Final Cut Pro X Ripple Lesson 9 - Enhancing The Soundtrack - SOUND Flashcards
Lesson 9: Enhancing the Soundtrack
In the first few lessons, we looked at basic audio editing in the Timeline. At this stage we’ve achieved the scene ______ we want through various _______ techniques, removed unwanted audio and made sure the audio flows correctly from shot to shot.
Now it’s time to begin cleaning up the audio. We’ll begin by taking a look at the magic fixes Final Cut provides - specifically the Audio Enhancement tools to improve the quality of the dialogue. Let’s revisit the edited scene of the couple by playing back their first few verbal interactions…
As you just heard, this scene was shot outdoors next to a busy marina in San Diego. Shooting outdoors will always present you with challenges as you have little control
over unwanted background sounds. Assuming you halted recording during aircraft flyovers, sirens and the like, you still have low frequency background noise to deal with.
In short, anytime you shoot outdoors you’ll have some audio work to do. Also, when doing sound work it’s crucial that you have access to a good pair of studio monitors or headphones. You should also be listening in a room that’s fairly flat - that is a room that is has minimal reverb.
There is a lot of low frequency background noise in this scene. The woman is standing in front of the harbor and the mic is picking up a lot of this sound. On the other hand, the Man is not standing in front of the harbor but is standing in front of a park where the background noise is slightly different.
The challenge for the sound editor is to accentuate the woman and man’s voice, reduce the background noise and make the overall soundscape consistent across each edit.
pacing, trimming
Lesson 9: Enhancing the Soundtrack 2
In the first few lessons, we looked at basic audio editing in the Timeline. At this stage we’ve achieved the scene pacing we want through various trimming techniques, _______ unwanted audio and made sure the audio _____ correctly from shot to shot.
Now it’s time to begin cleaning up the audio. We’ll begin by taking a look at the magic fixes Final Cut provides - specifically the Audio Enhancement tools to improve the quality of the dialogue. Let’s revisit the edited scene of the couple by playing back their first few verbal interactions…
As you just heard, this scene was shot outdoors next to a busy marina in San Diego. Shooting outdoors will always present you with challenges as you have little control
over unwanted background sounds. Assuming you halted recording during aircraft flyovers, sirens and the like, you still have low frequency background noise to deal with.
In short, anytime you shoot outdoors you’ll have some audio work to do. Also, when doing sound work it’s crucial that you have access to a good pair of studio monitors or headphones. You should also be listening in a room that’s fairly flat - that is a room that is has minimal reverb.
There is a lot of low frequency background noise in this scene. The woman is standing in front of the harbor and the mic is picking up a lot of this sound. On the other hand, the Man is not standing in front of the harbor but is standing in front of a park where the background noise is slightly different.
The challenge for the sound editor is to accentuate the woman and man’s voice, reduce the background noise and make the overall soundscape consistent across each edit.
removed, flows
Lesson 9: Enhancing the Soundtrack 3
In the first few lessons, we looked at basic audio editing in the Timeline. At this stage we’ve achieved the scene pacing we want through various trimming techniques, removed unwanted audio and made sure the audio flows correctly from shot to shot.
Now it’s time to begin cleaning up the audio. We’ll begin by taking a look at the magic fixes Final Cut provides - specifically the Audio Enhancement tools to improve the quality of the dialogue. Let’s revisit the edited scene of the couple by playing back their first few verbal interactions…
As you just heard, this scene was shot outdoors next to a busy marina in San Diego. Shooting outdoors will always present you with challenges as you have little control
over unwanted background sounds. Assuming you halted recording during aircraft flyovers, sirens and the like, you still have low frequency background noise to deal with.
In short, anytime you shoot outdoors you’ll have some audio work to do. Also, when doing sound work it’s crucial that you have access to a good pair of studio monitors or headphones. You should also be listening in a room that’s fairly flat - that is a room that is has minimal reverb.
There is a lot of low frequency background noise in this scene. The woman is standing in front of the harbor and the mic is picking up a lot of this sound. On the other hand, the Man is not standing in front of the harbor but is standing in front of a park where the background noise is slightly different.
The challenge for the sound editor is to __________ the woman and man’s voice, ______ the background noise and make the overall soundscape ___________ across each edit.
accentuate, remove, consistent
Lesson 9: Enhancing the Soundtrack 4
In the first few lessons, we looked at basic audio editing in the Timeline. At this stage we’ve achieved the scene pacing we want through various trimming techniques, removed unwanted audio and made sure the audio flows correctly from shot to shot.
Now it’s time to begin cleaning up the audio. We’ll begin by taking a look at the magic fixes Final Cut provides - specifically the Audio Enhancement tools to improve the quality of the dialogue. Let’s revisit the edited scene of the couple by playing back their first few verbal interactions…
As you just heard, this scene was shot outdoors next to a busy marina in San Diego. Shooting outdoors will always present you with challenges as you have little control
over unwanted background sounds. Assuming you halted recording during aircraft flyovers, sirens and the like, you still have ___ _________ background noise to deal with.
In short, anytime you shoot outdoors you’ll have some audio work to do. Also, when doing sound work it’s crucial that you have access to a good pair of studio monitors or headphones. You should also be listening in a room that’s fairly flat - that is a room that is has minimal reverb.
There is a lot of low frequency background noise in this scene. The woman is standing in front of the harbor and the mic is picking up a lot of this sound. On the other hand, the Man is not standing in front of the harbor but is standing in front of a park where the background noise is slightly different.
The challenge for the sound editor is to accentuate the woman and man’s voice, reduce the background noise and make the overall soundscape consistent across each edit.
low frequency
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 2
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing _______ ______ _. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in audio-component editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the range selection tool.
