Soundmix Prep

You need two materials to bring to your soundmix- a reference picture file (h264, 50% size) and your audio edit, either as a Pro Tools session (only if you've already started one) or an OMF file (if your edit is in Final Cut or Avid.)

Making a Picture Reference file from Final Cut Pro

Select your final, picture-locked sequence. Add 2 seconds of black slug to the head, and then add 1 frame of bars and tone, in front of that. You sequence should now begin with a single frame of bars/beep, and black leader until 00:02:00.

Go to File-->Export using Compressor. Your sequence appears here:

Now when you click on the module to make it active (as shown in the image above), you can open the Inspector window (Window-->Show Inspector), and get all the information about this setting.

In the Inspector window, click the second tab, Encoder.

Select Video: Settings. This should be set to h264. In the Restrict Data Rate field, enter 800 kbps.

Select Audio: Enabled/Disabled - and make sure it is set to Disabled. (Audio will come from the OMF or Pro Tools session.)

In the inspector window, click the 5th tab, Geometry.

For frame size, choose 50% of original.

Return to the Untitled window pictured above, where your sequence is highlighted. Choose Target-->Change Destination-->Other, and choose where to save the new file.

Give the file a name in the naming field.

Click submit, and in the popup, click submit again. The file will begin transcoding. You can select Batch Monitor, in the upper right corner of the Untitled window to see its progress.

Creating an OMF file for Soundmix, from Final Cut Pro

With your sequence selected, go to File-->Export-->Audio as OMF.

Select all the options for inclusion, Levels, Pan, Automation. Make sure your settings are 48kHz, 16 Bit. Handles can be 1 second. Click OK. Decide where you want to save the file to (it needs to go with you to the soundmix!). The OMF should export in just a couple of minutes at most. It will be a single file, but it will contain all the clips and tracks in your Final Cut sequence, when opened in Pro Tools.