final cut pro x lesson 8

Lesson 8: Workingwith Sound

Apple Pro Training Series

Final Cut Pro XInstructor: Sam

Edsall

Working with Sound

Working with Sound

Working with Sound

Preparing the Project

Start up the FCP External Drive:Find your APTS FCP X drive and double click to start it up.

Preparing the Project

Load up Lesson 8:From the APTS FCP X drag the Lesson 8 folder to the top under the external drive.

Put any other lesson back inside the lesson projects folder.

Duplicate the ‘Zero to Hero Mix’ project to the hard drive and open the project.

Audio Meters

Open and Adjust theAudio Pane

In the toolbar click the small Audio meter icon to open the large Audio meters pane to the right of the timeline.

Increase the size of the meters by positioning the pointer between the audio meter pane and the timeline and drag left.

Audio Meters

What is a Good Level?

Monitor the LevelsPlay through the project and monitor the audio levels.

Notice that the music gets too loud around the 20 second mark so that will need adjusting.

First, let’s get the primary sound optimized before the music.

Controlling Audio

Controlling AudioTurn off secondary audio:Command-click both of the Battle lines audio clips and press V to disable them.

Play the first Tony Schumacher clip and watch the audio meters.--notice that the level peaks during the sound bite.

Controlling AudioSee what you’re doing:Click the Clip Appearance button and select the second clip appearance from the left to see a bigger audio waveform.

Adjust the clip height to the halfway point.

Controlling Audio

Controlling Audio

Controlling AudioFix the audio:Move your pointer over the horizontal volume control line.-- shows you the current dB setting of 8dB

Drag down 1dB to a setting of 5dB and release.

Play the clip.

Controlling Audio

Controlling Audio

Controlling AudioFix the audio:Play the last Tony Schumacher clip-- first 2 seconds the audio is low

After Tony says, “People dream” press O to set an End point.

In that range drag the volume up from -2dB to 2dB.

Controlling Audio

Controlling Audio

Controlling AudioFix some more audio:Select the 2 Antron Brown clips and lower levels by 2dB-- CTRL & - to get levels out of red

Select both Battle Lines music clips and lower levels by -13 dB-- CTRL & - to get levels out of the red

Controlling AudioFix some more audio:Raise the Crash clip level by +10 dB (-17dB to -7dB)

Lower the JF hold trophy, flame out and race start clips by -20dB.-- press CTRL – a bunch of times (20)

Audio Sweetening

Sweetening AudioSweeten audio:In the toolbar click the Music and Sound Browser.

Click on the dimple in the middle and drag down about half way.

We will add some SFX to the crash clip

Music and Sound Browser

Sweetening AudioSweeten audio:In the top window select the FCP Sound Effects folder.

Scroll down to the Explosion 6.caf file and double-click the file to play it.

Sweetening AudioIn the Event Browser, create a new Keyword Collection in the Zero to Hero Event, label it Crash SFX

Drag Explosion 6.caf into the Keyword Collection.

Sweetening AudioIn the Search field, type ‘auto’ to locate Auto Crash Concrete.caf and Auto Skid 1.caf

Click the Play button to play them, then drag both of them to the Crash SFX Keyword Collection.

Close the browser when done.

Adding Sound to Connected Clips

Sweetening AudioSelect both Battle Fields music clips and press V to disable them for now.

2-finger click (CRTL click) the crash clip and choose ‘Overwrite to Primary Storyline’

Place the play head to the first frame of the crash clip.

Sweetening AudioIn the Event Browser select the Auto Skid 1 clip.

Drag to select the first 27 frames and press Q to connect edit this SFX to the Timeline.

Sweetening AudioIn the Event Browser select the Auto Crash Concrete clip and press Q to connect this entire clip at the end of Auto Skid 1 clip.

Layering Sound

Sweetening AudioIn the Timeline park the play head at 12:42.

In the Event Browser select the Explosion 6 clip and select about the first 2 seconds of the clip, and press Q to connect edit this clip

Lower the volume of all three clips to -14dB and check your levels.

Grouping Clips

Grouping ClipsDrag a selection rectangle around the three sound effect clips, then 2-finger (CTRL click) and choose New Compound Clip--Option G

Select both Battle Lines clips and enable them by pressing V

Using the Audio Inspector

Using the Audio Inspector

In the Project Library duplicate the Delicious Peace_mix project to your hard drive.

Shift Z to see the whole project and play the timeline.

We will first focus on the primary audio – Ed O’Neill’s voice over.

Using the Audio Inspector

Select over all the voiceover clips and press Option S to solo these clips.

Skim to the first clip VO_10 and press / to play the clip and check the levels-- a little hot – over -6dB-- all these clips are a little too high

Using the Audio Inspector

In the toolbar select the Inspector icon and click the Audio tab.

Double-click the Volume field and type 8

Look at the voiceover waveforms in the timeline and press Return.--lowered levels by 2dB

Using the Audio Inspector

Press Option S to activate all clips

Select the 2nd xylophone music clip and skim to the beginning.

In the timeline play the xylophone clip and in the Inspector drag the Volume slider left and right and settle on a volume level of -24dB

Set the other xylophone clips to -24dB

Using the Audio Inspector

Using the Audio Inspector

Skim over the woman picks beans, man picks beans and beans being hulled clips.

Check the volume controls on each clip-- each has a different dB setting

Select all 3 clips and in the Inspector click the Volume field until the peak of the 3rd clip is below the volume control line.

Using the Audio Inspector

Using the Audio Inspector

In the Audio Inspector, click the Pan Mode pop-up menu, and choose Stereo Left/Right

In the timeline press Shift Z to see the whole project.

