Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1536)

Edit Decision List or Other Project Interchange File
When the edit is complete, you can export all of your edit decisions for use on another
editing system. Older editing systems use a relatively simple text format called an EDL,
while newer interchange formats, such as OMF, AAF, and the Final Cut Pro XML Interchange
Format, describe many more details of your original sequence.
Online Editing
Online editing, now better known as finishing, starts with an offline project file or a project
interchange file, which describes the media you need to reingest at full quality. Online
editing actually has very little to do with editing in the traditional sense. Timing,
storytelling, and fine-tuning your edits should be complete in the offline editing phase.
Online editing focuses on image quality, color correction, maintaining broadcast video
specifications, detailed effects work, titles, audio levels, and so on. Compared to the offline
editing phase, an online edit session goes very quickly (anywhere from a day to a week),
and generally requires more expensive equipment.
Important: It is critical that you maintain accurate timecode, reel names, and file metadata
for keeping track of where footage is located in both tape-based and file-based media.
Make sure you log clips and label tapes and other media carefully so that you can reingest
footage at any quality at a later time.
How Audio Is Handled in the Offline/Online Editing Process
The offline/online workflow tends to focus on video, but how is audio handled? Audio
has much lower data requirements than video, so audio is almost always ingested at its
native sampling rate and bit depth, even for offline editing. This means the audio is ready
for a final audio mix without reingesting.
During the offline editing phase, audio clips are synchronized with video and placed in
the sequence, and basic level adjustments are made. Once editing is finished and the
picture is locked, audio is mixed in the audio mixing and sweetening phase. You can mix
your audio in Final Cut Pro, or transfer your audio files and audio edit decisions to an
audio post-production application.
The audio mixing phase is analogous to the video online edit session: the goal is to
produce a continuous, natural-sounding mix by setting proper levels, setting panning
(locating sounds in different speakers, either for stereo or surround sound), and using
any necessary audio filters. When the audio mix is complete, you bring it to the online
edit session for an audio layback into the finished sequence (or directly onto the finished
master tape). For more information about audio mixing in Final Cut Pro, see
“Audio
Fundamentals.”
1536 Chapter 91 Offline and Online Editing