Import AAF Err: FFFFFC2B with Davinci Resolve

I have been using Cubase for Music and Davinci Resolve for film editing / grading and sound mixing / design (mixing!).

There is a lot I love about Davinci Resolve and the way it handles polywavs and syncing is brilliant in my opinion. Then you switch to the fairlight page and things are logical to me, but very out dated and not especially feature rich, hence, I upgraded my Cubase this week for Nuendo so that I can utilise a DAW that is dedicated to sound, rather than working in two packages export from one importing to the other etc.

If I do a straight forward “File => Export => AAF” I get an AAF with referenced files to the original media and it sort of works, but any field recorded sound that was synced / linked to the video clip loses it’s reference, i.e. it’s the camera sound that gets imported.

I have tried doing a ProTools AAF export from Resolve which creates MXF files for everything, and this is what has come with the "Failed to import AAF file: (Err: FFFFFC2B). I have also tried the AVID AAF export from resolve

Has anyone successfully round tripped from Davinci Resolve into Nuendo, with synced / linked polywav audio files?

Try using the ProTools setting on the Deliver page, but on the Video page below turn off “Export Video”; on the Audio page, switch over to “Wave” and leave the codec as “Linear PCM” (embedded doesn’t seem to make Cubase/Nuendo very happy from Resolve.)

Thank you. I just tried that, and it has resulted in the same error. I have tried importing the same AAF into Logic Pro, and that appears to load although some of the waveforms are silent and there are some repetition of dialog. I tried an export from LogicPro and importing into Nuendo and that loaded, with “inconsistency warnings”, but resulted in only 3 of the 27 audio tracks, so still a no go. I’m wondering whether this is a “Resolve” or “Nuendo” issue or a combination of both.

I seem to have heard that Resolve has a problem with exporting files with different sample rates.
So if your project is 48kHz, then all the files being 44.1kHz won’t be exported by Resolve.
I could be wrong though, been told that by a third party.

Fredo

I just did a trailer where I edited the video and had to do the basic sound design layout in Resolve 16. I finally figured out the best way to export the AAF, (I exported the file as ManChicken recommended) and the music that was sent to me as mp3 files did not export with the AAF. All the other files were 48khz 16 bit WAV and they exported with handles, and the best part was the clip volumes actually transferred! I went back and converted the mp3’s to 48k and voila, everything worked. I can’t tell you how cool it is to build the rough cut sound in Fairlight, but then have it transfer with clip volumes to Nuendo. The basic mix I did in Fairlight for approval wasn’t lost. Can’t do that from ProTools without turning clip gain into automation. I think Fredo is correct in stating Resolve wants everything to be the same sample rate in order for it to properly export the AAF.

I can’t get anything to export / import correctly. Even if I re-import into a new project in resolve what I have exported, bits are missing. I have checked the sample rate as suggested, and the music files were 44.1Khz so I’ve corrected that. The main video files are MXF and I am wondering whether that has anything to do with the issues. I am going to transcode all the video clips to ProRes movs and try another export.

Ok, I have tried transcoding all to prores, and again, doing the exports both as protools, and the AVID AAF options. Also tried exporting FCP XMLs and importing them into FCPX / LogicPro and that produces the wrong results (missing sections). The project originated as an FCP 7 project which I imported into Davinci Resolve to do the sound mixing / dialog. I went back to the original FCP 7 project, did an OMF export and that has imported into Nuendo absolutely perfectly. I therefore think this is a Davinci Resolve issue. Sadly though, I have edits in Davinci Resolve which are using synced audio clips so really want to get resolve => external DAW working.

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Perhaps unsurprisingly this has been an ongoing discussion on the DaVinci resolve fora for some years now, eg, see one of the most recent here. This is what I do:

FWIW, I gave up on AAF (mostly)- on these platforms or others. Have found this to be inconsistent /buggy depending on exactly what is going from where to where. YMMV obviously. In any case, in the case of round tripping from Resolve Studio to Nuendo:

I avoid the AAF debacle all together by exporting a movie from Resolve at the res /codec I want for best Nuendo playback, and adding multi-track audio as part of that export, ie, instead of selecting the ‘main output’ stereo option, Resolve can also usefully select ‘Timeline’ audio tracks. I make as many of these as there are tracks in Resolve (eg, music temp, VO, FX, wild, etc). This also prints any audio work that may have been done on each of the timelines in Resolve, including level changes, fader levels, fx, automation, plugins, whichever … I tend to use a little of this just for general balance before doing a full mix in Nuendo.

