LAFCPUG: Audio FAQs

From FAQwiki

How do I capture four (or more) tracks of audio at once?

How do I capture four (or more) tracks of audio at once?

Assuming you are capturing via Firewire...

Go to Audio Video Settings> Capture Presets

Click Edit

From the QuickTime Audio Settings > Input

You can choose to :

• Capture the First 2 channels
  
• Capture the Second 2 channels
  
• Capture mix of 4 channels
  

Mixed you can do in one pass and you still wind up with 2 audio tracks mixed down
Two pass you will have all 4 channel on separate tracks, but you would capture the First 2 normally, then change it to Second 2 channels.

Another way

From Martin Baker:
Up to 24 channel audio capture is supported in FCP5. Most capture cards support up to 8 channels of embedded audio through SDI (though Kona 3 offers up to 16 channels of embedded). I'm not aware of any capture cards which offer more than 8 AES or analogue inputs.

So depending on how many channels you want to capture, the other possibility is to use a separate audio interface such as MOTU or RME. If the interface has Core Audio drivers available then it should appear as a device in FCP's Capture Preset Editor. There may be A/V sync issues with this method although if you can genlock the audio interface then I would imagine it would work fine.

I doubt there is anyone who has ever tried this but in theory it would work.