M&E for broadcast delivery

Hi! I've been looking online for information on this but have not quite found the answer I was looking for other than "It's easy to do in FCPX". 

I need to deliver a master Prores 422 fil with the following audio config:

Ch 1 & 2: Full stereo mix
Ch 3 & 4: M&E audio

I love how roles work and use them all the time. I've seen people answer this question with "You create that with roles" which I'm fully aware of but I can't figure out how to export a full stereo mix + M&E audio.  FCPX gives me the option to export a multitrack Quicktime movie with Dialogue, Effects and Music as separate tracks. Great. But can someone take me through the process of having a full stereo track on 1 & 2 and Music and Effects on 3 & 4?

 Thank you in advance!

Hi BambooMagic
Maybe someone more expert can give you a solution to do it in FCP, but IMHO this mix must be done in a DAW. I think you have to do a global stereo mix and mastering of all FCP roles (Ch 1+2) and then make one  mono music mixed track  (ch 3) and mono SFX mixed track (ch 4). In your DAW, set the bounce of stereo mix as "export separated channels" (correspond to Ch1 and CH2), and bounce SFX and music as mono (correspond to ch 3 and 4). Import the four channels in FCP and set 4 roles named Ch1 to 4. Ready to export your Prores QT video with 4 channels

Thanks Buhardilla. I was worried that I'd need to do this in my DAW since it's two extra steps which will add up since I have 80 files to deliver. Hopefully there is a way to do this in FCP!

Would something like this work (see the Export window below --- I have an item "All Audio" that would be replaced by your SFX role)?



I do wonder why someone would want music as a mono track. SFX could be stereo too if you were to have sounds moving from L to R or R to L (some sort of panning), or if the sources were stereo... curious...

Yes Multritrack exports works fine. Make sure you have proper DME stems and that the roles have been properly assigned. At that point you can mix and match in any combination to create various mixes, like full mix, M&E, D&E, separate DME stems, and so on.

As far as mono assignments - that makes no sense. If it's a stereo mix, then those should all be stereo.

DavisS, I think you got it but my question is how did you get "All audio"? I've been trying to do this for days. Did you need to create that custom role and if so, how do you assign the full mix to it? 

Oliver, I'm glad to know this can all be done in FCPX. I'm used to working with roles so they are all assigned to Dialogue, SFX and music. I'm trying to figure out how how to assign a full mix to a role. The broadcaster doesn't need separate DME stems, only the multitrack Prores with full stereo mix and M & E on 3 and 4. I feel like I'm so close but need to iron out the stereo mix on 1 and 2. 

As I mentioned earlier, my "All Audio" is simply a stand-in for your SFX role. I probably should have renamed it to avoid confusion. I was working on a project that originated on FCP 7 and just used what was already there.

Basically, you create principal roles (some are predefined) and then sub-roles. On export, you would choose the principal roles and any sub-roles (as "stems") depending on your delivery requirements.

In addition to the FCP manual, I've found this to be very helpful:

Audio Roles in FCP Whitepaper

Thank you for share this audio role white paper: very interesting

Got it. I think the only change I would make is have Dialogue, Music and SFX on Track 1 (stereo) and Music and Effects on Track 2 as stereo as well. That will give them a stereo mix on channels 1 and 2 and Music and a stereo mix of Effects and Music on 3 and 4. They don't require separate stems (no idea why). I don't think they would want mono effects and music so this seems to be the most logical option although they wouldn't have the option of isolating dialogue which makes no sense to me. I'll check with the broadcaster.

I really appreciate everyone's help with this. Thank you!