OMF/AAF Import - Should I Even Bother?

[rmills007]

Hello all,

I'm scheduled to begin working on a film project soon and thought I'd consult the knowledgable minds here:

Do I even bother attempting an OMF/AAF import into DP 10? It's been over a year or so since I tried in vain to do so, but perhaps somethings changed, or perhaps there are tricks and tools to make it happen.

In the past, I would end up with an empty project template that could never import the audio.

Does anyone here successfully imports OMF/AAF projects?

[rmills007]

Since my original post has over 100 views and zero responses, I'm going to assume . . .

1) I asked an unanswerable question, or perhaps it didn't make sense.
2) No one here has successfully imported an OMF/AAF file into DP 10.

Would anyone care to let me know if either is correct?

I'm not trying to be a jerk, just curious if I should maybe reframe the question.

Thanks.

[MIDI Life Crisis]

I'd love to answer but can't recommend anything either way. In the past, DP has sucked at one or the other. Either AAF worked, or OMF worked. If you start a project and update, there's no guarantee that either will continue working. Recently a post showed that OMF wasn't working. I've had issues with both recently and one project had to be abandoned because of this.

So if you want an answer from my recent experience, I'd say do not trust DP with OMF or AAF. If you have another option, use it. If not, find one.

Hey MOTU, are you listening? People working to picture cannot rely on DP to deliver as promised. That is a very bad thing to have at the bottom of an otherwise passing grade.

[bayswater]

Bear in mind that 90 of those views could have been netbots.

I tried both when moving stuff around between DP, Logic and Cubase some time ago. It seemed hit and miss with both DP and Logic, and I didn't pursue it. I came up with a reasonable way to get stuff from Logic to DP, so never went back to OMF/AAF.

[rmills007]

if you want an answer from my recent experience, I'd say do not trust DP with OMF or AAF. If you have another option, use it. If not, find one.

Thank you for the input. I appreciate it.
Since I have Premiere Pro, I may just have the editor send me their Premiere Pro project file and export audio as needed from that, and/or use Audition.

[rmills007]

Bear in mind that 90 of those views could have been netbots.

True.

Thanks for your feedback. It confirms my suspicion that I should avoid wasting too much time getting the import to work with DP 10.

[rmills007]

Follow up . . .

The editor sent me the Premiere Pro project, so I've been able to play around with different export types. I've since been able to repeatedly import an OMF file exported from Premiere Pro into DP 10. Here's what I found:

1) AAF did not work.

2) Embedded audio did not work. I had to export the OMF with Separated Audio.

3) Upon OMF export, the separated audio filenames are changed. (from something along the lines of "ZOOM0042_Tr3 Extracted.wav" to "2a4a8b85-18fe-4d71-8815-e48e70914e3c.125.wav")

4) Upon import of the OMF file, placeholder soundbites appear at the correct timestamps and tracks in the sequence timeline, but they contain no audio, even though the soundbites window is populated with sound files.

5) Not until I drag and drop the exported, separated audio files into the soundbites window, (the "2a4a8b85-18fe-4d71-8815-e48e70914e3c.125.wav" files) do the sequence soundbites fill in with correct audio content.

From there, it seems to work.

[HCMarkus]

Good Info there... thank you!

A question: Do the Soundbite placeholder names change to reflect the amended file names when you drag the Audio files into the Soundbites window? I'm playing around with a trial OMF delivered from Premier, and the OMF Import opens with Soundbite placeholders placed appropriately. When I drag the Audio Files into the Soundbite window, they don't replace the placeholders. The Soundbite names reflect the Premier track names, and, as you mention, the Audio Files have OMF-generated names similar to those you provide as examples.

Am I missing something?

EDIT: I just opened the Soundbite window wider and note that the Soundbites reference the OMF-names files, but the OMF files are 16 bit and the Soundbites are labeled as 24 bit. Another tidbit, I use BWAV but the files are AIFF. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

[rmills007]

A question: Do the Soundbite placeholder names change to reflect the amended file names when you drag the Audio files into the Soundbites window?

