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Q: Cannot publish "Source Audio:"?

I noticed that when I wanted to make my own audio-visual effect that is useable for Final Cut Pro X, I added in the parameter Audio, and the top-most parameter called Source Audio is not publishable.

 

Screen Shot 2016-09-28 at 9.59.06 AM.png

I remember that Pixel Film Studios made a collection of effects called Audio Visualizer and prior to Final Cut Pro X 10.2.3 and Motion 5.2.3 and earlier, there was a way to do source audio that can be used with Final Cut Pro X. However, any way to have a source audio for such effects is all but gone!

 

Link to Pixel Film Studios Audio Visualizer:

 

http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/product/fcpx-audio-visualizer/

 

Before on the promotion page with earlier version:

http://store.pixelfilmstudios.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/FCPX-AUDIO-VISUALIZ ER-FINAL-CUT-PRO-X-PLUGIN-EFFECT-PIXEL-F…

This was supposed to show controls and source audio (restricted to wav files)

 

After with Final Cut Pro X 10.2.3 running:

Screen Shot 2016-09-28 at 6.22.31 AM.png

Now there is no way to add an audio source.

 

 

In the meanwhile, is there a way to work around the issue or else it would be great to allow Audio Source to be a publishable parameter for use in Final Cut Pro X

Motion 5, OS X Yosemite (10.10.5), MacBook Pro 8 GB RAM

Posted on Sep 28, 2016 10:12 AM

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Q: Cannot publish "Source Audio:"?

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  • by Karsten Schlüter,

    Karsten Schlüter Karsten Schlüter Sep 28, 2016 11:56 AM in response to JBRPG
    Level 7 (32,713 points)
    Video
    Sep 28, 2016 11:56 AM in response to JBRPG

    NOticed that as well, had a nice plugin built, a talking Mr Potatohead - no luck:

    http://www.fcp.co/fcp-forum/6-motion-5/25786-you-can-not-publish-an-audio-well

     

    would be interesting, if the plugin SDK offers an option.....

  • by BenB,

    BenB BenB Sep 29, 2016 11:52 AM in response to JBRPG
    Level 6 (9,941 points)
    Audio
    Sep 29, 2016 11:52 AM in response to JBRPG

    Audio in a Motion project will not be saved into an FCPX template.

    Audio Behaviors and Filters will not transfer over to FCPX templates properly, they're not compatible.

    I doubt we will see this change for some time to come.

     

    Plugin developers usually are not making templates inside of Motion like we do.  They're using the FxPlug development SDK, and QuartzComposer.  Those are programming, those get installed in the OS, not in the Motion Templates folder.  That is a whole separate universe of chaos than simply saving something in Motion as an FCPX template.

  • by fox_m,

    fox_m fox_m Oct 2, 2016 12:02 AM in response to JBRPG
    Level 5 (5,547 points)
    Video
    Oct 2, 2016 12:02 AM in response to JBRPG

    First of all, the Audio parameter behavior is not that great. It works best when you can separate every instrument into its own track (individual file!) Then there's the issues of harmonics (which are invariably produced) and "spectral crosstalk" (reverb depending on surroundings), etc. And the list goes on. It would be SO much better to have MIDI file control (notes on/off, program and control changes, at the very least). But we don't have that... So in the meantime:

     

    If you create a project to be published for FCPX, with audio, Motion will put the audio file in the Media folder of the effect you published.

     

    What happens when you create an animation based on Audio parameter behavior is that Motion analyzes the audio and creates *Keyframes* for the object parameter under control. You can actually delete the audio once Motion has done this, it will not affect the animation whatsoever.

     

    So, what this means is that you only get to create one published effect for one audio track. Not a big deal. There's a lot involved in creating "other" projects with audio. Mostly, very few audio tracks have the same length and so you have to create a new project with a different design length every time. Neither Motion or FCPX will "scale" the project for new audio. Also, since Motion writes keyframes, the old keyframes have to be overwritten (which happens when the new audio track is "analyzed" — and sometimes getting Motion to do that correctly can be just a little bit challenging ).

     

    The problem for FCPX is "how does it adjust to the user changing the length of a template?". It will scale keyframes, but does it speed up/slow down the music?? Usually not a desirable effect. FCPX does not initiate a reanalysis of the audio. Motion doesn't do that either! You've got to trick it into doing that.

     

    Creating a published generator (or title) with audio is not hopeless, or all that terrible. Create the animation. Load up the audio from the Media folder and sync it (you can set a sync point in Motion if needed - like a flash frame or whatever - just provide the parameter to hide it in FCPX for rendering). I've done a bunch of "visualizers" in Motion. It can be a lot of fun!  Here's a couple of them:

     

    (piano keyboard - every key has its own audio behavior tuned to their frequencies)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNtyb_muGbc

    (analog vu meters:)

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT8gIzMcmq4