[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Hiss, hum, “tone”, low-levels, poor scene-to-scene quality continuity…

You might want to consider hiring an audio professional to help you learn a bit more more about location sound recording.

But, if you just want some “quick tips”…

Bias “SoundSoap” is one stand-alone app that can sample any continuous unwanted noise and digitally “mask/remove” it from your tracks.

Next time watch the level meters to see if you’re getting proper levels.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Sounds like a DISK issue.

What kind of hard drive are you using for FCP renders (FW external, internal, same as your system disk or not?)

Is your disk getting too full?

Have you “Repaired Permissions” on your disk(s)?
APPLICATIONS > UTILITIES > DISK UTILITY
Select the system drive and then repair permissions.
————————————————————————

AND/OR have you
TRASHED YOUR FCP PREFERENCES?
https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/trashing_fcp_prefs.html

Free Apple Scripts for Trashing Preferences:
https://fcprescue.andersholck.com/

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

This is commonly called the “Pleasantville” effect, named after that film.

(Am I the only person in America that disliked this film?
It was very cynical with a distasteful amoral message… but I digress.)

This is a VERY common question with many answers.

Here are a few links.

https://www.geniusdv.com/bw-tutorial.php

https://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/basic_pleasantville_look.html

https://www.lafcpug.org/tutorials/basic_pleasantville_print.html

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

You can SET the number of REAL-TIME tracks that will play in FCP.
Final Cut Pro (menu) > User Preferences >
“Real-time Audio Mixing” (Number of Tracks)
“Audio Playback Quality” (High)

A “track” can also mean a “dissolve” and an audio Filter, so a “single” track with a filter equals TWO tracks and a dissolve from a clip with a filter directly to another clip with a filter (even on the same track) can result in the equivalent of 4 or more tracks during the dissolve.
So if you have 8 actual tracks and maybe a few filters or effects on one or all of them , you are starting to really use the equivalent of lots of realtime “tracks” of processing.

You also need to MAKE SURE that all of the “choices” are CHECKED (chosen) under the Sequence Menu:

Render In to End (Check all choices that you need)
Render All (Check all choices that you need)
Render Only (Check all choices that you need)

So, you SHOULD be able to RENDER your audio after these are correctly checked.
But actually, I would perform an AUDIO MIXDOWN when you have reached a “finishing point” in your audio.

That function in FCP is often overlooked… and it can help with many problems!

You should “Mixdown” the Audio for playback before you dub out of FCP, or during the edit, if you have audio/video stuttering, drop-outs or freezes.

NOTE: Mixdown has even been demonstrated to help with slipping, skipping problems (or “missing” audio clips) for files being EXPORTED as QT (or similar) files out of FCP.

First, SELECT ALL of your audio tracks (highlight them) on the timeline, then:

Sequence Menu > Render Only > Mixdown.

You should see a dialog box telling you its rendering.

It might seem to make little sense that “Mixing down” even simple audio tracks will “fix” complex video “freezes” or random audio dropouts to tape or export, but it CAN.

NOTE: It does not matter of you only have one audio track, if there are random freezes during output, you should try the Mixdown.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[melissa] “so far the blame is on me..ugh.
is there any way that the color temp could have been affected other than with a filter?
(probably not, huh?) “

Nope, and any filter would have to be applied AFTER the import.

Only people with an ignorance of digital production could assume color could be affected by a direct FireWire transfer.
Its simply a “file of numbers” that gets transfered from the magnetic DV Tape to the magnetic Hard Disk… nothing gets changed at all.

There IS only one condition where you SHOULD feel bad about yourself…
if you choose to ACCEPT any blame whatsoever concerning this issue.

If there continues to be any “fingers pointed” toward you in this regard, I would excuse myself and extricate myself from this project entirely.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

No need to do that.

To each audio track that needs adjusting, just add the Audio Filters > Apple > AUPeakLimiter and adjust the “Pre-gain” to any level you want.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

[melissa] “there is no way I can effect the video or audio input levels when I’m capturing digitally”

CONFIRMED!

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Export > Quicktime MOVIE (NOT self-contained) as you did.

NO NEED to use Compressor.

Just drop your exported QT movie into iDVD and burn it.

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

Just use the Search Posts on this forum.
This has been discussed several times, some quite recently.

Here’s your first link:

https://www.creativecow.net/forum/view_thread.php?threadid=823490&forumid=8&postid=111539798818477

[Thaxter Clavemarlton]

JRF’s TRS explanation is AOK 😉

But he failed to point out that TRS is a specific KIND of (although very COMMON) 1/4″ plug.

A “stereo headphone” plug would be a typical TRS plug (either 1/4″ or 1/8″).
In this case:
TIP = Left Channel
RING = Right Channel
SLEEVE = Common/Ground

But a TS (or Tip-Sleeve) 1/4″ plug is also very common (it is the standard “electric guitar cord” connector (It does not have the “ring” connection, but has a longer “sleeve” in that section of the plug.)
In this case:
TIP = Signal
Sleeve = Shield/Ground

So if the snake specifies “TRS” on its 1/4″ plugs, then you are good-to-go in EITHER case, as a TRS plug will work for either a TRS or TS setup.