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Normalizing Audio In FCP or Soundtrack Pro
I am editing several 2 person, Charlie Rose type, interviews in FCP. I have been having a lot of issues with audio, specifically volume levels that are all over the place. I learned how to normalize the audio so that my volume ceiling stays around -12db. Is there a way to place a floor on my audio so that the volume does not go below -24db?… And is it possible to do this without affecting my ceiling? Essentially I would like all my audio to stay between -24db and -12db for the entire (+/-30 minute) interview. Is it possible to do this without spending countless hours going through and correcting individual segments with the pink dots?
replied 16 years, 2 months ago 6 Members · 5 Replies
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5 Replies
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Sounds like you should read up on the compressor and limiter filters.
You might also want to look into a free program called The Levelator.
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The Compressor/Limiter filters in Soundtrack Pro do an excellent job with this.
You’ll still may have to make some corrections here and there, but once you get the hang of it, its easy.
The same filters are available in FCP, but lack the custom interface of STP…making it harder to adjust.
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Normalizing does not make dialog tracks automatically sound the same volume. It can cause unexpected results like a jump in background levels between cuts as one word may have been spoken louder.
It should also be made clear that changing a clip with normalizing does not improve the quality of the audio. And if you are sending the sound via an OMF for proper sound post, they will want the original camera files, not the altered ones.
If you are doing the audio yourself, then it would be much better to use Sound Track Pro and learn how to apply Compressor limiters to both clips and tracks to get a superior result. Normailzing is like auto color correcting – totally hit and miss and will often leave just as much work in fixing problems.
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Read up on RMS Normalization. You can do this in Soundtrack Pro by changing the Normalize option from “Peak” to “RMS.”
And Michael is on target: there will be an increase in noise when using Dynamics Processors or RMS Normalization.
-paul.
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All normalizing does is raise the gain of the entire audio track until the loudest point is just below the clipping point (where sound will distort). As mentioned, it does not even out the audio levels. Levelator will do that, but IMHO it is very heavy-handed. You can use it in a pinch, but if you want to get your audio “right” learn and work in STP.
John
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