Transcript File

Hello,

Fairly new to FCP X and it's been awhile since I've been heavily immersed into NLE editing. (I'm using 10.2 now.)

Anyway, I have several hour-long interviews and I want someone to transcribe the audio from a remote location.

I want to use a file I upload to Google Drive and share it with the transcriber. So far, I have created an audio-only version of the interview and it's about 100 MB, which is fine. The problem is there is no reference. Before I exported I pulled the entire interview into a timeline, so I suppose the counter would match or be close to that timeline. But, I don't think I would make notes or assign keywords in the timeline.

I got a 3rd party effect that can display the source code, which is great, but I can't put the effect on the audio track alone ... it needs a video track. So, I included the video and took the RGB levels down to black hoping to reduce the file size. Other methods of getting black frame seemed to take away the image of the TC counter, as well. This method did not. The exported file of this, even in h.264, is still 8 GB. Too big to share.

So, I am wondering if anyone has another idea. Even if the counter matched the TC without any image, that would be better. Maybe the audio file I have created is good enough.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

Hi Dan,

Only video clips can have burnt-in time code, that's obvious.

Nowadays it is very easy to send very large files over the internet. Sites such as Airbridge allow you to upload files with a size of up to 20 GB for free. Of course, if your transcriber is in a country with extremely slow internet connection, it may take too much time for her to do large downloads.

Fortunately, there is a way in FCP X to export video and audio with source time code while drastically restricting the file size.

- Create a new FCP X project and in the Project settings choose Custom format, make it 800x100.
- Copy the clips of your Project timeline with the interviews and source time code overlay, and paste the clips onto the 800x100 custom project.
- Scale the TC overlay to maximum, then scale and position the video until the time code overlay fits the entire 800x100 frame.

Now export the timeline using the settings you see in the screenshot. As you see, even a 30 minute interview only has a file size of 316 MB when you export that way. And your transcriber gets the audio while she sees the correct source time code for your clip. If you further want to reduce file size, you can create a 800x50 custom frame size as well.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Well, this is very interesting. I will have to try.

Thank you , Ronny.