MP Freeze

Hi Guys,
Some of you have been having problems exporting your soundtrack from Final Cut.  If you've had issues with the sound freezing and stuttering in your Quicktime files, check to see if you've got any .mp3 files in your edit.  Final Cut really doesn't like editing mp3 sounds 'natively' ( i.e. without converting it to some other format first).

You should always use uncompressed sound in your Sequence.  Compressed formats such as mp3 cause lots of problems; for example, Final Cut has to render the file before it will play back slowing down the overall editing process, mp3's are often so compressed that the sound quality starts to suffer, and finally, lots of mp3's use variable bit rate encoding which can lead to timing and sync issues.

No professional editor would use mp3's on their soundtrack so you shouldn't either!  The same goes for other compressed formats such as OGG, AAC, or WMA.

Always use something like Soundtrack Pro or iTunes to convert your compressed files into AIFF files before you start editing in Final Cut.

Check the blog post about converting files to AIFF using Soundtrack Pro.  Your audio file settings should always match the settings of your Final Cut project.  For the DMW this will be set to: 16 bit integer, 48000 samples / second.

Happy Editing!