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Audio Workflow in FCPX
Hey so I was just wondering if people would be willing to share their own workflow when handling audio in FCPX.
Audio editing is currently my weakest point when it comes to post production and I’m trying to improve it. From Larry Jordan’s videos on color correction, I’ve learned that when setting your exposure you should set black level first, then white level, etc, a nice step by step for best practices. I’m looking for similar info with audio in an FCPX environment. Should I set a level in the “timeline” itself clip by clip first, or should I leave that volume level at 0 (the volume slider, not 0db on the DBFS meter) and do loudness adjustments with filters? I’ve found that whatever filter settings I choose change dramatically when handling the volume in the timeline.
Any best practices for an audio correction workflow in FCPX would be most appreciated!
Tucker Lucas
Editor
Sundog Interactive
tu**********@***************ve.com -
2 Replies
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I kinda work on audio roughly as I go. The first thing I attempt, around the time of my radio edit, to do is create a base level for my dialogue/narration (ie: main audio). I take clips and get them in the neighborhood of unity (usually between -6 and -12 db). Then I tend to ignore broll audio until later in the cut unless it’s extremely loud. Then I just quickly drop it down so I don’t have to hear it.
After I’ve gotten a more thorough cut, I go back through and mix my broll audio relative to my dialogue. Then I mix in music and sfx the same way. This is where I do any keyframing of audio. At the fine cut stage, I go back through, tweak my keyframes and levels until I’m happy with the mix.
This is all presuming that you’re the one doing the final mix. If it’s going to an outside mixer, then I just do a rough mix, enough to get through notes because whatever keyframing and levels I set are going to be redone by the audio guy.
Andy
https://www.timesavertutorials.com
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I use the ‘auto’ audio enhancements for that to try and get a decent automatic zero state for everything. (You need to have analyze on when you import or do it after) Then I can use the timeline index to set one clip’s levels then copy pasting those attributes to all the other instances of that camera setup.
You can also do this using roles as well. It’s pretty amazing how close you can get with most of it. I’m sure there are better ways, but that is pretty fast for me.
If I’m going to a real mix, I use XtoPro which if I set my roles correctly makes an AAF so organized my mixer at first thought someone other than me cut the project.
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