Skip to content

Final Cut Pro → Premiere Pro

Final Cut Pro to Premiere Pro

Premiere Pro imports AAF as audio tracks. fcp2aaf writes that AAF from a Final Cut FCPXML, so the sound of the edit — roles, levels, fades — arrives placed rather than rebuilt by hand.

macOS 14 or later · Apple Silicon

Premiere Pro reads AAF through File ▸ Import, and it reads it as audio: tracks, clip positions, levels and fades. It is the route a sound editor working in Premiere uses to receive a cut from elsewhere.

Final Cut writes FCPXML, which Premiere can also read — for the picture. For the audio session, with the multitrack sound and the level work the edit carried, the format is AAF, and fcp2aaf is what writes it.

Premiere opens the AAF as audio tracks

Import the AAF and Premiere places the audio: each Final Cut role and subrole on its own track, every clip where it fell, with the clip gain, automation and fades the edit carried.

The default output is standard AAF. One optional setting, the Audio Channel Combiner, groups a clip's channels into a stereo track and is not part of the AAF standard — it is off unless you ask for it, so what you deliver opens the same way in every application that reads AAF.

What it carries, and what it does not

It carries the audio edit. It does not carry the picture — fcp2aaf writes an audio AAF, and there is no video track in it. If you want the video edit in Premiere as well, import the FCPXML into Premiere for that; the two imports are separate and do different jobs.

Why send audio through AAF at all

Because the FCPXML route does not rebuild the sound the way the edit had it — the roles, the overlapping clips spilled onto their own tracks, the split edits, the conformed handles. The AAF does. fcp2aaf cuts the audio from your originals with the handles you set, so there is room to work at every cut.

fcp2aaf does not pass audio through. It reads the paths Final Cut wrote into the FCPXML, opens your original recordings, and cuts from them exactly the regions the edit uses, with as much or as little handle around each clip as you ask for. WAV, BWF, RF64, AIFF, CAF, FLAC, MP3, MP4, MOV and MXF are read straight from the drive, at any size.

Set it up once, hand it over

You choose the handles, the sample rate, the bit depth and which tracks travel, with the session drawn in front of you and any clip playable. A self-contained AAF is one file to send; a referenced delivery is a folder with the audio beside it.

What Premiere places

Roles as audio tracks
In your order, named as you set them, overlaps spilled onto their own tracks.
The level work
Clip gain, volume automation, pan, fades and crossfades, where the edit had them.
Media with handles
Conformed from your originals, embedded in the AAF or in a folder beside it.

Questions about Premiere Pro

Does Premiere Pro import AAF?

Yes. File ▸ Import, and Premiere brings the AAF in as audio tracks with their clips, levels and fades.

Does the video edit come across in the AAF?

No. fcp2aaf writes an audio AAF — there is no video in it. For the picture, import the Final Cut FCPXML into Premiere separately.

Then why not just use FCPXML for everything?

The FCPXML route does not reconstruct the audio session — the role-to-track layout, the overlaps spilled apart, the conformed media with handles. The AAF does, which is the point of converting one.

Which version of Premiere Pro?

Any version with AAF import, which has been standard for years. The output is standard AAF.

Other destinations

The same AAF opens as a full session in Pro Tools, Nuendo, Fairlight and Media Composer.

Ready to hand the cut over to the mix?

Up to 5 minutes is free, for everybody, with every feature switched on. No card, no account, and nothing to cancel.