Exporting to ProTools
with Avid Xpress Pro and ProTools LE

June 18th, 2006

written by: Alex Alexzander

This is a very quick method, in progress, which details how to export a timeline from Avid Xpress Pro for use with ProTools LE. This method details how to make that export a portable OMF that can be used on outside ProTools systems not connected to the original Avid project media.

Getting Started

In the Project folder, select the Settings tab, and then choose Audio Projects Settings. Make sure the sample rate is set to 48 kHz. The Audio File Format could be either WAV or AIFF-C (OMF). I use AIFF-C (OMF). Sample Bit Depth is 16 Bit.

Next, highlight the sequence you wish to export.

Right-Mouse click on this sequence, and choose Send To, Digidesign Pro Tools, Consolidate-embed audio + QT mov.

Set a destination for the Sequence OMF export file. This is the file you will later open in ProTools. Do not confuse this with the OMFI files that will also need to be brought along to the sound engineer. Think of this as the master sequence file.

Select the Options button in the Export Settings 2 option. Here you will choose an OMFI drive where the linked files will copy to. These are all the files the master sequence OMF file will call upon in ProTools.

Select a portable drive, or a drive that you can easily copy the OMFI directory to a portable medium, such as an external FireWire or USB 2 drive. If needed, Convert Audio Sample Rate to 48K rather than Project. Mine are all 48K already, so I will leave mine set to Project. The same is true for Convert Audio Sample Bit Depth to. You way wish to change this setting to 16 bit. My timeline is all 16 bit, so I will leave this set to Project.

Now in my H drive, you see my OMFI MediaFiles directory. All the consolidated linked files are there. Below that, is my master sequence OMF file, as well as a Movie file. The OMFI directory, and the OMF and Mov files are all copied to a portable drive, and given to the sound engineer.

In ProTools, select Open Session.

Now choose the master sequence OMF file.

You are now asked to save a session where this OMF will be opened. Give this new ProTools session a name, and a location to save to, and then select Save.

The defaults in this image ought to work well. This will finalize the new session, bringing in all the audio clips from the linked to the master OMF file you selected in the Open Session dialog.

Now you have all your tracks' audio clips opened in ProTools, and ready to edit.

You are now ready to open the QuickTime Mov file to see the video as the audio plays.

From the top menus, choose Movie, Import Movie.

Go back to the destination where the master sequence OMF and Mov file are located. Only the Mov file is displayed now, as the file type you are looking for is Mov, and not All, or OMF. Double-click on the Movie file to open it.

Your audio clips are now ready to be edited in ProTools while you watch the movie file.

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