AAF Import Stereo Files! Drop and Drag Mono to Stereo and Vice Vesa!

Nuendo
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#1

How is this still an issue in 2019??? After reading and searching this forum, I see people have been asking for a fix for ages!

I’ve just switch from Pro Tools to Nuendo and this is the first feature film I’m working on in this software that is so new to me. I have a film score AAF that has been split from stereo to all mono files by Logic. I’m trying to import this score and just drag the ‘file.L and file.R’ into a stereo track. This can’t be done. There is no neat or easy way to convert this to stereo and now screw up the import.

Please add a button on AAF import to bring in non-interleaved stereo files into a stereo file and lay it in a stereo track or more importantly just let us drag to mono files into a stereo track. I’m begging you. I’ve spend the whole morning trying to fix it.

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE! :frowning: :frowning: :frowning:

#2

+1 on this. Why do people work with music files in split LR? :frowning:

Have you tried: Project > Convert tracks > Mono to Multi-channel ?
I have a shortcut assigned for this and briefly tried it on a project while testing Nuendo.

#3

+1
Probably we could also have an option import dialog to merge dual mono to stereo track.

#4

+1

#5

Let me answer with a question.

How many AAF’s have you ever received that were nicely organized; where no mono files of other (mono) tracks were “misplaced” (that’s how we call it, but the video editor simply calls it “convenience”) on the tracks that normally should contain only Left/Right info.
And as far as I know, AAF doesn’t accept stereo files.

Fredo

#6

Basically all of last year and up until the virus nonsense I got consistently good AAFs from one client’s editors. No errors with mono files on stereo tracks.

I just think users want the ability to have files with identical names except “.L” / “.R” suffixes to end up on stereo tracks.

I know it’s blunt and annoying, but given who the competition is the easiest point to make really is “Just do at least what Pro Tools does”, and if that ‘violates’ the AAF standard then offer it at least as an option on import. Because at the end of the day anyone who’s not on Nuendo and uses a dedicated DAW (and not something like Resolve or Adobe suites) will use PT instead. That’s the competition.

Maybe I’m missing something though… (?)

#7

Matthias,

Happy for you; but I can’t even get named tracks.
So how can you decide upon AAF import which tracks should be merged and imported as stereo?

.L and .R files, I haven’t seen these in decades. These days, we get mxf files.
And -after they have passed through Media Composer- (Industry Standard, you know) they look like this: “BAKEOFF202006020131.new.04-01”
The “new” is introduced by Media Composer, and it rips out all of the Metadata.
But that is besides the question, because you only see these after import.
:frowning:

Anyway, what I wanted to say is that you simply can’t know what your are merging into your imported stereo track.

Fredo

#8

Well I can’t tell you how things work in Avid land, but I recall (it’s been a couple of months now) that I can get stereo tracks on import into Pro Tools. Whether or not that’s from Pro Tools’ AAF import simply looking at the audio files belonging to a track and seeing “.L”/".R" or if it’s embedded in the AAF I don’t know. What I recall is seeing stereo tracks on import in PT. I do not have to move mono audio events onto stereo tracks in PT. They just show up.

If it was a problem with file names with current versions then I’d have noticed that it stopped working.

So that really leaves it being embedded in the AAF or “figured out” by PT in some other way.

And actually, I just checked the AAF spec doc from here and it seems to me that multichannel audio is supported at least on a track level. So clearly it’s possible. I mean, I might still be misunderstanding something or misremembering something, but that’s what’s in my head right now before my afternoon coffee…

PS: Yes, this one client has been very good with AAFs. Not named tracks, but properly laid out. The current client however makes the opposite mistake - mono on stereo tracks, but everything labeled… Never get it perfect I guess…

#9

If AAF supports stereo files, then of course they should be imported as such.
The only thing I debate is that, when you receive an AAF with mono-tracks only, it is hard to know/find out which tracks should be imported as stereo.
Which makes the “convert to multichannel” function after import much more convenient and fool-proof.
Which was the OP’s question I think.

Cheers!
Fredo

#10

Oh sure, I agree with that!

#11

I had always wanted the drag and drop mono tracks into a stereo track like ProTools. But since Nuendo doesn’t HAVE to have mono or stereo tracks, I find the convert tracks from mono to multi a much better system. If the editor has been sloppy and crossed up the tracks, Nuendo will let you know something is wrong. In ProTools I have to examine every track that is supposed to be stereo to find the odd misplaced mono file, because ProTools will allow you to drag a mono file onto one side of a stereo track, and it will not play out both sides of the stereo bus. Nuendo will play a mono file placed in a stereo track out both channels. BTW, AAF files from Resolve will transfer their clip gain as clip gain to Nuendo! Very cool.

#12

I have a couple of editors working in FCPX who Tag their source audio with the interviewee / characters name ( a Role) and these come through assigned correctly to Role-Named Nuendo tracks via AAF.

But they always appear as Mono components no matter how the editor set them … Stereo/Dual Mono etc. So Stereo Music Files will always look like dual mono in the AAF and in Nuendo . But converting them in Nuendo is a minutes work with the Track Convert commands. I think it’s best done in Nuendo by me, carefully!