The AAF and OMF formats were designed to be an ‘open’ format to enable the trouble-free transfer of audio and their edits from NLE to DAW, DAW to DAW or DAW to NLE.
However, as with so many things in life, it’s not as simple as that. In this article, we explore the challenges of the main application for AAFs and OMFs, transferring the audio with its edits from a video editor’s NLE, to Pro Tools.
What is the AAF format?
AAF stands for the Advanced Authoring Format. It is a technology designed specifically for digital nonlinear post-production and authoring. You can consider it as a “Super-EDL,” but actually it is also much more.
AAF is Open Source, so it’s available to manufacturers for free to implement into their systems. The Advanced Authoring Format (AAF) is an interchange toolkit and exists to get video, audio and metadata from one system to another. It can wrap video, audio, data, and even references to external assets along with instructions on how to render this material into a finished program. For example, a file might contain a 30-minute sequence along with instructions on how to cut it down to 5 minutes … along with an external reference to text reports or still photographs located on a separate system. The AAF format is designed to replace OMFI.
The AAF solution has several components: It supports the complex combination of a piece of content and its associated metadata. This allows the content to be described as a media object. It facilitates the cross-platform interchange of metadata or program content.
It allows users to track the history of pieces of program content from source elements through final production. It allows access to networked content files on remote platforms or storage. It allows the combined project in a selected format to be rendered later in the post process.
It catalogues an extensive list of audio and video effects with a rich set of built-in standard effects. It provides a way to “wrap” elements of a project together for archiving. It encapsulates HTML and XML content, includes translators, and supports HTML/XML output. It provides for application program interfaces (APIs).
What is the difference between the OMF and AAF formats?
Open Media Framework (OMF) or Open Media Framework Interchange (OMFI) is a platform-independent file format intended for the transfer of digital media between different software applications.
As we have described above, AAF (and OMF) are used to transfer sequence/timeline information from one application to another. OMF is supported in a number of applications including AVID and Pro Tools.
AAF is the newer format and contains more information than the OMF. OMF loses the volume automation and names of the tracks when exporting and importing from one application to another. AAF retains the volume automation and the track names. Most applications for audio and video support AAF and MXF formats moving forward.
How To Export A Pro Tools Friendly AAF From Avid Media Composer
In this article post-production specialist Damian Kearns shared his advice on the best way to export a Pro Tools friendly AAF from Avid Media Composer. If you have ever had issues with AAFs from video editors, then you will want to share this with them. Damian says…
“I have exported and imported AAF files to and from Media Composer hundreds of times without issue. I’m very fortunate and grateful to have had superb Media Composer training at a time when audio operators weren’t being trained on video editing stations. Being able to speak the MC language has meant avoiding a lot of unnecessary head-scratching. If you have the opportunity, it’s worth doing some Media Composer training. If not, download this article and save it where you can find it and share it again, as needed. Good luck and happy mixing!”
How To Get Adobe Premiere Audio Into Pro Tools Using AAF
In this article, we explain how to export a Pro Tools friendly AAF from Adobe Premiere Pro. Although the basic process is relatively simple, there are some complications if the video editor has used nested clips and sequences, merged clips or you need to get the metadata from the files into Pro Tools to use with the Field Recorder Workflow. Mike says…
“There is no doubt that workflows have changed over the years as Premiere Pro has developed, which means that workflows that worked back in 2019 may be different to what should be used in 2021.
Overall it seems that more recently AAF has become the method of choice, with the key decision being whether to use Embed Audio or Copy Complete Audio Files. It seems that Copy Complete Audio Files is better for metadata flow, but comes with the risk of not getting everything, whereas Embed Audio is a safer bet as long as you don’t need the metadata to use with the Field Recorder workflow in Pro Tools.
If your experience differs, please share them in the comment below, but please do state what version of Premiere Pro and Pro Tools are being used because things have changed over the years.”
