to do will work. And do a workflow test if possible to make sure XML or OMFs can be created that will allow the sound department to go back to the original multitrack sound files for the edit and re-recording session.

[Wandering Ear]

I would look at options within the editing program to help with thisthis, instead of first looking for 3rd party apps.  Maybe there is an option to export an edl or clip list that references the original files with the merged files.  

Does the files within the omf/aaf have the original metadata? Or any pieces of it like samples since midnight and user bits?  How about scene and take?  What are the video file names you have to work with?  Maybe the script notes from production can help make the link?????

Honestly I wonder why it was necessary to merge the synced clips before editing, but I wasn't there and don't have all the information leading to those decisions.

[Joe Riggs]

Premiere, unfortunately. 

If one wants to have any sort of organized project, you have to merge the clips. Am I supposed to edit without linking the video and audio track? 

[Jay Rose]

Are you working on this project as a sound editor or a pix editor?

If you're there for sound, you may have limited yourself by working in Premiere rather than PT or Nuendo. Those programs can work fine without merging the clips.

It's also a good idea, with any program, to never erase the source elements. If you're merging or bouncing or processing a version of something, keep the original pieces on a separate muted mirror track. Tracks are cheap, and you never know when you might need to go back.

[Rick Reineke]

Assuming your giving the files to audio post, export an OMF or AAF which would have the audio files and the EDL audio timeline.
However, the latest FCP version that supported OMF export was 7. I don't think FCP-x does AAF either... or at least w/o third-party conversion.

[Philip Perkins]

You can export AAF from FCX via x2Pro.  I don't know about importing same into FCX, I think not.  Re Premiere for a feature style re-conform audio workflow….much yet to be done to make that work as well as it does on Avid, I'm sorry to say.

p

[Joe Riggs]

Picture editor.

No files were ever erased or discarded, the files were simply merged within the NLE. These are simply pointers to the files on the drive. When merging a clip the audio file takes on the video clip name, exporting an OMF/AAF won;t work since it keeps the video file name for the audio.

The workaround I found was to bring an xml into audition and export the OMF from there. The file names don't change back but metadata does.    

[Philip Perkins]

So you exported xml from Premiere to Audition, then exported and OMF from Audition, and this got you your metadata back when you opened the OMF in…..ProTools?  So the file name is still the name of the video clip, but the recorder metadata is intact?  What data do you get?  Orig filename?  Track name?  TC start, day/date?  Notes?  Segement #? (If file is from Zax recorder)

thx

phil p

[Joe Riggs]

scene and take, next to file name, it may have been in parenthesis if i recall.

Edited August 2, 2015 by Joe Riggs

[Wandering Ear]

Some reasons not to use merged clips when editing: (disclaimer, I'm not a picture editor and have never used premier)

 

https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1427647

 

[Joe Riggs]

Yeah, this is an on going issue in Adobe, they really need to fix this. 

I would certainly be curious how editors are working without merging clips, it would seem like an organizational nightmare.  

 

 

[Micah Loken]

This is highly ironic because I just had the same issue with an editor sending an OMF via premiere in which he has "merged" all of the files prior to beginning his edit.  That is rather unfortunate because we were then forced to figure out a work around because there was no budget to rebuild the dialogue.  

Luckily in the metadata we were able to create fake regions (clips) in pro tools that contained the name of the original production audio file so I could go in and reference the production sound folder if alt takes were needed for whatever reason. Everything is working out great and he was very responsive to my questions which was incredibly helpful!

But yes, do steer clear of merging clips in premiere at all costs, because it is VERY costly to rebuild the dialogue with Titan (or other software) and often times they will only load about 60% of the show and the rest has to be manually rebuilt (super time consuming).

It sounds like that process makes editing in Premiere much harder... hopefully Adobe can have a solution to this so that editors will have a much smoother transition to the post sound companies.