-
FCP User Learning APP – basic audio question
I’m sure it’s posted somewhere but after an hour of reading, it’s time to just ask. I’m learning Premiere and the current project is taking 3 times longer than it would if I was using FCP but I’m sticking with it.
I shot recital footage with two different audio sources. A clean feed from the board going into 2 and the ambient mic in 1. When I play back the footage in Premiere (both as a preview and as an ingested file on the timeline), I only get the ambient mic.
In FCP, I would use the clean feed 90% of the time but then mix in the ambient mic for applause at the end of the performance and during a tap performance.
Right now I am definitely not hearing the clean feed and the baby crying in the back row is driving me nuts! I checked a different clip from a wedding with a groom mic and same scenario. Thanks for helping the Premiere newbie.
Scott
-
3 Replies
-
You have to interpret your audio (right click on the clip in the project window–>Modify–>Audio Channels…), and choose Mono instead of [the default] Stereo.
It isn’t clear where you are in the editing stage — hopefully you’re just logging the footage, and haven’t started cutting yet. Because the HUGE catch here is that you have to do the interpreting BEFORE you start cutting with your footage. Otherwise you need to have a second instance of the footage in your project (that isn’t in a sequence yet) and then interpret the audio, and then replace everything where needed.
My guess is that you are only hearing one channel of the LR (that happens… somewhere along the line…); switching to mono will, of course, send both channels into both ears. Hopefully that helps!
-
Aha! First, thank you Ben for responding. It’s been frustrating to learn how to use a new tool for a craft I’ve been practicing for years but I’m sure it’ll pay off in the end.
I had seen that menu previously but the settings were shaded out. Not only did I start cutting, I finished the complete 2-hour multicam edit and was following my usual workflow with FCP which would allow me to now edit my audio. Hard lesson learned! I did re-import the clip and it seems to let me change the settings but I there’s no difference in the sound as far as separating the channels. Is this because it knows I’m already using this clip?
Moving forward, I imported a completely separate wedding clip and made your suggested changes. I actually had to go from mono to stereo and I was able to hear groom mic in the left ear and ambient mic in the right. I could then pan the audio to what I wanted in the audio mixer. I do recall reading somewhere in the forums how to take that left or right channel and duplicate it so I can hear it in both sides. I’ll look that up when the time comes.
Now to figure out what I’m going to do with this edit without re cutting the whole thing…thanks!
-
Scott:
I just remembered what I did when I had the same problem (I also learned this the hard way) — I exported the edit as an XML for FCP, imported into FCP then did the audio editing like I always used to do in FCP (unlink the L/R channels, set both channels to mono). Then I exported that as a new XML and reimported into Premiere. Worked like a charm. Sorry I didn’t remember that sooner — give it a try! (assuming you still have a functioning copy of FCP laying around)
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up