The names of the soundbites in the sequence timeline reflect the original names of the audio files in the Premier project. And while those same filenames appear in the Soundbite window when I open the OMF project in DP, they don't sync up for some reason and therefore don't populate the placeholder soundbites in the sequence.

However, once I drag the newly created Separated audio files (with the insane filenames) into the Soundbites window, DP begins to fill in the placeholder sequence soundbites with audio data. The names of those sequence soundbite segments do not change. It's as if adding those new files to the Soundbites window somehow provides the missing data DP needed in order to complete the task. The new files do not replace the old ones in the Soundbites window, they just get added to it. So, I now have all the original filenames, and all of the long OMF-exported filenames in the Soundbites window. (but see the EDIT comment below)

EDIT: I just opened the Soundbite window wider and note that the Soundbites reference the OMF-names files, but the OMF files are 16 bit and the Soundbites are labeled as 24 bit. Another tidbit, I use BWAV but the files are AIFF. Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

In Premiere, as part of the OMF export settings, there's an option to change the bit and sample rate, and the filetype (.wav or .aiff) of the Separated audio files. Could it be that they were exported from Premier as 16bit AIFF files? And what if you batch them to be 24bit .WAV files then drag them into the Soundbites window again?


EDIT: Here's a weird thing... after everything's been populated, if I choose "Select unused soundbites" from the Soundbites window mini-menu, it selects all of the OMF Separated audio files with the long random filenames. The very files I needed to add in order for DP to populate the sequence with audio. If I then select "Delete Soundbite", those files are deleted from the Soundbite window, but my sequence timeline audio remains intact. And, normally, when you select "Delete Soundbite" you get an additional popup window asking if you really want to Delete, then Flush the audio files. However, those windows don't appear. It just removes the files from the Soundbite window. It's as if DP is just using the additional file info to link up the original soundbites window audio files with the sequence soundbite segments. Once that's done, the new files can be deleted. Very odd.

[HCMarkus]

So bizarre that the Soundbites in my test project reference the OMF weirdly named files, yet the association is not made in DP. Your notes re: "unused soundbites" behavior reflect another anomaly. Thanks rmills; I'll try the AIFF>WAV and bit depth conversion you suggest, maybe it will make the difference.

At this point, it is like "So near and yet so far".

[rmills007]

I made a quick video of the process of saving an OMF from Premiere and importing it into DP 10. Sorry, the resolution isn't the best.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/s8qzygp9slmkh ... t.mp4?dl=0

[Saxplayerz]

Well I tried to test aaf sessions from pro tools to dp with two friends.
Neither one of them could create a file that imported into dp. I think there’s a step they missed but I don’t have a way to test it on my own here. So idk

[rmills007]

Well I tried to test aaf sessions from pro tools to dp with two friends.
Neither one of them could create a file that imported into dp. I think there’s a step they missed but I don’t have a way to test it on my own here. So idk

When exporting from Premiere Pro, AAF exports never worked. I had to go with OMF for DP to recognize it.

[labman]

Well I tried to test aaf sessions from pro tools to dp with two friends.
Neither one of them could create a file that imported into dp. I think there’s a step they missed but I don’t have a way to test it on my own here. So idk

You are probably correct in your assumption. We have 2 regular PT folks, and they send in files all the time via AAF.

[Saxplayerz]

Well I tried to test aaf sessions from pro tools to dp with two friends.
Neither one of them could create a file that imported into dp. I think there’s a step they missed but I don’t have a way to test it on my own here. So idk

You are probably correct in your assumption. We have 2 regular PT folks, and they send in files all the time via AAF.

Well I think it is the steps taken. I wish someone would make a video for aaf export from pro tools to dp.
There’s some confusion on it whether to link the audio files or to embed. I think pro tools has enough trouble with links I’d think one would need to embed it if it’s going to another machine.