In This Chapter
The previous chapter covered the most important and fundamental aspects of working with audio: adjusting volume and working with the pan settings. But you can do much more to improve and enhance your sound or, in some cases, to fix mistakes that were made during production.
Final Cut Pro has a collection of audio-related features designed for these purposes. Some of these tools are automatic—based on the analysis you can optionally perform during ingest. Using that data, Final Cut Pro can automatically find and remove hums and other background noise, adjust your volume, and enable you to match the tone and timbre of one clip to that of another.
Additionally, there are a large number of highly customizable audio filters that you can add manually to perform a range of effects such as equalization, compression, frequency modulation, and a host of other audio-specific tasks.
This chapter will cover both of these types of audio effects.
One of the more significant new features in Final Cut Pro is the ability to perform an optional analysis on your source footage, either at ingest or at any later point during the editing process.
You can analyze both video and audio clips for a variety of elements. The video side of things is covered in Chapter 6, “Ingesting Footage.” The audio analysis evaluates your clips—looking for background noise and electrical hum—as well as determines each clip’s optimal volume and equalization settings.
Analysis can be performed during ingest or at any point after your clips have been imported.
• In the Audio section of the Import Files dialog, select the “Analyze and fix audio problems” checkbox .
You can also analyze and fix audio problems when you import directly from a camera using the Camera Import window.
1. Select the clip or clips you want to analyze, and do one of the following:
• Choose Modify > Analyze and Fix.
• Right-click the selected clips, and, from the shortcut menu, choose Analyze and Fix.
The Analyze and Fix sheet opens .
2. In the Audio section, select the “Analyze and fix audio problems” checkbox, and click OK.
The analysis begins in the background.
Once your files have been analyzed, you have several options for implementing that data in order to improve your clips’ audio.
You can enable Auto Audio Enhancement, which applies enhancement settings for whatever elements Final Cut Pro thinks need improving, and you can manually control each of the enhancement options in the Audio Enhancements pane of the Inspector.
• Select a clip, and do one of the following:
• Click the Auto Enhancement menu in the toolbar and choose Auto Enhance Audio, or press Option-Command-A .
• If the Audio Enhancements Inspector is already showing, click the Auto Enhance button at the bottom of the Inspector .
All audio enhancements are automatically applied as needed. See “Specific Audio Enhancements” for more details.
• Do one of the following:
• Click the Auto Enhancement menu in the toolbar, and choose Show Audio Enhancements .
• In the Audio Inspector, click the Show Audio Enhancements button .
• In the Clip Actions menu, choose Audio Enhancements .
• Press Command-8.
The Audio Enhancements Inspector opens.
• Do one of the following:
• Click the Return to Audio Inspector button in the upper-left corner of the Audio Enhancements Inspector .
• Click the Auto Enhancements menu in the toolbar, and choose Hide Audio Enhancements.
• Press Command-8.
The Audio Enhancements Inspector closes.
Once the Audio Enhancements Inspector is open, you can observe which settings Final Cut Pro thinks should be applied and which have already been applied, and you can modify the specific settings of the different enhancements.
• A green icon with a check mark indicates that no correction is necessary .
• A yellow hazard icon indicates that Final Cut Pro recommends enabling the correction .
• When a correction is applied, the Activation checkbox turns blue, and the icon changes to text describing the status of the effect .
If you open the Audio Enhancements Inspector before a clip has been analyzed, it is analyzed immediately. While the analysis is underway, you will see a rotating progress indicator .
Loudness is a way to make your clips sound “louder” without having to actually adjust the clip’s volume.
The Loudness setting applies a compressor effect to the audio clip. A compressor reduces the dynamic range of the clip by attenuating the peaks in the audio signal. This makes the loudest and quietest parts of the clip more uniform, which means you can turn the overall clip volume up without those peaks touching 0 dB.
Dynamic range is the distance in decibels between the loudest and quietest moments within a clip.
1. Click the blue Activation checkbox for the Loudness section in the Audio Enhancements Inspector .
2. Adjust the Amount slider to increase the amount of compression.
3. Adjust the Uniformity slider to control how much dynamic range is affected.
If Final Cut Pro detects a constant noise signal in the background of your audio, a frequency-specific noise gate is applied to remove the offending noise.
