Isobel Knowles
Forum Replies Created
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I guess I haven’t had enough experience with this. Every time I’ve dealt with soundtrack whether I have composed and edited the soundtrack myself or had someone work on one for me I have always just used a stereo pair in FCP. I would never contemplate mixing in FCP. It is not really designed for audio.
In Final Cut they put a line for suggested level and that is explained in the manual. I guess it just doesn’t make sense to me to have clipping lights when there is no clipping.
For the purpose of what I need to do today I think everyone has been very helpful letting me know about the -10db for broadcast. I will do that.
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I think with a lot of independent music videos the director sends the video along with the mastered record and they put the things together in the post place. I think the people at those studios would have to deal with it a lot and probably have quit the bitchin and moanin by now… Plus it sounds like it’s not a very difficult thing to fix – dropping level by 10db or whatever the standard is for the network. I have learned some good things here today. Thanks everyone!
I guess it could be a good thing that FCP tells you the level is too hot when it’s getting close to clipping… I don’t know, though. If they’re going to put “PRO” in the name it should be that you don’t have something that tells you there is clipping when there is no clipping. It should just be explained somewhere in that broadcast audio needs to be lower in level…
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https://www.isobel.supermelody.com/clipping.aiff
There is a little bit of the file. It is mastered for CD so I think the problem is that I didn’t know broadcast level was so much lower than CD level. But as long as it’s not actually clipping – going flat on the waveforms – then I think I’ll leave it this level and let the production house set it to the level they know as standard because the things I’ve been reading about this say that every broadcasting place is different. I will do that test though. That will be a good way to know if there is something that FCP is doing to the audio.
What happens in the case of festivals playing things off of dvd or mini dv? I’m sure the digibeta tape I have made will match the broadcast levels for the tv station but should I be making my levels -10db for dvd also?
I’ve had problems with my audio sounding quieter in a screening program and it can be disappointing…
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I have always delivered the video with the mastered track as is to the post production house –
I assume they make the levels right for broadcast. I didn’t realise they needed to be so much lower.I just wanted to solve the mystery of why FCP displays clipping when clearly the audio is not clipped before I import it, nor after I export it. This problem has occurred for me over and over through different systems, different versions of FCP, etc. It’s just one of those things that always confuses me and I thought maybe someone else had experienced it too and could tell me why.
Isobel
PS. This is a music video – there are no other audio clips to match. Just the song.
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Why not? A) because we spent time and money mastering it to the level we wanted and I’ve had the experience where I’ve turned something down a little then seen it in screening program and the audio on my project is noticeably quieter. And B) because it doesn’t make any sense that FCP would make the audio louder for any reason. The master is definitely not clipped so I don’t see why it should be clipped when I bring it into the editing software.
I’m pretty sure all my settings are fine. I have just used an ntsc preset. I’ve checked through everything I can find and everything is at 0.
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All those settings are fine. When I export the audio and bring it into Pro Tools it is not distorted. I think it’s just a problem with the display in FCP not having enough resolution to cope with something that is mastered hot. I don’t want to mess with the mastered file by turning it down. That shouldn’t need to happen. Thanks for your attention to my problem though.
Isobel -
I have it in the timeline. It sounds stereo both from the timeline and the viewer…
Both make the clip lights come on in the meter. -
The audio is definitely stereo – the meters for left and right show me that the information is different for each side and it definitely sounds stereo. The file is stereo when I double click it even though it doesn’t give me separate panning options for each side… which is another strange thing. It just says the audio is panned all the way left but the meters and my ears tell me that the track is stereo and evenly balanced. If I put the pan slider in the center the file becomes mono and if I put it all the way to the right it is stereo again.