To begin with, when we talk about OMF or AAF, what are we referring to? These are files that allow you to transfer audio clips from your video edit software to be sent to audio post. The position of the audio clips on the timeline is maintained and everything remains synchronized. It is even possible to preserve the entirety of the clips so that the mixer can change their duration. The main difference between OMF and AAF is that the AAF will preserve the volume automations and the names of the audio/video tracks in your project.
Davinci Resolve:
- As you can see, here we have a Davinci project with : a video track, music, sfx’s and dialogue to simulate a video project. All you have to do is click on “File” then “Export” and choose the Timeline option.
- Make sure you name your file and choose the location where it is saved. Make sure the file extension is .aaf
- Let’s name it AAF Davinci, then check the settings and voilà! Click on “Save” and you have generated your Davinci Resolve AAF file.
Premiere Pro :
- Here is a project identical to the one used for Davinci. We can see our files in the Media Browser, a video clip with several audio clips for music, sfx’s, and dialogue.
- First make sure the Timeline is highlighted in blue, then click on “file”, then “Export” and then select OMF or AAF as you like. For this video, let’s choose OMF. You can now name your OMF and make sure your settings are optimal for export. A sample rate of 48kHz and a bit rate of 24 are standard for video.
- Now choose your export folder, as you can see we already did a test here, so we’ll just overwrite the old file with our new export.
- The window that appears is actually a report of your OMF export. You can refer to it if an error occurs.
- Here are the parameters to export an AAF file.
Final Cut Pro:
Unfortunately, Final Cut Pro does not offer the possibility to export OMF or AAF files. Nevertheless, the procedure is very simple, you just have to create an XML file that you will import later in Premiere or Davinci Resolve to generate the OMF or AAF.
Once the project is ready for export, click on “File”, then “Export XML…”. Name your file and select the export folder. And that’s it! All you have to do is import the XML file into Davinci or Premiere and then make your OMF or AAF.