New audio feature in cineform!!!

[Jay A. Kelley]

Mods, I am sorry I posted this twice, but I am not sure where it goes... It applies to:
Adobe Premiere
Final Cut Pro &
Sound Section...

Well, I've been on Cineform for what feels like forever, and I am thrilled to have the honor of announceing that Cineform's new External Audio feature is HERE!!!

So here's the skinny:

This feature is designe for those people who are recording SEPARATE audio and want to avoid the hassle of manually syncing it up in post.

Quite simply, during the transcode process, the program will ask you if you have any external audio (up to two tracks... 48khz stereo) and the directory they are being held in. It will then SCAN THE TIMECODE of both your audio files AND the new Cineform files, and SYNC and ATTACH the new audio to the Cineform AVI... DONE.

This saves a step for those of you using FCP, and it saves your ass for those of you using Premiere!!

So far this program has been tested with Cantar and Fostex BWF .wav sources. I'm sure Newman will get on here soon with details on where to go and how to find this.

I want to say that it's very rare that a company like Cineform, who's bread and butter is VIDEO would take the time and MONEY to develop something for audio. It shows that they are doing two things:
1: They are trying to look at the WHOLE PICTURE and realize that a good workflow is about more than just real-time playback and pretty pictures. They understand what a lot of us have lived with for a long time, that sound is usually the more difficult, and time consuming part of a motion picture, commerical, short, etc.
2: They listen to their customers, and they really do want them to be happy. I have been bugging the holy living crap out of both David Newman, and David Taylor for over a year on this thing, and they kept telling me "Jay, just hang in there, we will find a way to get to this". Well, they did it.

If enough of you show some real interest, and if this feature results in additional seats of Cineform being sold, you will see additional features added in the future.. Yes, I am already on them about it.. In fact I feel guilty saying this, but I was bugging them about additional stuff even before this version was released. But that's another post....

I also want to give a shout to Josh (Who needs to get on here by the way) who actually did the grunt work in coding this little gem.. He's DA MAN!

Good job guys... Very good job.

Jay

 

[David Newman]

How to get the update:
Currently the tool is an extension to R2CF conversion utility and batch scripting tools. This is Windows only, although as soon as the feedback looks good, we integrate this features into NEO HD/4K Remaster on the Mac.

Here is the beta R2CF distribution: download http://www.miscdata.com/red/R2CFv200.zip. Unzip the contents into: C:\Program Files\CineForm\Tools. To use this you must have NEO 4K or Prospect 4K installed on your Windows OS (trial version of the CineForm tools also works with R2CF.)

Once installed it is very easy to use.

1) Go to Start->Programs->CineForm->Tools->Scripts

Add select script for your out format and resolution, i.e. 1080p 4:4:4, RAW, or 1K YUV express files etc.

2) The scipt open and you set the path to search for R3D files.

3) You set the path to output your new AVIs (or MOVs)

4) Set the EDL to "conform" width, click cancel help to convert everything found.

5) Set the path to search for timecode sync'd audio

You're done, the conversion will audiomatically sync your Broadcast WAVE Files with your R3D to produce very fast dailies, or to ease your online.

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

Hi Jay,

you've been a longtime CineForm evangelist here on reduser. I actuallly jumped on that train (both Mac and PC) and never regret it, on the contrary. It's actually partly your fault.

We use FCP for editing mainly but with the new Beta CS4 CineForm importer (working nicely on the bootcamped MacPro) we now are able to online our projects 32 bit float 4444 RGB with Premier Pro / CineForm wich has many advantages not only because of the awsome AE workflow. CS4 does also read FCP XMLs..

Since Adobe Premier Pro's big Archilles heel was it's lack of reading TC in soundfiles (how can this happen? Avid does this since 15 years...) this tool makes FCP obsolete for us. Apart form the fact that most freelance editors are used to Avid or FCP.

We shoot most stuff untethered with a TC synced Sounddevice 744T. The new tool comes in very handy.

Thanks a lot David,

Hans

 

[Sven Seynaeve]

incredibly cool ....and this will indeed translate in sold licenses, at least for us...

 

[Axel Mertes]

We jump on it too, just had a phone call with David Newman and will place the order now.

We have a 3 hour RED project to edit from over 30 hours source footage (10 perspectives from a concert). No way doing that with slow decoding. We'll trascode the selected takes to CineForm and grade in realtime with SpeedGradeDI.

Cheers,
Axel

PS: David, you really surprised me on phone...

 

[David Newman]

Alex,

That surprises me to, as I wasn't on that call. The two David's at CineForm confuse a lot of people. You must have spoken to David Taylor, CEO.

 

[Axel Mertes]

Alex,

That surprises me to, as I wasn't on that call. The two David's at CineForm confuse a lot of people. You must have spoken to David Taylor, CEO.

Really surprising and confusing

I just wrote you an email, have a look in your mailbox.

Cheers,
Axel

 

[David Newman]

OK I was on that call, I'm very very busy, hard to keep everything straight.

 

[Axel Mertes]

Hi David,

no problem. Workload is high in pre-show times...

I would just be glad if someone takes care of my order inquiry in that email.
And maybe someone (you?) have a moment to think about the other stuff and drop me an short answer I hope I was a bit clearer in the email than on phone.


Cheers,
Axel

 

[Hans von Sonntag]

We jump on it too, just had a phone call with David Newman and will place the order now.

We have a 3 hour RED project to edit from over 30 hours source footage (10 perspectives from a concert). No way doing that with slow decoding. We'll trascode the selected takes to CineForm and grade in realtime with SpeedGradeDI.

Cheers,
Axel

PS: David, you really surprised me on phone...

Axel you'll be pleased.

CineForms transcoded Red-files are a joy to grade from. They match the sensor nicely, no tedius scene-by-scene checking in RedAlert - CineForm's implementation is metadata agnostic if we talk about the camera settings. With a MacPro8 (old generation) we get 40 fps with 1K express files. The EDL filter in HDLink/Remaster makes a lot of sense when it comes to creating online rushes. 1080p 444RGB takes about 6-7 fps render time.

But to who am I talking...

Warmest Regards to Frankfurt,

Hans

 

[Axel Mertes]

Hi Hans,

I am "in the boat" now. Just got the latest licenses for both Mac and PC and will figure out the workflow we choose. Its a test flight that is aimed at changing many aspects of our workflows (not just for RED). It will be an interesting trip and we will see how we can improve things over time. I am sure we will bring back certain results into optimizing products we work with.

But to who am I talking...

Will you attend the meeting at Pille tomorrow?

Cheers,
Axel



Cheers,
Axel