-
Really wish I could find FCP audio peak limiter
This one problem has been bothering me for a long time. I have a lot of video of people who have a large dynamic range, and I need a hard audio limiter in FCP like there is soundtrack pro. Does anyone know of any plugins that would do this?
I’d prefer not to go to soundtrack pro with every project because all crossfades and filters in FCP get removed. But it’s too tempting not to do all that in FCP when editing because the audio can make the edit.
Also, if you mix the audio in STP, then later need to make a change in the video, doesn’t that mean you’d have to start all over in STP?
-
12 Replies
-
There are compressor & limiter filters already in FCP. They’re in the audio filter folder.
Just drop those onto the clips you need. If you need to do your whole sequence, you can highlight all the audio clips or select all the clips in the tracks you need, and then drop it onto that and it’ll apply to all of them like any other filter.
Is this not working for you or something?
Regards,
Chris -
Because I don’t want to use the compressor/limiter and change the dynamics of the whole sequence. I just want to chop off the shouts or claps… things like that.
I been looking around, and it seems there are a lot of people who are looking to do the same thing. I don’t know why it would be so hard to find a filter to do just that. The only plugins I could find were outdated.
-
It’s a compressor. That’s exactly what it’s for. You just set the settings how you want it, and if you just want to prevent peaks from clipping, then you set it to do that.
If you don’t want it to compress the audio range, then you don’t set it that way.
It’s just an audio compressor, it only does what you tell it do to. They’re all pretty much the same thing, whether in FCP, in STP, in Pro Tools, in hardware, etc.
Multiple tools to accomplish this in FCP:
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_audio_filter_guide.htmlIf you set a high threshold, a fast attack and release, and a strong ratio, that will kill all your peaks with any compressor tool, including in FCP.
Or you can take it all into STP if you feel like doing that:
https://www.geniusdv.com/news_and_tutorials/2008/08/clipping_and_limiting_audio_3_back_to_the_basics_s.phpRegards,
Chris -
I’ll look into that some more, but I’ve found it difficult to do with FCP, maybe I’m missing something
I realized an alternate, easy way to do what I want, without having to send to a multitrack and risk messing things up. Also, it will be easy to do again next time I need to change some clips up, which I’ll inevitably have to do later.
…Just export the whole sequence as aiff, import it into STP, then use the better compressor, limiter, eq filters. Job done in less than 10
-
well I made a discovery.
it seems FCP automatically limits the db to 0 db on export with no noticeable distortion.So does this mean if there is something like a clap or shout that goes over the limit, FCP will automatically limit it, and therefore it’s not a big deal?
-
Well, the damage is that it’s clipped.
If the underlying audio was not clipped, then that’s no good.
Hence the need for compression to limit the peaks.
This isn’t a “feature” it’s inherent to any digital audio. You simply cannot go beyond a certain point. Same with digital video. You simply can’t go above 254/255. Anything above that is brick-wall clipped off, inherently.
Regards,
Chris -
Yeah I was thinking it’s not possible to export something with db over 0
But my method didn’t really work either. If I export an aiff, then reimport it right back into FCP, the audio difts about 2 seconds over the half hour show.
I looked this up, and couldnt find much, except that it’s a bug. hmmm
-
Fcp audio filters are ancient. And they sound terrible.
Lets hope that fcp8 has full Audio unit support so we can use the great sounding and looking plugins available in logic and soundtrack pro. -
“But my method didn’t really work either. If I export an aiff, then reimport it right back into FCP, the audio difts about 2 seconds over the half hour show.”
I’m guessing this is operator error from mis-matched sample rates. Can’t say for sure without more specifics, but 99 times out of a hundred that is what it is.
“I looked this up, and couldnt find much, except that it’s a bug. hmmm”
Not aware of this bug. You should post a link to your source for this information.
Scott Sheriff
Director
https://www.sstdigitalmedia.comI have a system, it has stuff in it, and stuff hooked to it. I have a camera, it can record stuff. I read the manuals, and know how to use this stuff and lots of other stuff too.
You should be suitably impressed… -
[Scott Sheriff] “”But my method didn’t really work either. If I export an aiff, then reimport it right back into FCP, the audio difts about 2 seconds over the half hour show.”
I’m guessing this is operator error from mis-matched sample rates. Can’t say for sure without more specifics, but 99 times out of a hundred that is what it is.
“I looked this up, and couldnt find much, except that it’s a bug. hmmm”
Not aware of this bug. You should post a link to your source for this information.”
This may be due to this old bug, documented by Matt Lyon:
https://library.creativecow.net/lyon_matt/fixing-fcp-assets/1
rafael
Reply to this Discussion! Login or Sign Up