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FCP & Audio Normalization
Hi all.
I am an amateur FCP user and i have a, maybe silly, question.
On an video i have edited i have used many different audio files for background. These files have different levels which when i output my final render, the audio sometimes is high and sometimes is low.
Is there a way to normalize all audios to one specific level during output or in the timeline?Thanx.
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32 Replies
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Wierd, I was just chatting about this today … take a gander at The Levelator
For someone uncomfortable with handling such basic tasks manually it might just the ticket.
(Heck, it might be just the ticket for some of us who are used to handling such tasks manually) -
Hi Andy,
For me something like that would be very helpful.
I’ve just finished a 30 minutes video with many short ITWs and many times I loose the reference.
Had you tried it?
I will do it with that last project. I still have all the stuff in the Mac.
Rafael -
not tried it yet Rafael, i really just came across it earlier today (following a year old review on another site)
a little poking around shows sadly that it’s not user configurable … levels are always normalised towards -1db so after pre processing with this app one would have to further normalise in FCP to bring levels back to the actual target -
Yeah, Andy and I were talking about that last night.
What’s wrong with good old fashioned clip by clip adjustment of audio? That is how it is done.
Shane
GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def -
The compression and limiter filters in Soundtrack Pro are actually very good, once you get the hang of it… This type of adjustment usually achieves better results than just normalization.
Just sayin.
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[Shane Ross] “What’s wrong with good old fashioned clip by clip adjustment of audio?”
That would be work! Too hard!
Arnie
Post production is not an afterthought!
https://www.arniepix.com/ -
Honestly. get your interview/narrator clips pretty close in FCP with simple gain adjustments. Male/Female, whispers and big gun voices all. Export your track without music as a mono Aiff clip. Open Levelator and drag the clip you exported onto the splash screen. There are no settings. It outputs a leveled and normalized and lightly compressed perfect version of your vo tracsk. We send this levelated track with our music and EFX to the audio house for sweetening and they love us for getting the voices right.
Levelator is free and you will use it. Over and over, forever. Like MPEG Streamclip it is a valuable asset and addition to your arsenal. You will look like a genius with those vo tracks that are all over the place in levels.
The key to this little app is to get your levels at a decent level in FCP, don’t add any compression in FCP and add some EQ if you think it helps the voice….then send it to Levelator.
This is one slick little, simple, unbreakable, FREE app.
Get it.
Rich Rubasch
Tilt Media -
Rich – Thanks for the suggestion! I just read the description and story behind how and why it was created and it was quite interesting!
I am going to download it and play with it some.
Here is the link for everyone.
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And thanks to Andy for bringing to the table one of those little un-professional tools that may makes life a bit easier for the old (deaf) lizards:-)
Rafael -
[Rich Rubasch] “Honestly. get your interview/narrator clips pretty close in FCP with simple gain adjustments”
The Gain filter should be avoided however. This can quickly distort an audio file as the levels are raised.
We use FCP’s compression tool to normalize audio here.
[Rich Rubasch] “We send this levelated track with our music and EFX to the audio house for sweetening and they love us for getting the voices right. “
Interesting. The audio post houses we use start from scratch, they don’t use any of our levels at all. They don’t want us manipulating the audio in way. Makes our lives easier as we just simply rough in all the audio. What we can do with audio filtering in FCP is far inferior to what they can do in ProTools so the general rule is not to touch it in FCP with any outside filtering.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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