Select the 2nd xylophone clip and press Option S to solo it.

Using the Audio Inspector

Press / to play the clip.

In the Inspector drag the Pan Amount slider right and left to move the music to each speaker.

Check the audio meters and notice how the levels increase the decrease depending where you send the sound to.

Using the Audio Inspector

To the far right of the Pan Amount slider, click the animation menu and choose Reset Parameter to center the Pan Amount.

Press Option S to enable all the clips again.

The Four Steps of Sound

The Four Steps of Sound

Adding Fades & Crossfades

Open Zero to Hero_fades and duplicate to the hard drive.

Place the playhead at the beginning of the project and zoom into this location.

Select the first 2 clips wall low angle and crowd ots and solo them – Option S

Adding Fades & Crossfades

Select the fade handle at the end of wall low angle and drag left until the timecode window above the handle reads -00:00:00:30

Do the same to the beginning of wall low angle and crowd ots clips creating a 30-frame fade up for each clip.

Option S to turn off solo and play the new mix.

Fade Options

Adding Fades & Crossfades

Press Shift Z to see the whole timeline.

Select both Battle Lines clips and Option S to solo them.

Play the last few seconds of the 2nd Battle Lines clip while looking at the waveform-- steep fade cuts into the final beat

Adding Fades & Crossfades

Place your pointer over the clip’s fade handle to select it.

2-finger click it to open the shortcut menu and choose +3 dB, then play the clip.

T-TH

Audio Crossfades

Adding Fades & Crossfades

While the two Battle Lines clips are still selected, 2-finger click one of the clips and choose Create Storyline from the shortcut menu.

Click off the clips to deselect them, then select an edit point between the two clips and Command T to add a crossfade.

Adding Fades & Crossfades

Option S to enable all the clips again.

Move the playhead to 5:10, select B for the blade tool and cut Battle Lines at this point.

Move the playhead to 18:40 and cut the clip again.

Adding Fades & Crossfades

For the new clip that begins at 5:10, drag the volume control down to -13 dB

For the last clip that begins at 18:40, drag the volume control down to -16 dB

Select the last three Battle Lines clips and press Command T to add crossfades to all the clips

Recording Voiceovers

Recording Voiceovers

Recording Voiceovers

Go back to the Delicious Peace_mix project you saved to your hard drive.

In the Event Browser, select the Delicious Peace Event.

In the timeline play the VO_10 clip at the end of the project to become familiar with its content, then press V to disable it.

Recording Voiceovers

Turn down the volume of your laptop.

Move the playhead to the beginning of the disabled VO clip.

Choose Window > Record Audio

Recording Voiceovers

Set the following option:

Destination: Delicious Peace

Input Device: Built-in Microphone (or your USB mike)

Gain: 2-3

Monitor: leave off unless you are wearing earphones

Recording Voiceovers

In the Record Audio window, click the Record button and read the CG in the Viewer.

Press the spacebar when you are done--you can also click the record button again.

Your VO is saved in the Event and attached to the primary storyline.

Auditioning Voiceovers

Recording Voiceovers

Record 2 more takes changing the emphasis on the words in the CG.

When done you should have 3 VO’s under the original one.

Keep your first VO, but delete the other two from the timeline for now.

Auditioning Voiceovers

In the Event Browser, select Voiceover 2 and Voiceover 3 and drag them onto the Voiceover 1 clip.

From the shortcut menu choose Add to Audition.

Auditioning Voiceovers

Notice the audition spotlight icon on the clip.

Click the Audition icon to open the audition filmstrip. Press the left and right arrow keys to select which voiceover to audition.

Turn up your volume and play each take then choose the best one.

Correcting Problem Audio

Correcting Problem Audio

Open the Project Browser and duplicate Fairly Legal_hum to your hard drive, then open it in the timeline

In the timeline, click the 4A-2 110(B)_hum clip and play it.-- how’s it sound?-- let’s see if the hum has been fixed yet

Correcting Problem Audio

Choose Window > Show Audio Enhancements and look at the analysis of the clip.

Loudness and Background Noise have a green checkmark = OK

With Hum removal off = Red ! --- there’s trouble

Turn Hum Removal off and on and listen to the difference!

Correcting Problem Audio

Correcting Problem Audio

In the upper-left corner of the Audio Enhancements pane, click the arrow to return to the Audio Inspector.

Click the Equalization pop-up menu and choose Hum Reduction and listen to your clip again.

Correcting Problem Audio

Correcting Problem Audio

Play the first clip 4B-1_110(B) and notice the audio level when the stack of papers are dropped to the desk.

We will fix this spike by adding 3 keyframes and then lowering the middle keyframe.

Correcting Problem Audio

Zoom into this clip so you can see the peak clearly.

To set a keyframe on the spike, Option-click on the volume control line where the spike is.

Move the skimmer to 1:00 and 2:05 and Option click to set down 3 points.

Correcting Problem Audio

Click on the middle keyframe--turns into a yellow diamond

Drag the keyframe down until the info flag reads -2 dB

Play the clip and check your audio meters.

Shortcuts

Shortcuts

Homework Assignment:

Optional:

1. Select the last 3 clips in this project2. Control-click one of the clips and choose Detach

Audio3. Drag a selection rectangle around the three

detached clips and create a storyline out of them4. Apply crossfade transitions between the audio

clips.5. Share as an iPod video and post on iTunes U as

(your name) HW 8.m4v

Lesson 8: Workingwith Sound

Apple Pro Training Series

Final Cut Pro XInstructor: Sam

Edsall