macOS app · pre-flight for AAF exports · for editors and sound engineers
Know before
you import.
Drop an AAF — or the whole export folder, reference movie and all — and AAF Inspector reads it the way Pro Tools will. A verdict, a plain-English summary, a track map of every clip on every track, and the findings that decide whether you import it or ask for a re-export. Premiere, Avid Media Composer and Pro Tools exports; the problems each one is known for.
The problem
The export looked fine in the edit suite.
Most AAF problems are invisible until the import: a music cue that went out with one channel missing, a second sequence hiding the real edit, three frame rates that don’t agree, media that didn’t travel. The editor has no way to check their own export; the mixer finds out an hour into the session. AAF Inspector gives both of them the same answer in seconds, in words either can act on.
Thirty seconds, before the session starts.
Drop the delivery as it arrives. If the verdict is a ❌, send the editor the report and get a re-export while you’re still setting up — editors are happy to re-export nine times out of ten when they can see why. If it’s a ✅, import with the warnings in mind. The deep content check (silent clips, byte-identical sides) runs on demand for the awkward ones.
Check it before you send it.
The report is written plainly and neutrally — no “you”, no “they”, nobody blamed — with the plain-English summary at the top and the detail folded away underneath. When it says the music went out one-sided from a mono track, it also says what to do about it in Premiere, because the lost channel can’t be recovered from the AAF.
What it catches
The things that cost you the afternoon.
Each finding is graded the way you’d grade it yourself: ❌ problem — go back to the editor; ⚠️ warning — importable, but read it first; ✅ / ℹ️ — confirmations and context. Real-world calibration, not nagging: numbering gaps and sub-clip quirks that import cleanly are information, not warnings.
| Finding | What it means |
|---|---|
| ❌One-sided music | A stereo clip on a Premiere mono track is exported as its first channel only — the right channel is never written, and the edit sounds fine in Premiere. Flagged with timecode, duration and track, marked on the map, with the fix. |
| ❌More than one sequence | Pro Tools only offers the first sequence in the file. When the real 27-track edit is the second one, you get a two-track YouTube cut and a mystery. Named, counted, and selectable for inspection. |
| ❌Frame rates that disagree | Every rate it can see — the sequence, the video track, the picture clip, the reference movie, other sequences — on one line, and a problem raised if they don’t all agree. No expected rate to type in. |
| ⚠️One leg of a stereo effect | A clip using one side of a stereo file, or the same side on both legs, is listed with timecodes. Deliberately narrowed SFX stays a warning; music is a problem. One channel of a camera file is normal and only noted. |
| ⚠️Media and paths | Embedded or linked, where the AAF thinks its audio lives, the original picture paths on the editor’s drives, other AAFs and loose audio sitting next to the export. OMF files are recognised and sized against the 2 GB limit. |
| ✅Location-sound conform | When the mixer’s multitrack is laid out under the mix pair — boom, lavs, the lot — it’s confirmed with recordings, channel count and tracks; any stretch of a second or more with fewer channels than elsewhere is flagged with timecodes. Recorder channel names are read from the WAV headers when the media folder is present. |
| ℹ️Everything else you’d want to know | Track formats as the exporter tagged them, split stereo pairs recognised rather than flagged, Avid track effects unwrapped (automation imports, inserts don’t), rendered fades and sample-accurate slivers counted separately, and a full clip list when you need it. |
How it works
Drop. Read. Decide.
Drop the export
The AAF on its own, the whole export folder, or the AAF and the reference movie together. A movie in the same folder is found and compared automatically. Files from 10 MB to 2 GB; nothing is modified, ever.
Read the map
Every track with its clips drawn along the timeline — single lane for mono, double for stereo, ST·L / ST·R for the halves of a Premiere stereo track. Hover a finding to light up its clips; click to pin them.
Act on the verdict
Short report for the decision, full report for the dig. Copy it, save it as text and JSON next to the AAF, or open it straight into an email to the editor with the findings pasted in.
The fine print
Specifications.
| What it is | A standalone desktop app (not a plug-in). Drag-and-drop window around the same engine as the command-line tool. | |
| Reads | AAF exports from Adobe Premiere Pro, Avid Media Composer and Pro Tools — embedded or linked audio. OMF recognised and reported, not read inside. DaVinci Resolve [TODO-SPEC: untested — say so, or test one] | |
| Reports | Short report (decide) and full report (dig) · plain-English summary · track map · expandable sections: digital silence, identical sides, leg report, clip issues, location-sound conform, effects, sequences, media paths · text + JSON · copy / save / email | |
| Deep check | Optional content pass on embedded audio: silent clips, byte-identical sides | |
| Automation | Command-line version with exit codes (0 good · 1 warnings · 2 problems · 3 unreadable) — one button on a Stream Deck or Keyboard Maestro macro | |
| System | macOS [TODO-SPEC: min version · Apple silicon & Intel · signed/notarised status] · Windows [TODO-SPEC: planned] | |
| Languages | English report wording [TODO-SPEC: other languages planned?] | |
| Price | Announced at launch — get notified | See below |
- macOS app, drag and drop
- Short and full reports, text + JSON
- Free updates through v1.x
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