When we last looked at Frame.io, we observed that what was missing for audio professionals was integration with DAWs like Pro Tools. We have recently learned that an independent post-production house in Milan, Red-Line has produced a solution to this problem and what’s more, they have chosen to make it available for free for everyone to use.
Frame.io Introduction
Frame.io is primarily a platform for Video Collaboration, but it offers far more than simply a place for clients to watch videos and approve or amend them.
Frame.io allows you to share any kind of media with your team or your client. That media can be kept in folders, for example, Russ shared the camera rushes of an interview with the client, he also shared all the audio from that interview with Mike Thornton so that he could do some audio cleanup in RX. As the project progressed Russ then shared edits with team members so they could collaborate - as changes were needed then anyone on the team could add frame-accurate notes to picture or sound.
What Frame.io offers is an entire collaboration workflow that eliminates the whole 'put stuff on Dropbox and then sends an email with notes in it kind of workflow.'
As a cloud application, Frame.io is not app dependent, collaborators can work with whatever applications suit them to get the job done. As changes arrive, all those invited to be collaborators simply mark up the media and have timecode stamped chats about the changes required, be that video or audio with notes and annotations. For video editors, Frame.io offers integrations for Apple Final Cut Pro X, Adobe Premiere Pro, After Effects, DaVinci Resolve and Media Composer. This means you can download notes to appear in the project timeline in certain apps, but if you don't have an integration then you can print a set of changes with timecodes as a PDF, notes, XML, CSV or Excel, whatever suits you.
Frame.io Pricing Plans
What About DAW Integration?
You may have noticed that the list of supported applications, included most of the key NLEs but no DAWs. Stefano Monzio Compagnoni from Red-Line reached out to us to tell us about their workaround for the lack of DAW integration in Frame.io. As they say, “We’re picking up where Frame.io left off”.
They initially created this tool for their own use, but rather than keep it to themselves, they decided to offer it to anyone and so have built this special CSV To MIDi page on their website.
Here you can upload your FRAME.IO CSV comments, convert them, and then download them as MIDI files ready to import them into your DAW, in the case of Pro Tools as Markers.
How To Use The Free Red-Line CSV2MIDI Tool
Stefano has very kindly put together step-by-step instructions, which you can follow along in this video or as a series of still images, you decide….
1. Find the point in the timeline where you want to make a comment and then type your comment in the Comment area below the video. See how the comment goes into the list on the right-hand side in chronological order. Move down the timeline and continue to add comments until you are done.
2. To download the comments, click on the Download button here above the list of comments,
3. Select Download as File and CSV as the file format. A CSV file will be downloaded.
4. Now go to the Red-Line website, and in the Client Area menu select Frame.io.
5. Once the CSV2MIDI page has opened, check the frame rate and timecode start time match your session and then drag and drop the CSV file into the window. This will trigger the download of a .MID file
6. Now switch to the corresponding session open in Pro Tools. Go into the File menu, select Import and MIDI…
7. Navigate to the .MID file that you have downloaded, select it and click Open.
8. In the MIDI Import Options, the default settings are fine so just click the OK button. This will convert the comments into Pro Tools Memory Locations.
9. Notice how the Markers ruler is now populated with the comments in Frame.io at the appropriate points along the Pro Tools session timeline. You can also see them and select them in the Memory Locations window, note how the cursor jumps to the corresponding point on the timeline.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Stefano Monzio Compagnoni and all the team from Red-Line for creating this workaround to enable Frame.io users to be able to work with DAWs as well as NLEs and also thanks to the Red-Line team for making this workaround free to everyone.
Thanks again Stefano for taking the time to create the images and video footage to explain to us all how to use take advantage of this excellent workaround.