Converting iTunes music for use in FCP

Buck

Buck

Well-known member
I don't buy a lot of music on iTunes and don't own an iPod. I'm working on a home video on FCP and want to use a song that I did buy from iTunes.

I can import the song in there, but can't hear anything, even after a render. Is there anything that can be done to get the song in the proper format?

Thanks.
 
Ya,

You need to convert it to AIFF (preferably 48 khz sampling.)
Go into iTunes....under Preferences, click on advanced tab...click on the "import using" drop down menu....chose AIFF encoder...click on custom settings and set it to 48 khz sampling.
 
I'm a little confused. Is this something I have to do BEFORE I purchase a song thru iTunes?
 
i'll take a shot at this....Itune is a different audio format. FCP doesn't import that format. So, you have to convert Itune into a format that FCP can read. You have to convert the file into an aiff and at 48k......My FCP buddy told me that FCP will convert on the fly to 48 if the audio is recorded at 44.1(CD), thus using CPU power.

And I beleive yes, you will have to convert all purchased songs thru
Itunes.
 
Due to DRM, FCP won't directly open the file. A quick and dirty way is to burn the iTunes song to a CD, then bring the CD audio track back in. You go through a re-compress that way, but it removes the MP4 based DRM. Some say you can use iMovie, which will take the song directly from iTunes, then render the output and bring it into FCP that way.

The gist of the story is this:

FCP: High level product, used for commercial purposes. Does not accept iTunes songs directly.

iMovie: For home use, predominately non-commercial stuff so it does accept iTunes songs directly.

cm
 
Sorry I wasn't more clear. When you buy from iTunes, you are purchasing a song that is usually in MP3 format or AAC or something other than AIFF. It may have DRM on it as well in which case, just burn it to a CD and then import the CD track into FCP I've always been able to just convert it to AIFF 48khz and it's worked for me, but it's been awhile since I've done it...now I use a different program.

Anyways, FCP will playback 44.1khz but I'd just convert it to 48khz so that your CPU doesn't have to be doing any extra work on the fly converting it to 48khz.
 
a ha....was wondering about this. i dropped a song in that was in mp3 only to get nothing. found that rendering enable it to play but there were audio pops scattered about in the tracks.
 
Anything I've used from my iTunes to the Avid at work, I burn it onto a CD. You can then just drag and drop it to your bin. It takes an extra step, but it usually makes conversion from one format to another not an issue.
 
Thanks guys. I haven't had a time to try it yet, but going to cd first sounds like the way to go.
 
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