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A Lazy Editor’s Audio Workflow
Continuing from this subthread where I asked:
[David Lawrence] “In FCPX, dissolves always center-allign between the gap and the clip. Not what I want.
How do I set transition alignment? Anyone?”
And the answer is… you can’t. Oops.
No overwrite paste for audio and transitions always center between clips. Looks like the Microwave NLE of the Future™ has trouble boiling a cup of water. ;D
I confess. I’m a lazy, imprecise, editor. 🙂
I use audio dissolves all the time. 6-frame dissolves to smooth an audio cut-point. 2-frame dissolves to seamlessly Frankenclip dialogue. Dissolves are one of my most frequently used tools for isolating bits of actuality and gluing audio together.
[John Davidson] “My screen grab accomplishes this almost exactly as you describe. And I do all of it in about 4 seconds.” https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/71844
OK, but with my lazy dissolve technique, I do the same thing in a single key press. Like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWVTBDZbYYg
A single key press applies a 15-frame dissolve up from black to video and a 6-frame dissolve up from silence to audio at the head. And visa-versa on the tail. The dissolves start or end on the clip at the exact frame I choose and follow any trims.On my current job, I’m doing this for hundreds and hundreds of individual short clips. So the difference between taking 4-seconds to manually perform a layered A/B transition and a millisecond key press to apply a dissolve adds up pretty fast. 😉 Maybe I’m missing something but I can’t imagine doing this as efficiently in FCPX.
[John Davidson] “With this, you can sub frame edit with such precision that it’s sick.” https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/71851
[Charlie Austin] “I can do the exact same thing, with finer control, in the X timeline using fade handles just as easily. Easier actually.” https://forums.creativecow.net/readpost/335/71870
Yes, the question of accuracy. Some of you already know this but for anyone who doesn’t, it’s easy to get sample accurate precision for audio transitions in Premiere like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kpPL17gtT0
I rarely use this because 6-frames works fine for this purpose 95% of the time. But if I need it, I can easily do dissolves with sample accuracy. It’s sick. 🙂Selection and trim tools vary but this basic audio dissolve technique should work in any NLE that supports transition alignment, for example – Premiere CS6, CC, AVID, FCP7 and likely others I haven’t tried. I think it would add a lot of value to FCPX.
So there you have it. I may be lazy but audio dissolves help me work much much faster. Really wish I could use them in the Microwave NLE of the Future™. I guess for now I’ll have to stick to cutting with more primitive, imprecise tools. 😉
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David Lawrence
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85 Replies
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[David Lawrence] “Selection and trim tools vary but this basic audio dissolve technique should work in any NLE that supports transition alignment, for example – Premiere CS6, CC, AVID, FCP7 and likely others I haven’t tried. I think it would add a lot of value to FCPX.”
I think adding transition alignment to dissolves would be nice too, I’ve requested it. The fact remains that I can do all the stuff you just shown as easlly in X using fade handles, which copy and paste just like anything else, or using just the current symmetric dissolves for crossfades. I’m not saying there’s no room for improvement in X’s dissolves, but it’s not the FAIL you think it is. 🙂
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Charlie Austin] “The fact remains that I can do all the stuff you just shown as easlly in X using fade handles, which copy and paste just like anything else, or using just the current symmetric dissolves for crossfades. I’m not saying there’s no room for improvement in X’s dissolves, but it’s not the FAIL you think it is. :-)”
LOL, I never said you couldn’t do these things Charlie, just that it’s a total PITA in FCPX. How much fiddling do you wind up doing to get the same effect I get with a single key press? Now imagine doing that hundreds of times an hour. You deserve better tools! 🙂
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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence] “LOL, I never said you couldn’t do these things Charlie, just that it’s a total PITA in FCPX. How much fiddling do you wind up doing to get the same effect I get with a single key press?”
Not much really
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
So much pita, I now need some hummus.
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[Charlie Austin] “Not much really”
lol, you’re working way too hard, Charlie! 😉
BTW, doesn’t it make you kinda sad you can only see half your waveform? ;D
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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence] “BTW, doesn’t it make you kinda sad you can only see half your waveform? ;D”
Now you’re grasping at straws. 😉 and uh… nope. Also, you do know it’s the entire (rectified) waveform right? It’s the default view in Pr, so you should. 😉
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[Charlie Austin] “Now you’re grasping at straws. 😉 and uh… nope. Also, you do know it’s the entire (rectified) waveform right? It’s the default view in Pr, so you should. ;-)”
lol, yes Charlie, I know what rectified waveforms are. 😉
They’re the first thing I turn off in Premiere, because they’re lame. Seriously, it doesn’t matter that it’s all the waveform data, it’s still half the visual information at a glance.
As an option, fine. As the only choice? Lame.
Hey, at least I can turn them off. You deserve that option too! 😉
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David Lawrence
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[David Lawrence] “lol, yes Charlie, I know what rectified waveforms are. ;)”
I know you know. 😉
[David Lawrence] “Hey, at least I can turn them off. You deserve that option too! 😉
“But I like them. 🙂 Also I don’t want any more options. I enjoy using FCPX because it’s so rigid and inflexible. lol
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~ My FCPX Babbling blog ~
~”It is a poor craftsman who blames his tools.”~
~”The function you just attempted is not yet implemented”~ -
[David Lawrence] “I know what rectified waveforms are. ;)”\\
[Charlie Austin] “But I like them. 🙂 “
Can you gents explain something for me?
I understand how rectified waveforms are drawn — but as a visuals guy, I don’t know what information they convey better than standard waveforms, and vice versa.
So my question is this: what are rectified waveforms better for, and what are standard waveforms better for?
Walter Soyka
Designer & Mad Scientist at Keen Live [link]
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
@keenlive | RenderBreak [blog] | Profile [LinkedIn] -
[Charlie Austin] “But I like them. 🙂 “
Really? Really truly? Do you use them in your DAW? 😉 😉 😉
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David Lawrence
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