The Amount slider allows you to customize how much noise to remove. If you select too high of a setting, the remaining sound will begin to sound hollow and flanged.
1. Click the blue Activation checkbox for the Background Noise Removal section in the Audio Enhancements Inspector.
2. Adjust the Amount slider until the noise is reduced but the rest of the signal still sounds natural .
The background noise is removed.
It’s often better to allow a little background noise rather than create an unnatural-sounding or over-processed clip.
If electrical interference is observed in the audio clip, Final Cut Pro will determine whether the noise is of the 50 Hz (European) or 60 Hz (North American) variety, and the offending frequency (and its related harmonic frequencies) are attenuated to remove the hum.
1. Click the blue Activation checkbox for the Hum Removal section in the Audio Enhancements Inspector .
2. Choose the 50 Hz or 60 Hz frequency.
The hum is removed.
Equalization (EQ) is a fancy word to describe the process of assigning different volume settings for the various audio frequencies in your audio clip.
For example, equalization allows you to turn down only the low frequencies of a clip to remove an unwanted rumble. Or you might boost a certain range of mid-tone frequencies that contain the bulk of an interview subject’s voice to help make it pop out from the background noise.
Equalization is incredibly powerful and extremely common. There are hundreds of common EQ presets that can be implemented in a variety of circumstances. For example, a low-pass filter is an EQ filter that lets the low frequencies pass through the filter, thereby attenuating the high frequencies. A high-pass filter does the opposite. A notch filter lets you select a specific frequency range and control its volume separately from the rest of the clip. The Hum Remover is an example of a notch filter.
Final Cut Pro contains a built-in equalizer in the Audio Inspector for every audio clip. You can choose to apply a preset, make manual frequency volume adjustments, or match the frequency map from one clip to another.
1. Select a clip in the Timeline, and open the Audio Inspector .
2. In the Audio Enhancements section, click the Equalization pop-up menu, and select a preset from the list .
The EQ preset is applied to the clip.
1. Select a clip in the Timeline, and open the Audio Inspector.
2. In the Audio Enhancements section, click the Graphic Equalizer button .
The Graphic Equalizer window opens .
3. Click the Frequency Bands pop-up menu to choose between 10 and 31 frequency bands .
4. Adjust the individual volume sliders to change the volume for different frequencies within your clip.
The sliders to the left control the lower frequencies, and the sliders to the right control the higher frequencies.
5. Drag a box around multiple volume sliders, and then move any of the selected sliders to move the group of sliders together .
6. To reset all sliders to their default (neutral) settings, click Flatten EQ.
The equalizer is reset.
7. To close the Graphic Equalizer, click the close box in the upper-left corner.
The Equalization pop-up menu displays Custom .
Final Cut Pro allows you to match the sound of one clip to that of another clip. When clips are analyzed, a frequency map is saved that identifies the relative volumes of the various frequencies. That map is then translated into the arrangement of sliders in the equalizer, and those settings can be copied from one clip to another.
1. Select a clip in the Timeline, and open the Audio Inspector.
2. Do one of the following:
• In the Audio Enhancements section, click the Equalization pop-up, and choose Match .
• Choose Modify > Match Audio, or press Shift-Command-M.
The Match Audio window appears .
3. Click another clip in the Timeline or in an event.
The frequency map of the clicked clip is applied to the selected clip.
4. Click Apply Match in the Match Audio window .
A custom equalization setting is applied to the selected clip to approximate the sound of the clip to which you chose to match it.
• In the Audio Enhancements section of the Audio Inspector, click the Equalization pop-up menu, and choose Flat .
In addition to the automatic audio enhancements, Final Cut Pro contains a large number of audio filters you can apply to your audio clips to produce a wide range of effects, including echo and reverberation, pitch adjustments, specialized types of equalization, modulation, and many others. Some of these filters are plug-ins from Apple Logic. Third-party Logic plug-ins will also appear in Final Cut Pro.
Audio filters are found in the Effects Browser, in eight categories: Distortion, Echo, EQ, Levels, Modulation, Spaces, Specialized, and Voices. Within each category, the effects are inexplicably divided into subgroups called Final Cut, Logic, and Mac OS X.
