• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  audio ducking effect

  Posted by Stefan Segers on October 9, 2010 at 9:33 am

  Hi all,

  I am used to iMovie but currently switching to FCP. One thing I can’t find in FCP is the audio ducking effect. This will reduce all other audio tracks (the volume) and will pop the Voice Over (if selected).

  I know about compressors etc in FCP but have no idea how to do it as simple as in iMovie.

  Can anybody point me in the right direction?

  Stef

  Stefan Segers replied 15 years, 10 months ago 2 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Paul Figgiani

  October 9, 2010 at 7:41 pm

  Final Cut doesn’t have easy ducking like iMovie. I do it in Logic using a Noise Gate that supports Side Chaining.

  -paul.
• 

  Stefan Segers

  October 10, 2010 at 7:12 am

  Hi Paul,

  Can you explain a bit more about side chaining and the noise gate?
  Looks like you put all audio in 1 channel and the voice over in another? But how do you let the Noise Gate listen to the Voice Over and duck all other tracks?

  Very strange there’s no function in FCP that does that?!?! It’s so much work to do it by hand?!?!
• 

  Paul Figgiani

  October 11, 2010 at 5:02 pm

  Hi, Stefan.

  Are you familiar basic routing and busing?

  First you need a plugin (Gate) that supports Side Chaining.

  Let’s say you have your spoken word on Track 1 and your Bed on Track 2. The spoken word will act as a trigger. When it is audible the Gate is engaged and the Bed is attenuated.

  In this particular example you would need to set the Gate’s Side Chain Parameter to Track 1 (the trigger).

  -So-

  Route the Output of Track 2 (the bed) to a Bus. Add an Aux channel and set it’s Input to that Bus. Now add the Gate to an insert on the Aux channel. Don’t forget to set the Gate’s Side Chain parameter to Track 1.

  That’s about it. Of course you will need to tweak your Gate settings to get the effect that you are looking for.

  -paul.
• 

  Stefan Segers

  October 13, 2010 at 5:53 am

  Hi Paul,

  This looks great. The only thing I think of now is… why doesn’t a $1200,- program do this by itself? As a beginner editor I think most movies will have this setup? music/ambient + voice over? Using Logic is no problem but why do you need a extra program…. can’t figure out…

  S.

  http://www.trouwshoot.nl | http://www.familieshoot.nl | http://www.modeshoot.nl | http://www.bedrijfshoot.nl
  Weblog: http://www.stefansegers.nl

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