When I import an OMF into Pro Tools they enter as two mono tracks, panned left and right as opposed to one stereo track - any ideas as to why this is the case?
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2 Answers
It is a constraint of the OMF format and/or the video editor it came from. One of the first things I do is move them onto stereo tracks in Pro Tools. In fact I have a set of template sessions, so I will open the most appropriate template session, then import the OMF into my template onto new tracks rather than open the OMF directly in Pro Tools. Then move up the content onto the most appropriate tracks in my template as I find that video editors try and use as few tracks as possible to save screen space but it does mean that a track could have music one moment and sync sound the next voiceover the next. Also I tend to find a mix of mono and stereo tracks so I uncheck the panning even & odd tracks left & right so that I can choose what panning to use when I move them up onto my tracks.
I find the stereo track thing to be more cumbersome in Pro Tools, especially for film & video. I ALWAYS find the need to process one side or the other differently (either level, e.q., more or less compression, clicks &/or other noise issues, etc.) and this becomes cumbersome when the audio is a locked "Stereo" track. Particularly important with levels on stereo track recorded 'in the field' (subject to extraneous ambient 'polluters' & engineers unable to recognize phase anomalies, so you need to 'lean the sides in to center' differently in different sections to compensate for the amount of phase correction needed).
Saves have to 'split track in to mono' & all that comes along with that, i.e. adding even MORE tracks to already glutted sessions AND having to remember NOT to delete the source tracks before having altered the 'separate' tracks, renamed them, consolidating & re-saving them all PRIOR to deleting them!
