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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Dialogue Level

  • Posted by Benjamin Asnis on January 8, 2010 at 4:13 pm

    Hi,

    I’m editing in Final Cut Pro. It takes a great deal of time editing audio on certain shows because of audio fluctuations with talent having quiet moments and loud ones. To maintain a dialogue level of -24 dBFS +/- 2 dB, in these instances it requires me to raise the global audio of the program, making my peaks consistently too high. I need my peaks to be at -10 db for the finished project.

    Is there any software or hardware out there that can handle this situation? Has anyone had any luck with audio filters within Final Cut Pro for this exact situation?

    Thanks,

    Ben

    Eric Susch replied 16 years, 3 months ago 5 Members · 7 Replies
  • 7 Replies
  • Mark Suszko

    January 8, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    Did you try normalizing and applying a compression filter?

  • David Roth weiss

    January 8, 2010 at 5:04 pm

    Try Levelator, a free download available at:
    https://the-levelator.en.softonic.com/mac

    David Roth Weiss
    Director/Editor/Colorist
    David Weiss Productions, Inc.
    Los Angeles

    POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

    A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

  • Eric Susch

    January 8, 2010 at 6:17 pm

    Levelator is amazing. I met one of the engineers that developed it at a conference a few years ago, Podcast Academy I think. It’s entirely automatic. There aren’t any controls so no tweaking which could be good or bad depending on what you are trying to do. It works surprisingly well.

    Here’s a direct link from the people that developed it that has downloads for all platforms.

    https://www.conversationsnetwork.org/levelator

    ____________________________________
    Eric Susch
    http://www.LetsKnit2gether.com
    http://www.EricSusch.com
    Follow me on twitter @EricSusch

  • Michael Gissing

    January 8, 2010 at 9:34 pm

    I tried Levelator out about a year ago when this forum went through the same discussion and it was recommended.

    I was not entirely impressed as they are applying dynamics compression so my caveat continues that unless you are finishing the audio in FCP (something I never recommend) then do no do processing like normalising or using Levelator if you are then exporting an OMF for proper audio post production as you affect the clips in the OMF unlike applying plugin filters which are ignored by an OMF export.

    The quality of dynamics control that I am used to with professional mixing systems like Fairlight are better than Levelator which does an excellent job but is not in the same league of a well driven dynamics module.

  • Benjamin Asnis

    January 10, 2010 at 2:21 am

    Hi David,

    The Levelator worked great!

    Thanks.

    Ben

  • David Roth weiss

    January 10, 2010 at 8:18 am

    Glad it worked for you Ben.

    David Roth Weiss
    Director/Editor/Colorist
    David Weiss Productions, Inc.
    Los Angeles

    POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

    A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.

  • Eric Susch

    January 11, 2010 at 6:49 am

    [Michael Gissing] “The quality of dynamics control that I am used to with professional mixing systems like Fairlight are better than Levelator…”

    I’m not sure what your point is Michael. Levelator is designed to be entirely automatic. It has no controls. To say something else is better because you have more control is kind of missing the point. Different tools for different jobs.

    ____________________________________
    Eric Susch
    http://www.LetsKnit2gether.com
    http://www.EricSusch.com
    Follow me on twitter @EricSusch

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