Working with Droplets
When presets grow up and graduate, they become droplets. Compressor uses droplets to pack presets into an application suitcase so that they can stand alone in the Finder and run entirely outside Compressor.
You can create droplets from any standard or custom preset in the Presets window. Droplets can be quite handy, especially for repetitive encoding tasks in which settings do not change from job to job.
Creating a Single Preset Droplet
The following example creates a droplet that produces a 16-bit, 48 kHz audio file. It is common in Final Cut Pro sequences to encounter audio files sampled at rates other than 48 kHz, such as 44.1 kHz audio copied from CDs. Using a droplet to convert the files quickly via drag-and-drop is much more efficient than repeating multiple conversion steps inside Compressor.
The droplet connects to the encoder services and then opens the Droplet window, which details the impending process.
Although running Compressor is not a requirement for launching a droplet, Compressor must be installed on any computer on which you plan to run droplets.
Creating a Multiple Preset Droplet
In the preceding example, one preset was used to create the droplet. Compressor also allows the creation of droplets from preset groups.
In the Save dialog box that opens, follow the same steps as when creating a single preset droplet.
Any file dropped onto a multiple preset droplet will have all the presets in the group applied to it. If you have MPEG-2 and Dolby Digital audio presets in a droplet, for example, any file encoded by the droplet will produce two output files: one MPEG-2 video and one Dolby audio.