Audio File Problems in FCP

[Mr. Anderson]

So I have a couple songs I want to use in a short video I'm doing and I bought them from the Apple iTunes Store and tried to import them into FCP and it will connect with the file, but there is no audio on the track.

What's going on?

I can play the songs on iTunes and in Quicktime - I even tried exporting them in quicktime, but it gave me only the save as option.

Any help would be great here,

Thanks,

D

 

[Heb1228]

I don't think you can use the DRM songs in Final Cut, I've never been able to anyways. I just burn them to a cd and rip them as aif files and that works fine since Final Cut seems to like uncompressed audio better anyways.

 

[Lacero]

Burn to CD and then rip to 48Khz AIFF.



dammit. beaten by Mr.T!

 

[Mr. Anderson]

That's so ass backwards its quite stupid actually.

What, if any, is the reason/justification for this?

What a waste of a cd...

But thanks for the tip

D

 

[Heb1228]

So that you can't use DRM copyrighted songs in stuff that you sell without permission, I imagine. Unless the video is for personal use, you're really supposed to pay royalties. I guess they figure most people using Final Cut are not just making family videos. I think iMovie will let you use the DRM songs, is that right? I never use iMovie.

EDIT: Pity the fool that tried to beat Mr. T to a MR forums post!

 

[edesignuk]

What, if any, is the reason/justification for this?

I think I remember reading about this on here ages ago, I think it's just the fact that the DRM will only allow the track to be played on 5 systems. If FCP or whatever allowed you to use it, you could burn it to countless DVD's which you may then sell on for profit without the "artists" permission, rendering the DRM agreement useless.

But yeah, it's frekin' stoooopid.

Crap: Now I'm getting beaten by Mr. T!

 

[Heb1228]

What a waste of a cd...

I bought a 5-pack of CD-RWs for exactly that reason.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I bought a 5-pack of CD-RWs for exactly that reason.

I'm thinking that I'll be doing the same....

Bleh

D

 

[dkeninitz]

I use FC Express and have discovered this problem too. It's ironic, because the user manual directs you to convert the file to AIFF using iTunes or QuickTiime and even provides detailed instructions and screen shots to guide you through the process; however, when you try to follow them, you discovdr that the current versions of iTunes and QuickTime don't appear to support the conversion utility (which I think I've also read is the case).

One workaround I discovered apart from ripping to a CD and then importing it is to use iMovie. iMovie will let you import a song purchased from iTunes directly into the program and use it as long as you also include video -- you'll even get a warning message informing you of this if you import the song before importing the video and then try to play/save it with no video track attached. Really weird. I was just experimenting when I discovered this. I created a short video project in FC, then saved it as a QT movie with no soundtrack. Then I opened the QT movie in iMovie and imported the iTunes music track I wanted to use (purchased from the ITunes store) and exported it as a new QT movie using the iMovie Share feature.

I don't understand why Apple allows this in iMovie but not in FC.