I’ve encountered an AAF which did import all events correctly onto the timeline but where the content in some events played back wrong parts of the referenced audio file. This seems on further investigation to maybe be related to an Avid feature where you can have mixed formats on the timeline, meaning content of varying frame rates.
It shows an
Is anybody aware of this? Can you confirm this does NOT import correctly in Nuendo?
Weeerrrrl, actually it does import correctly - It’s just that Nuendo does NOT support mixed frame rates in a timeline.
They need to be converted first. And while it WOULD be desirable for Nuendo to support playback of mixed frame rates (and sample rates, for that matter), it is in fact the responsibility of the editorial department to conform all frame and sample rates to the previously agreed upon native format.
I usually sanction such a transgression by lobbing a damp sock full of sand over the head of the editor in question. They seldom do it a second time… 
So the answer is “no” then, not that it imports correctly. Unless of course AAFs aren’t supposed to support it in the spec.
I’ve found much the same thing. It’s just that this particular project is going to a Pro Tools studio (like most here) and I was just curious if Nuendo could handle this. I’m not sure if pushing the editors in this case will work. I’ll have to wait and see.
Mattias, as stated in numerous posts, I am a strong advocate of implementing playback of mixed frame and sample rates in Nuendo.
Nonetheless, I think we need to be a lot more assertive in demanding basic professionality and courtesy from our colleagues. Conforming to a standard format is not frippery, but very important for all subsequent stages, be it audio post, color grading, etc. If I’m, say, a cook on early shift in a restaurant and one of my responsibilities is to take some steaks out of the freezer so the late shift has them ready defrosted, and I don’t do this, I will get reprimanded or fired if this behavior is persistent, because I’m harming production down the line with my ignorance/carelessness/forgetfulness/laziness/incompetence. The same goes for editors who won’t conform their stuff to production format, and the consequences should be the same.
:geezer mode on: The trouble today is that anybody who’s watched a few YouTube tutorials can go and call themselves an “editor” and annoy the hell out of the rest of us with their half-baked skillset. :geezer mode off:
I for one refuse to accept this.
Look, I would love for everything to be perfect, but I understand that if there is a standard it should be followed, and I know that Avid breaks this repeatedly.
My point wasn’t to complain that Nuendo isn’t doing this correctly (because it probably is doing things correctly), I just wanted to make sure that others had the same experience as me so I knew it wasn’t my system that was the problem. That was all.
Not only Avid, but from FinalCut X (via 3rd party export program). It’s usually from Canon 5D footage in my experience, probably because they can’t write timecode. Another gotcha is mixed sample rates from video editors. Their timelines can mix sample rates and not even blink. Why can’t Nuendo? I have to convert the 44.1 to 48K and then guess where they go. I’ve talked most of my editors into forcing everything to 48K when they import clips and music from the get go.
That’s because once they export their sequence as AAF, the metadata is stripped from the clips, and you have just one AAF file telling Nuendo “All the clips in me have a frame rate of x, and a sample rate of y”, even if this is not so. So Nuendo has no way of knowing there are clips with other frame and sample rates in there. I am aware that there are some Protools systems that can somehow import correctly nonetheless, but this is not necessarily always the case - e.g. very often if the AAF is coming from FCP. Hence the IMPORTANCE of conforming prior to export. So go ahead and poo-pooh my sticklerism, keep your mouth shut in future when you get crap AAFs, and live with it. But I won’t.
Relax.