Then open this multitrack movie in Nuendo. It imports the movie into a video lane & also drops each ‘timeline’ into separate audio lanes. Very simple. Then mix, make music, use NR, etc. Master and bounce back out as a stereo file into the relevant Resolve media dir at whichever LUFS required. Duplicate the timeline and drop in the new audio master. Works perfectly and without any AAF fuss.

I can also keep Resolve and Nuendo open together. This also means that if I need to tweak that stereo master for any reason, Nuendo can easily bounce again over the top of the same master if required, Resolve then updates the new mix in the same Timeline. Works for me.

__

  • Some commented:
    But that way you loose the ability to extend audio clips in Nuendo which is not acceptable in our workflow. But it can be done.

Not at all … [though I respect that many may have nuanced workflow requirements]. However:

When importing into Nuendo from a multi-track bounce as mentioned, the waveforms occupy the entire timeline in the bounce range; I then use strip silence to give the overall project a bit of obvious shape around the audio clips, but of course any of these can be stretched back out to reveal ‘air’ or otherwise around each individual clip.

Thankyou profdraper, much appreciated. I started that thread on the BM forums after realizing that the issue is mostly a Davinci Resolve one. I did notice your solution on there, but was trying to focus on the complete workflow interchange, which I have been able to progress, but the AAF workflow, as you’ve said, it’s still unreliable. Your method is interesting and one that I can see working nicely, especially if you can restore shape by stripping out air and still be able to match field recorded sound. I am working with video files that have just the boom mic recorded, and field recorded sound which has ISO tracks for Lav mics and also has the Side track (boom was record as M/S).

I haven’t tried with the field recorder window in Nuendo yet (only recently upgrade from Cubase 10.5) so I think it may be easier in Resolve to match the dialog audio only because I can navigate to the clips that were used and get the slate info then look up the Scene/Shot/Take from the field recorded sound and sync. I can then export as per your process and work on the layering / sound design /mixing in Nuendo.

This is an editor working on a feature length film. This is how he was able to get consistent AAF exports from Resolve.

this error is related to MUTED/DISABLED clips on resolve timeline.i hope Steinberg will have a look at this and privide us a hotfix as soon as possible. protools can import resolve aaf with no problems, and i would like to cancel my pt subscription asap.
it would be nice if resolve would have a “select all disabled clips”, but there is none.editor must scroll through timeline and manual delete those clips.
in case of production company i have a contract with, they have a workflow where they dont delete clips, but mute them in case of last minute changes.and there are a lot of muted clips on 1h timeline (music track corrections, fx sounds corrections etc…)

btw, keep up the good work steinberg !

Just testing N11 trial, and this error is still not fixed.
again, this is related to MUTED/DISABELED clips on DAVINCI RESOLVE timeline.
Protools can import that aaf with no problem.
please fix this soon, because i am realy tired of protools roundtrips for basic aaf importing, and i would like to spend my money on NUENDO upgrades, not protools subscriptions.
THNX, and keep up the good work !!!

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Hi,
I have just imported an AAF project from DA VINCI RESOLVE with NUENDO 12 and I still had the FFFFFC2B problem.
It’s still related to audio clips being MUTED in DA VINCI RESOLVE.
Is it possible to make a patch to fix this problem?
Thanks a lot !

+1 ,i also need to bump this .
it is not normal that all other daw can import resolve aaf with out problem with muted files, only nuendo can not.

um, just a thought here, but, are you sure Davinci Resolve is including these muted clips? My understanding of AAF exports is that they may NOT include muted clips. What does the Resolve manual state about these muted clips, as to how it handles them in an AAF export?

As a quick test, I did an AAF export from Logic Pro (latest version) into Nuendo, and it did NOT include any muted clips. I did two exports, one with a bunch of random muted clips, and one with all clips un muted. This makes me know that Logic Pro (Resolve may be different, thus my question) does indeed ignore muted clips when exporting to AAF.

Cheers, hope you get this… “resolved.” :wink:

hi,
yes resolve can export muted clips in aaf as any other nle.problem is that resolve has no option to ignore muted clips when exporting aaf so editor must scrub through his timeline and manualy delete them (and when you have a 1h reality show timeline , that is a lot of work)
example: media composer has several option on aaf export (muted clips, clips with fx, etc)
nuendo also has option that says something like “export muted clips as - :infinity: clip gain”
protools imports resolve muted clips with no problem, and those clips are indicates as missing media so you can easy delete them in clip list.
the problem with aaf is that every daw or nle has its own export methods, paradox is that aaf format was created to be universal for all software…
of corse we read the manual, but nothing there, also resolve forum is full of issues (no words from dev team).

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