Audio correction in FCP

[Matt Hockett]

After I finished taping our school's graduation ceremony, I sadly found out that the audio levels were extremely low. I'm wondering if there is any "trick" to increasing the levels in Final Cut Pro. I have already raised the db to 12. I am at a loss. Can anyone suggest something?

Thanks...Matt

[Tom Vandas]

Duplicate your tracks and stack them up. It's not perfect, but if your tracks are clean it will help.

[Martin Pauly]

Do you have the complete Final Cut Studio set of applications? If so, Soundtrack Pro has a function called "normalize" (in the "Process" menu) that adjusts the overall audio level. What it does is look for the highest peak in your audio, and then bring this peak to a level you can specify. You can choose 0 dB to make it as loud as possible. Everything else in your file (or selection) is adjusted by the same amount.

And to add what you probably already know: doing this will increase the noise in your recording along with the actual signal, so don't expect too much...

- Martin

[Dean Sensui]

In the "Apple" audio filters in FCP there's a peak limiter filter. In that there's the option of pre-amplifying the signal. That will help a great deal.

I would rather do that than stack tracks. Less clutter on the sequence.

[Loren Miller]

There's a big booster filter in FCP-- I've never used it, but you cna draw 60DB gain out of it. Forget the name.

To reduce clutter,(hate clutter) rather than stack, simply nest the track. Suddenly you get another 12DB boost from raising the nest volume line.

- Loren
Today's FCP 5 keytip:
Preview effects sections with Option-P or Option-Backslash!