• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Audio gone mad!

  Posted by Louis Royer on April 9, 2010 at 12:05 pm

  Hi. First post here, but now i need help. Where i work we do the final audio mix in FCP. Recently we had issue where what is sent to track 3 and 4 of the digi beta interfere with waht is snd to track 1 and 2. Here is a quick overview of what i am doing.

  1 – put music.
  2- Balance ATMOS and music.

  Here is haw my audio track are set-up.

  TK 2- Atmos
  TK 3 and 4 – Music stereo

  Once those track are balance i duplicate those tracks to become the M&E track on the master. Then i add the voice over, so i end up with a timeline that look like this.

  TK 01 – VO Send to TK 01 & 02
  TK 02 – ATMOS send to TK 01& 02
  TK 03 & 04 – Music stereo send to TK 01 & 02
  TK 05 – ATMOS (copy of 02) send to TK 03 & 04
  TK 06 & 07 – Music Stereo (copy of 03 & 04) send to TK 03 & 04

  The idea is to have 1 & 2 as full mix english and 3 & 4 as M/E track for international market.

  So, one i have laid the V/O i complete the final mix. I use key frame on the music and atmos track (only the one that will be send to 1 & 2 of the digi) to balance all the level. Note that what will be send to 3 & 4 don’t have any keyframe.

  On what is sent to TK 01 and 02 of the digi, the music level sometime change level for no reason at all. You will hear the VO clear and the music nice and low under and then it will change, the audio will cut in loud.

  I am completely baffle. Hope what i explain here makes sense, english is a second language.

  Can anyone help?

  Louis

  Michael Gissing replied 16 years, 5 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
• 2 Replies

• 

  John Fishback

  April 9, 2010 at 5:52 pm

  Try an audio mixdown ( It’s called that, although, it’s a render not an actual mixdown.)? Sequence menu > Render Only > Mixdown

  John

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• 

  Michael Gissing

  April 10, 2010 at 12:51 am

  An M&E mix is also a mix, not just the music and atmos thrown together. If there are no mix keyframes on this material it isn’t a mix.

  I personal would never consider mixing in FCP for this very reason. At the least you need to be able to properly control bussing. I suggest if you are unable to send this mix out to a professional, then learn to use Sound Track Pro which is part of the Final Cut Studio software bundle. It will also give you better quality dynamics processing to make sure your material is broadcast spec plus it can do sub frame editing which is essential for decent dialog and music editing.

  I suspect your problem is that you are using keyframes in the clips not keyframing track levels. Read the manual about automating keyframe track levels. In the future try Sound Track Pro.

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