Assign audio roles during import in Final Cut Pro for Mac

For any given import session, you can override the automatic role assignment process so that every imported audio component is assigned a role of your choosing. You can specify one of the three default audio roles or a custom role that you create. When you import with this setting enabled, Final Cut Pro assigns a unique subrole (from the role you specify) to every component in each clip.

For example, imagine that you’ve recorded several hundred natural sound files for use as Foley sound effects in your video project. By default, Final Cut Pro assigns the Dialogue role to natural sound recordings (with no additional metadata). Instead, you could assign the more appropriate Effects role to every clip in the import session.

1. To open the Import pane of Final Cut Pro settings, choose Final Cut Pro > Settings (or press Command-Comma), then click Import.

2. In the Audio Roles section, click the Assign Role pop-up menu and choose a role.

   Note: The Assign Role pop-up menu also appears in the Audio Roles section on the right side of the Media Import window. All default and custom audio roles appear in this pop-up menu. For information about creating custom roles and subroles, see Create custom roles in Final Cut Pro for Mac.

3. Import the files.

   The role you chose is assigned to the imported clips. (More precisely, components in the imported clips are assigned subroles of the role you chose.)

   You can change this and any other import settings in the Media Import window or the Import pane of Final Cut Pro settings. To revert to the default setting, so that roles are assigned automatically when you import clips, click the Assign Role pop-up menu and choose Automatically.

Final Cut Pro can use the iXML metadata tags in an audio channel to create custom subroles and assign them to audio components during import.

For example, during production, a sound recordist might enter “Boom mic” and “Jessie lav mic” on the recording device to identify the audio channels of a recording. During import, Final Cut Pro can use the iXML names to create subroles named “Boom mic” and “Jessie lav mic” and assign them to the corresponding audio components in the imported clips.

1. Configure your recording device so that your recordings include iXML data.

   See the documentation that came with your recording device.

2. On the device, enter the role name for each audio channel that should be assigned a role, then make your recordings.

3. To set Final Cut Pro to create roles automatically during import, choose Final Cut Pro > Settings (or press Command-Comma), click Import, then make sure the “Assign iXML track names if available” checkbox is selected in the Audio Roles section.

   Note: The “Assign iXML track names if available” checkbox also appears in the Audio Roles section on the right side of the Media Import window.

4. Import the files that include iXML metadata.

   Final Cut Pro creates subroles with the names you entered in step 2 and assigns the subroles to the corresponding components in the imported clips.