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Batch Normalize Subclips/Sequences
I’ve made many subclips from one, large master clip. They are music videos and I want to normalize each one. I’ve discovered that if I try to send them to Soundtrack, Soundtrack normalizes the entire master clip. What I wish it did was examine each sub clip independently. I can, obviously, do that in FCP by using Modify > Apply Normalization Curve, but i have to do that manually.
Is there a way to automate the process given that I’m using sub clips?
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9 Replies
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“I can, obviously, do that in FCP by using Modify > Apply Normalization Curve, but i have to do that manually.”
Manually to each subclip in a sequence? No you don’t. Select them all and apply it. If you mean normalize to the subclips in the browser, don’t do that.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
[Tom Wolsky] “If you mean normalize to the subclips in the browser, don’t do that.”
Another piece of advice: speaking as an audio engineer, if you’re giving this to a mixer once your edit is done, then don’t normalize AT ALL. Normalization is destructive to audio files. While it can be “undone” as it is only a gain change, it will have to be “undone” to every file your mixer wants to add any effects to that add any signal level (any additive EQ for example). That’s just annoying. You are much better off applying automation curves to your clips – this is non-destructive and handing this off to a mixer allows the mixer to choose to use your ‘moves’ or not. My opinion, but it might be worth something…
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Doesn’t the normalization gain in fcp just apply a “gain” filter with a level automagically dialed in? Definitely non-destructive, since one can simply remove the filter at any time and nothing is baked into the original audio.
Tom, what is the reason for not applying normalization gain in the browser?
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Generally you apply the filter to improve the audio. That’s part of mixing, which is done in relation to the other material in a sequence. If you have a clip in the browser and only use part of it, the normalization is applied to the whole clip and may well be effected by something that is outside of the used portion, maybe like a clap strike or something else that will alter the behavior of the gain filter.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
I agree with everything your saying Tom, but in this case the poster is trying to batch normalize a bunch of subclips from start to end, so he’s gonna get the same results whether normalizing in a timeline or in the browser, no? (unless the normalize command ignores the subclip limits when applied in the browser, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t)
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
That may be, but then the subclips are not being used properly. If they are being used to fine cut clips to edited durations, while that can be done, it’s just wrong and should not be done, and I assumed was not being done. Subclips should be used to organize material from long media files, so what I said would still apply. Sure you can do it, but you shouldn’t. It defeats the purpose of subclipping and the purpose using normalization.
All the best,
Tom
Class on Demand DVDs “Complete Training for FCP7,” “Basic Training for FCS” and “Final Cut Express Made Easy”
Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 4 Editing Workshop” -
Hi guys – Thanks for weighing in on my question. Let me better explain my application…
I’m a DJ that uses music videos in my DJ sets and am taking my collection of DVDs and converting all the individual music videos into mp4’s. While I was in the process of converting them, I wanted to normalize the audio so that every track plays back at the same level. So, having used Soundtrack from FCP many times to work on audio files (including normalize them) I have usually had each music video saved on my computer as a separate .dv file.
In this particular case, I’m ripping the DVDs as one large .dv file so, instead of, say, 30 individual clips I have one large one that I cut up in FCP (one subclip/sequence) per video. I, then, want to normalize the audio of all these clips (separately) before exporting them.
Since these aren’t going off to another editor, sound mixer, etc, what is the most efficient way for me to accomplish what I’m trying to do (or do I need to go into each sequence, and select Modify > Audio > Apply Normalization gain? If so, is there some way I can automate that process (like an applescript or some sort)?
Also (if you feel like answering this…) Would you mind if I ran my workflow by you? I’m trying to achieve the highest possible quality h.264 mp4 files (must have a data rate under 3000/3500 kbs). I’ll give you an overview of my workflow and if you think there’s a faster and cleaner way to do things that will achieve a better result, let me know.
1: Rip DVD using VisualHub to DV at the highest quality settings (I don’t know the specs, bitrate, etc because it doesn’t show me) However, when I drop it into my FCP timeline, it doesn’t need to be rendered (if that helps). It rips the entire DVD as one large DV file.
2: I put that into FCP, make subclips out of the in/outs of each music video. I normalize my audio, make any edits I need to make, and export reference clips.
3: Finally, I drop the reference clips into a compressor cluster (2 Powermac G5 Dual 2.5 and my Macbook Pro Dual 2.5) and have it spit out mp4s with the following specs:
Name: Serato Video HQ
Description: .h264 mp4 with settings optimized for use with Serato
File Extension: mp4
Estimated file size: 1.69 GB/hour of source
DVD type: HD DVD
Partial sync: 0.5 seconds
Frame sync rate: 2 seconds
Field dominance: Progressive
Video Encoder
Format: QT
Width: 720
Height: 480
Pixel aspect ratio: NTSC CCIR 601/DV
Crop: None
Padding: None
Frame rate: 29.97
Frame Controls: Automatically selected: Off
Codec Type: H.264
Multi-pass: On, frame reorder: On
Pixel depth: 24
Spatial quality: 50
Min. Spatial quality: 50
Temporal quality: 50
Min. temporal quality: 50
Average data rate: 2.5 (Mbps)
Maximum data rate: 3 (Mbps)
Audio Encoder
16-bit Integer (Big Endian), Stereo (L R), 48.000 kHzIs there a better and/or faster way to arrive at my final mp4 files? Would it actually save me time and generational loss if I rendered the mp4 files directly out of FCP as opposed to first making the reference clips and then compressing those?
Thanks guys
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Hi Randy,
Well I’m going to respectfully disagree with Tom and say that I think the subclip tool is perfectly appropriate for your workflow.
Yes, it would be better to rip each music video to individual files, but given that they were ripped as one large clip, I think that subclipping is a fine way to organize them.
And I’m not sure why you are thinking you need applescript or something … it seems you are overthinking this a bit. If you put all your subclips in a bin, select them all, then select “modify>audio>apply normalization gain…”, each clip will be individually analyzed and normalized based on its peak audio level.
You can then select them all and use the batch export tool to create individual reference movies. You MUST do this step since you are using a compressor cluster. Unless you need to do further editing, you don’t even need to put your clips in a timeline.
But in terms of achieving maximum quality, your biggest hit is coming from the fact you are converting your files to DV, then re-converting to h264.
You’ll probably get a slightly better result if you can bypass FCP completely and rip directly from DVD to your final h264 preset. But this only is viable if you don’t need to do anything more sophisticated then setting an IN and OUT point on the source DVD. Maybe there is a ripping program out there that can normalize audio as well? I’m not sure…
But if you absolutely need to use FCP, you should consider ripping your files to a higher quality intermediate format, like pro-res, or at least DV50.
As far as the final compression settings, you should follow the recommendations of your Video-DJ software.
Hope this helps!
Matt Lyon
Editor
Toronto -
Excellent. Thanks for your help and advice – much appreciated!
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