FCPX Cannot export 5.1 Surround Sound... Am I Wrong??

I know this is a late response, but here's how to do it if anyone stumbles across this forum. You will need Apple Compressor & the free Audacity (or another audio editor like Adobe Audition).

Step 1: Get your surround exported as stems.

• Choose Export>Master File
• Export as CAF under Audio Only.
• If using Audacity:
  • After exporting CAF open in Audacity
  • Change the first two tracks from L & R to mono using the little down triangle near the name of the track.
  • [optional] add the channel label after the name of each track (“Example 1 L”)
  • Then FILE>EXPORT MULTIPLE…
  • Leave the “Export Format” on “Other uncompressed files” then click “Options...” and change to the same bit (ex 24bit) as the CAF or original file's bit depth.
  • Then just pick where you want to export
  • Order will be 1 L, 2 R, 3 C, 4 LFE, 5 Ls, 6 Rs, but you can verify by opening the CAF in QT7
• If using Adobe Audition:
  • Open CAF file in Audion
  • Right click the file inside Audion and choose "Extract Channels to Mono Files"
  • Click on each file and save it as WAV or AIFF

Step 2: Open in Apple Compressor

• At the bottom of the Compressor window (first tab) click the "+" at the bottom and choose "Add Surround Sound Group"
• Then just click on each speaker in the window to assign each channel to its mono stem you exported.
• After you finished that step drop a "Dolby Digital 5.1 448kbs" Preset on it and render it.
• Here's how to create the preset if you don't have one.
  • Under the Presets panel at the bottom select "New Setting..."
  • Then change Format to "Dolby Digital"
  • Then change the presets settings to the ones in this screenshot
  • 

I have just tried a little example and FCP X exported a 5.1 project without issue.

Are you sure your project settings are for 5.1 surround and not stereo?

If you need to change the settings, click the little wrench at the bottom right of the inspector (see picture).

Did you try playing your DVD on a 5.1 system and listen to make sure dialog was coming lout the center and music out the Left and Right?

My set up says Automatic 5.1 with the layout selected correctly and no 5.1 DVD, only stereo!

This has been a problem for years with Compressor!

Jon Braeley wrote:

Yes I am sure it is surround sound. I edited in surround from day one 6 months ago. It's a feature lenght film.

It plays fine from the timeline with each channel in the correct speaker. In fact I did export a ProRes master file which played the audio in surround but this audio is Linear PCM and I require AC3 for a DVD.

Then at least FCP X does export the master file in surround sound, so it should be a matter of taking that master and creating a DVD out of it.

I think that you will need a tool that is able to create a DVD with surround sound. Maybe Toast will do it; apparently neither the builtin DVD export from FCP X nor iDVD can do it.

Jon Braeley wrote:

You cannot get AC3 surround from a master Linear PCM file - Compressor failed on that.

I tried exporting an AIFF file in 5.1 from FCPX and it failed because 4Gb is the audio file limit.

I find it incredible that FCPX cannot export an AC3 correctly. I also cannot find anyone who has done this. FCPX manual docs give almost no pages to export and share istructions - poorly thought out.

Making the DVD is not the problem - it is obtaining a successful AC3 file from FCPX which it seems cannot be done.

FCP X only barely supports making a DVD, a very minimal one. Apart from DVD, where is AC3 used?

(honestly, I don't know, I'm not making any judgment here).

If you are intent on distributing a feature film on DVD, you are going to need a better tool for that. You probably would not want the very minimal menu that FCP X creates anyway.

So it seems clear to the path you need to take:

1) export the master from FCP X (it WILL export the surround sound as Linear PCM).

2) use a program that can create the DVD with the nice menus, AND surround sound (DVDSP, if you have it; or Toast, or Encore, or...)

AC3 is used in DVD and Blu-ray. The authoring app should be encoding the video to the correct format and make the audio surround and burn the disc. You can do that in DVDSP but it requires separate tracks for the each surround channel. I can't speak to the other authoring applications.

You say that "you can't use Linear PCM on a DVD", which is incorrect, as I see it. The *output* audio in the DVD is not Linear PCM, that we agree on; but you can author a DVD from a master file with Linear PCM audio. I am sure any DVD authoring software will accept that.

I am sorry, but I am out of ideas for this. I tried exporting a small surround project to both master file, DVD and audio only in AC3 format. All these appear to work. There is also the option - which you seem to discard - to export a master and then converting it.

I have an AC3 surround file that i created from Compressor. I mixed my project in Logic.

I don't have any specific authoring software such as DVD Studio Pro or toast.

Can I burn my surround project to DVD in FCPX?

I need it exported by Friday so I'm in a bit of a panic! Any help would be appreciated

Jon have you seen this post.

Even though it's with an older FCP, he is using Compressor and explains many settings, including the fact the the channels must be assigned in a particular order for compressor to get them right.

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

My suggestion is to create a short sample project and export to DVD. Choose your Hard Drive as destination, and test the results.

Can I just import the AC3 file and high quality video file into FCPX and burn it straight to DVD then?