adjusting audio levels

[Shane Ross]

You are going to do what the rest of us editors do…a just the levels clip by clip. Manually adjust things until the levels and mix are right. This is a basic editing task, and there is no easy button.

You’d be amazed how many broadcast TV editors don’t do this. This is why many productions with multiple editors have a lead editor…they are they ones that go in and adjust all the audio levels to make them uniform, among other things.

Shane
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[Olivier Prudhomme]

yeah that’s what I”ve been doing since I”m part of your “us editors” 🙂

Do you know if other NLE systems offer this feature, just out of curiosity?

[Shane Ross]

Not that I’m aware of. I mix my own audio in FCP, Avid and Adobe PPro.

Shane
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[Michael Gissing]

Even if people choose to normailse to a set level like -12db that certainly doesn’t mean a mix is going to sound right or that clips will sound as loud as each other. There is a whole art to setting dynamics & EQ to get matching levels. Peak metering is not a good guide to loudness

[Olivier Prudhomme]

You’re absolutely right. And this is why we always send our spots to a post-house and this is why they charge $$$$…. because as you said it is an “art”.
My question was to help me in the bay to get decent levels while working on a rough cut.
I’ll keep adjusting the clips as I put them in the TL.

Thanks Shane. I always value your input/answers

[Nick Meyers]

you probably know, but there are shortcuts to adjust levels of timeline clips.

if you have a clip selected, or are parked on it,
Control + / – (top row) will raise / lower by 1db.
Control [ / ] just underneath those keys will raise / lower by 3db

i’ve created my own versions which are similar, but better, IMO

Control + / – (NUMBER-PAD) for raise / lower 1db
Control Option + / – (NUMBER-PAD) for raise / lower 3db

if you have a control surface it could make things faster.
it doesn’t make FCP halt while you use it, for example.
if you have “Record Audio Keyframes” turned OFF,
then you are simply setting an overall level for each clip.

of course if you every re-edit the clip into the timeline it wont have those levels.

nick

[Shane Ross]

There have been many times that my mix is THE mix. But even when it isn’t, for the work I do, we still have to have fairly consistent levels for screenings with my producers and the network. But I have also mixed shows in FCP for air…quite often. And it’s clip by clip, methodical. Even pro sound mixers go clip by clip…it’s how it’s done.

Shane
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[Olivier Prudhomme]

Ctrl ] and [ are 2 of my most frequently used shortcuts actually.
Thnx Nick for the suggestions