Oh Apple, we love you.  But sometimes you do frustrating things.  Such is the case with OMFs coming out of Final Cut Pro from sequences that are done at 23.98 FPS.  You’re working at 23.98, your media is at 23.98, and your video output is at 23.98 – so why do you try to trick us Pro Tools operators with OMFs that export at 24F?  What to do?

Normally when dealing with true 24-frame audio we need to sample rate-convert it down by 0.1% in order to work with it in our NTSC post production workflow.  So when one imports an OMF into Pro Tools and sees that it’s at a true 24 FPS, one logically assumes that it needs to be converted.  Of course with FCP this is not in fact the case.

Fortunately, it turns out that all you need to do is change the timecode rate in your session setup window to 23.976 FPS.

Do NOT re-spot any audio, do NOT sample rate-convert anything.  Just change the timecode rate of your session from 24 to 23.976 and you’re all set.  When you import your video (either digitized from an NTSC source or a Quicktime that’s been exported from the same Final Cut Pro sequence) you will discover that the timecode window burn will match perfectly with your timeline.  The audio was never really at 24 FPS at all; Final Cut Pro just decides to identify the sequence as a 24 FPS sequence for some reason that probably makes sense to video editors but makes no sense to me.

So don’t let Final Cut Pro fool you into thinking that you need to sample rate-convert or pull down your sound; even though it says 24 FPS, it’s lying.  It’s really at 23.976, just like you wanted in the first place!