Final Cut Pro Quick Tip #25
By now you have probably had a bit of fun with SoundTrack, the music creation program that ships with Final Cut Pro 4.0. I would hope that you haven’t exhausted all of the free loops that shipped with the program, but if you are looking to use other samples, this Quick Tip tells you how.
When I met with Apple at NAB one of the first things I asked when they demonstrated SoundTrack was, “Can I use Acid Loops?” The answer was “Yes, no problem”. This really isn’t too much of a surprise since some of the creators of SoundTrack were some of the same people that worked on Sonic Foundry’s Acid program. SoundTrack recognizes AIFF and WAV files only (Acid Loops are WAV files). You can use QuickTime audio files, but according to Apple, playback quality may not be as good. This means if you want to use your MP3 files, you will need to convert them first.[an error occurred while processing this directive]If you have never used Acid, then working with SoundTrack will seem like a totally new experience. For those of us with Acid experience, having a similar program now on the Mac is a blessing. One of the benefits of Acid is the huge Loop library Sonic Foundry sells. You name it; you can probably find the instrument, tempo, theme or style for whatever your client needs to complete their important project.
So how do we add additional loops to SoundTrack?
I begin by copying my Acid Loops from my CD to a 160GB Maxtor FireWire drive connected to my system. I think of this as my “extra loop repository”.
Next launch SoundTrack. You will notice that the Search Tab in the Media Browser has no problem finding the loops that come with SoundTrack.
Click on the Setup button. This window allows us to add additional directories to SoundTrack.
Click on the + button and navigate to your Additional Loop directory. For me it was Maxtor 160:Acid Loops. Double click on that directory and it will be added to the list.
Source: Digital Media Online, Inc.
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