Understanding audio waveforms in FCPX

[Noah Kadner]

If you mean top and bottom channels-not really. You are looking at a rectified waveform, i.e. top half only. Here are your options: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH12568?locale=en_US

Noah

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[Bret Williams]

That’s how X, Premiere, and Resolve show audio now. As they’re not really DAWs the top half of the waveform seems adequate 99% of the time and saves screen real estate. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a waveform be anything but a mirror image of itself anyway. But I’m not an audio guru and I’m sure there’s a reason for seeing it in the older style still preferred by DAWs.

[Brett Sherman]

Not only adequate, but better. It’s easier to see volume changes with a rectified waveform and the level adjustments better match what you see on the screen. Since up is louder, down is quieter. Plus it’s a good way to save screen real estate. You have to ask yourself, would you like to have double the height of the waveform just to see a mirror image? For me the answer is no.

What can you see with a full waveform that you can’t with rectified? DC offset, that’s about it. I don’t know the last time I’ve had a DC offset issue. Or in really exceptional cases, weird electronic phase issues. I’ve never seen this.

[Michael Hancock]

[Bret Williams] “That’s how X, Premiere, and Resolve show audio now.”

Premiere actually gives you the option for full or rectified. The default in the newest release seems to be full waveforms but you can check a box in the sequence to show rectified waveforms, and they even have an option for Logarithmic Waveform Scaling, whatever that is (I haven’t played with it yet).

I wish FCPX (and all the NLEs, actually) had the option for full or rectified, on a global or track by track (or role by role in FCPX maybe?) basis. I find full waveforms much easier to read when looking for clappers for syncing, or when looking for beats in music. And I find FCPX waveforms to be horribly inaccurate in list view (you have to adjust the list viewer width to find the sweet spot to accurately display them, and it seems to change for every shot).

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Michael Hancock
Editor

[Gary Goldblum]

Thanks for the responses. This is going to take some getting used to as I often use waveforms to make cuts when editing video (I do a lot of music video work). I really wish there was a way to view waveforms the way I’m used to vs “rectified”.

One other question,

When I import footage from a P2 card (HD setting) I always had four separate audio channels in FCP7. 2 from the XLR ins and 2 from the built in mic. I recently filmed a show and need all four channels (The XLRs were a stereo feed from a mixing board and I need the 2 internal ones for crowd noise ect).

How do I do this? In FCP7 it always imported all 4 tracks when I did a log and transfer.

Thanks again!

Thanks!

Gary

[Gary Goldblum]

As someone who has used Pro Tools for 15 plus years I can see where I need to make an edit before I hear it. I am at a loss to why they use rectified waveforms now as I think the audio is as important as the video.

Thanks for the response

Gary

Thanks!

Gary

[John Rofrano]

[Gary Goldblum] “When I import footage from a P2 card (HD setting) I always had four separate audio channels in FCP7. 2 from the XLR ins and 2 from the built in mic. I recently filmed a show and need all four channels (The XLRs were a stereo feed from a mixing board and I need the 2 internal ones for crowd noise ect).

How do I do this?”

When you select the clip on the timeline and open the Inspector (⌘4) to the Audio tab, do you see both stereo streams and are they both checked? If you do, select the clip and press ^⌥S to Expand Audio Components and you should see two stereo audio clips connected to the video clip. Those should be your L+R XLR and L+R internal mic. If not, then you didn’t get all 4 channels to import.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Gary Goldblum]

It says it’s a mono file. I think I imported it incorrectly. I still have the footage on my P2 card. Do you know how to import all four tracks as mono files? As I’ve said I’m an absolute beginner with FCP X.

Thanks again.

Thanks!

Gary

[John Rofrano]

[Gary Goldblum] “Do you know how to import all four tracks as mono files?”

I don’t have any cameras that capture more than stereo so I don’t know if you would need to do anything different. On the Import screen, there are Audio options in the lower right that will affect the import. They are:

Audio
[x] Analyze and fix audio problems
[x] Separate mono as group stereo audio
[x] Remove silent channels

Depending on how you check these options you will get different results. I know if you select Remove silent channels it will do just that, so if you have 4 tracks of audio and 3 were silent you would get one mono track. The option to Separate mono as group stereo audio will analyze and group you audio channels as dual mono or stereo depending on the analysis. You can always change this later in the inspector. See how you have them checked because that may have affected the import.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Bill Davis]

If you want to see all the audio tracks in a muxed multi-track source – select the clip and invoke Open in Timeline.

It should give you all the embedded tracks laid out as separate files.

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