How To Create An AAF From DaVinci Resolve For Mixing In Pro Tools
So far we have looked at producing Pro Tools friendly AAFs from Avid’s Media Composer and Adobe’s Premiere Pro. In this article, we explain how to export a Pro Tools friendly AAF from DaVinci Resolve. There is no doubt that working with DaVinci Resolve is the hardest NLE to extract a Pro Tools friendly AAF from. Mike says…
“In researching for this article, there is no doubt that the transition for audio files via an AAF from DaVinci Resolve to Pro Tools, is not a smooth path for a number of vocal users. That said, some users report having no problems, whilst others struggle to make it work.
Reading through many forums and groups some common threads started to pop up…
Make sure you are using the latest versions of both Pro Tools and DaVinci Resolve. It would appear that a lot of the problems that people have had, go away when you use the latest versions of both tools.
Problems with clips going out of sync. If this is your problem then I would direct you to the section in this article about clips not sitting on frame boundaries. That seems to be the issue here.
Problems with Metadata not coming through. If this your problem, consider using a referenced AAF and separate audio files. Again make sure that you are also using the latest versions of Resolve and Pro Tools.
Still, got problems? Then consider using Adobe Premiere Pro as the bridge between Resolve and Pro Tools. Export an XML from Resolve, open that in Premiere Pro and get the AAF from Premiere Pro and ope that in Pro Tools.”
How To Use X2Pro From Marquis Broadcast To Turn An XML from Final Cut X Pro X Into An AAF To Import Into Pro Tools
Creating an AAF from Apple’s Final Cut X is a little harder as Final Cut X does not have an AAF export option. To get an AAF you need to export an XML and then use a 3rd party tool - X2Pro from Marquis Broadcast to convert the XML into an AAF that you can then import into Pro Tools.
in this article, Marquis Broadcast X2 Pro - Final Cut Pro X To Pro Tools - Roundtrip Tutorial, Russ Hughes and Mike Thornton teamed up to show how to export an XML from an Apple Final Cut X project and use X2Pro to take that XML file and convert it into an AAF which can be imported into Pro Tools to complete the audio editing and mixing.
As you will see in the free tutorial, X2Pro integrates Final Cut Pro X into professional audio workflows, taking advantage of the metadata-based organising features in Final Cut Pro X, unlimited numbers of audio rolls in Final Cut Pro X can be converted into Pro Tools tracks, allowing sound designers and mixers to start working immediately.
AAF And OMFs - Post Audio Expert Panel On The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
In audio post-production, we often get AAFs or OMFs from the video editor which provide us with the edited audio from the picture edit.
In this article, a panel of experts, Reid Caulfield, Kevin Dallas, Graham Kirkman, Tom Lowe, Paul Maunder, Lucy Mitchell and Korey Pereira, share their experiences of using AAFs and OMFs in their professional workflows.
If you have had trouble or you are not sure what to do then check out this Expert Panel article which is aimed to help starters to better understand what OMFs and AAFs are and how they fit into the post-production workflow and for those who are more experienced, an insight into how a number of audio post-production specialists handle OMFs and AAFs.
Pro Tools Post Production Basics - OMF and AAF Part 1
In the first of this 2 part Pro Tools post-production basics video, Paul Maunder describes the OMF and AAF file interchange formats and demonstrate the process of exporting audio from video editing applications for use in Pro Tools.
In part 1 we take a look at the process of exporting audio in AAF or OMF format from some of the common video editing platforms.
In the second part of this Pro Tools post-production basics video, we look at the process of importing AAF and OMF files into Pro Tools. I demonstrate how to import embedded and non-embedded AAF and OMF files and how to use Import Session Data to import a multi-part OMF file.
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How Video Editors Can Keep Sound Editors Happy - Expert Tutorial
If you work as an audio editor or mixer on projects that have been through a video edit, how many times have you been frustrated by what OMF, AFF and video files you have been sent from the video editor. In this article, we share our recommendations as to what a video editor can do to make life easier for sound editors and mixers. You might want to share this with any video editors that you work with if you have problems with the resources you receive from them.
Conclusion
There you have it. We hope this has been helpful. If you have many constructive tips that have worked for you, that we haven’t covered in this article do add them in the comments below.