Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 1537)

To transfer your sequence audio to an audio post-production application, you need to
export two things.
• Audio clip information: In and Out points, location in sequence, and audio levels. Some
people may simply call this an audio Edit Decision List. The audio media itself is not
included.
• Audio media files: These are the actual media files referred to by clips in your sequence.
You can export your audio edit decisions to project interchange formats such as OMF,
AAF, or the Final Cut Pro XML Interchange Format. Some audio applications can also
recognize EDLs.
Audio media files can be exported as AIFF, WAVE, Sound Designer II (SD2), or any other
QuickTime-supported audio file format.
Important: Using the OMF and AAF formats, you can export both sequence information
and media files in a single file. Although this file can be quite large, it can be convenient
to have all the audio data you need in one self-contained file. Both an EDL and a file in
Final Cut Pro XML Interchange Format contain only sequence information, not audio
media. This means that in addition to the project interchange file, you need to transfer
your audio media to the facility doing your mix.
The interchange format you choose depends on which formats your audio application
recognizes. For more information, see
“Exporting Audio for Mixing in Other Applications.”
Offline/Online Editing Workflows
The offline/online editing process in Final Cut Pro consists of the following steps:
Stage 1: Setting Up and Ingesting Media at Reduced Quality
You can log and ingest your footage directly to offline-quality media files. Alternatively,
you can log and ingest your footage at full quality, and then use the Media Manager to
create reduced-quality media files for offline editing. The latter method is useful if you
want to have both full-quality and reduced-quality media for two different systems
simultaneously.
Stage 2: Editing with Offline-Quality Media Files
You edit just as you would with any other footage. Because you are using reduced-quality
footage, you can fit much more footage on your hard disk and use a portable computer
editing system.
Stage 3: Creating a Sequence for Reingesting Media at Full Quality
When you finish editing your reduced-quality sequence, you use the Media Manager to
create a copy with full-quality settings. For this step, you choose the Create Offline option
in the Media pop-up menu.
1537 Chapter 91 Offline and Online Editing