Some of the items labeled as “Final Cut” are not specific filters; rather, they are presets that utilize other filters to create easy-to-use effects. These allow you to add a single effect, such as Vintage Radios, Cathedral, or Cartoon Animals.
• Click the Effects Browser icon, or press Command-5.
The Effects Browser opens .
The Effects Browser displays all the effects available to you, including third-party Logic plug-ins if you have any installed. Each effect is displayed with a thumbnail icon and a descriptive name. The Effects Browser contains both audio and video effects.
The Effects Browser has two parts: the stack, where the list of effects is displayed; and a sidebar, which contains category names. Scroll the sidebar down to access the Audio effects.
You can find specific effects either by searching for a particular name or by browsing through the various categories.
• Do one of the following:
• Type the name of the effect you’re looking for in the search field at the bottom of the Effects Browser .
The stack is filtered to show only effects containing the letters in the search field.
Clear the search field by clicking the circled X at the right edge of the field or by pressing Escape.
• Click one of the category names in the sidebar on the left side of the Effects Browser, and scroll through the main stack area on the right .
The stack is filtered by category.
Hide or show the sidebar by clicking the Show/Hide Sidebar button in the lower-left corner of the Effects Browser.
You can preview what each effect sounds like prior to adding it to your project. This enables you to experiment with a variety of effects quickly.
• Select a clip in the Timeline; then click an effect in the Effects Browser, and press the Spacebar to hear a preview of the effect .
A preview of the effect is played.
• Select a clip in the Timeline to which you want to apply the audio effect, and then do one of the following:
• In the Effects Browser, double-click an audio effect.
• Drag the audio effect from the Effects Browser to a clip in the Timeline.
The effect is applied to the clip.
Once you have applied audio effects to a clip, many audio effects have parameters you can modify to customize the effect and tailor it to work with your particular shot.
Some effects have parameters that you can modify directly in the Inspector, others have custom interface elements that must be controlled in their own window, and some effects have a combination of such parameters.
1. Select the clip in the Timeline.
2. Open the Audio Inspector .
3. In the Effects category, identify the effect you want to modify, and choose menu items from pop-up menus, drag sliders, and click checkboxes as desired.
1. In the Audio Inspector, click the custom interface icon .
A new window opens containing the custom filter interface .
2. Modify the controls within the Custom Interface window.
You can continue to preview a clip while the Custom Interface window is open, allowing you to hear the results of your changes before you close the window.
3. Close the Custom Interface window.
The effect settings are applied.
• In the Effects section of the Audio Inspector, click the blue activation checkbox to the left of the effect name .
The blue light goes out and the audio effect is disabled.
• In the Effects section of the Audio Inspector, click the name of the effect, and press Delete.
Final Cut Pro allows you to record audio directly to the Timeline using any microphone built into, or connected to, your Mac. This allows you to add voice-overs, record foley (custom sound effects), or create any other sound you want to add directly to your project.
For best results, use headphones. This allows you to hear the existing audio in the Timeline without the microphone hearing that sound and creating a duplicate or unwanted echo.
1. Position the playhead at the beginning of the section where you want to record .
It’s a good idea to give yourself a little lead-in time, so you might want to set the playhead a few seconds before the frame where you want to begin recording.
2. Choose Window > Record Audio .
The Record Audio window opens.
3. In the Record Audio window, set the event where you want your new audio saved in the Destination pop-up menu .
4. Select the microphone you will be recording from.
5. Practice the recording while watching the audio levels in the Record Audio window.
6. Adjust the Microphone Gain slider so your practice recording generates solid green bars, making sure you don’t hit the red .
7. Adjust the Monitor settings and level so you can hear the existing audio in your headphones but so that the sound will not bleed into the new recording.
8. Click the red record button at the top of the window .
Recording starts immediately, causing the project to begin playing.
9. When you are done recording, click the red record button again to stop.
Recording is stopped.
A new audio-only clip is added to your project .
10. If you’re unsatisfied with the recording, repeat steps 8 and 9.
Each new recording will add a clip to the Timeline, attached at the frame where the recording started . The clip’s file is stored in the Event folder you selected.