CONTROL OPTION S
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 3
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing Control Option S. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in _____ _________ editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the range selection tool.
audio component
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 4
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing Control Option S. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in audio-component editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the _____ selection tool.
RANGE
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 5
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing Control Option S. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in audio-component editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the range selection tool.
To bring up the Audio enhancement pane, choose this option from the enhancement menu on the _______.
toolbar
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 6
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing Control Option S. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in audio-component editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the range selection tool.
To bring up the Audio enhancement pane, choose this option from the enhancement menu on the toolbar. Before a clip can be enhanced it must be analyzed for 3 potential problem; ________, _________ _____, and ___.
loudness, background noise and hum
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 7
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing Control-Option-S. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in audio-component editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the range selection tool.
To bring up the Audio enhancement pane, choose this option from the enhancement menu on the toolbar. Before a clip can be enhanced it must be analyzed for 3 potential problem; loudness, background noise and hum.
When analyzing your audio for any of these issues, you first need to select a specific _____ _________ on your clip. For example, by selecting the Talent Mic channel on the first clip, the audio is analyzed and green check marks indicate that the analysis has not discovered any issues with loudness, noise or hum.
audio component
Analyzing Audio in the Enhancements Pane 8
Before we begin sweetening the sound, let’s look at how final cut pro goes about analyzing a clip for sound problems using the audio enhancement pane. Select the first 5 clips in the project, then expand the audio components by pressing Control-Option-S. As a review, one quick way to verify you are in audio-component editing mode is when you mouse over an audio clip, you see the range selection tool.
To bring up the Audio enhancement pane, choose this option from the enhancement menu on the toolbar. Before a clip can be enhanced it must be analyzed for 3 potential problem; loudness, background noise and hum.
When analyzing your audio for any of these issues, you first need to select a specific audio component on your clip. For example, by selecting the Talent Mic channel on the first clip, the audio is analyzed and green check marks indicate that the analysis has not discovered any issues with loudness, noise or hum.
Now I’ll select the Channel 2 component and this time, we see a yellow caution symbol next to loudness. As you can see by the barely visible audio waveforms for the selected component, the audio volume is very low - which is why the analysis is reporting a problem for loudness.
Whenever you see a yellow warning symbol, Final Cut Pro is telling you that it has detected a potential problem. It’s still up to you whether you want to address it or not.
There’s one more warning indicator you should be aware of. Select the Talent Mic component of the Man-Eater clip. This time we see a Red “stop” icon for loudness.
Whenever you see this symbol, Final Cut Pro is telling you that there may be severe problems with the selected audio.
The thing to realize with any of these symbols is that final cut is just doing a “____ ____” and none of the warnings or lack of warnings for that matter, should be taken as the final word on the state of your audio.
best guess
Background Noise Removal 1
For example, often I’ll ignore the green check marks next to background noise and turn this enhancement on. And quite surprisingly, background noise is radically reduced improving the dialog quality - particularly on outdoor scenes. Let’s take a listen…
Select the Talent Mic component of the first clip, then enable Background Noise Removal by checking this box. Immediately you see a change in the waveform. Before playing it back press ______ _ to Solo the component. As you can hear, the noise reduction algorithm has done it’s job and most of the low-end rumble of the harbor has been removed. This is a good start, but one of the problems with background noise removal is that the default setting affects too broad a range of frequencies resulting in unnatural sounding voices. In this case, our talent sounds as if they’re speaking underwater.
Drag out a selection range to just include the dialog section, make sure loop playback is enabled, then choose > play selection. As the clip plays back, drag the Amount slider to the left to reduce the amount of noise reduction.
You want to be doing this with a good pair of speakers connected to your Mac - or at the very least a good pair of headphones. Continue reducing the amount of noise reduction until you no longer hear the voices being affected. For this clip an amount of 30% works well. The background noise is reduced and the talents voices are accentuated without being distorted. Pause Playback.
OPTION S
Background Noise Removal 2
For example, often I’ll ignore the green check marks next to background noise and turn this enhancement on. And quite surprisingly, background noise is radically reduced improving the dialog quality - particularly on outdoor scenes. Let’s take a listen…
Select the Talent Mic component of the first clip, then enable Background Noise Removal by checking this box. Immediately you see a change in the waveform. Before playing it back press Option-S to Solo the component. As you can hear, the noise reduction algorithm has done it’s job and most of the low-end rumble of the harbor has been removed. This is a good start, but one of the problems with background noise removal is that the default setting affects too broad a range of ___________ resulting in unnatural sounding voices. In this case, our talent sounds as if they’re speaking underwater.
Drag out a selection range to just include the dialog section, make sure loop playback is enabled, then choose > play selection. As the clip plays back, drag the Amount slider to the left to reduce the amount of noise reduction.
You want to be doing this with a good pair of speakers connected to your Mac - or at the very least a good pair of headphones. Continue reducing the amount of noise reduction until you no longer hear the voices being affected. For this clip an amount of 30% works well. The background noise is reduced and the talents voices are accentuated without being distorted. Pause Playback.
frequencies
Background Noise Removal 3
For example, often I’ll ignore the green check marks next to background noise and turn this enhancement on. And quite surprisingly, background noise is radically reduced improving the dialog quality - particularly on outdoor scenes. Let’s take a listen…
Select the Talent Mic component of the first clip, then enable Background Noise Removal by checking this box. Immediately you see a change in the waveform. Before playing it back press Option-S to Solo the component. As you can hear, the noise reduction algorithm has done it’s job and most of the low-end rumble of the harbor has been removed. This is a good start, but one of the problems with background noise removal is that the default setting affects too broad a range of frequencies resulting in unnatural sounding voices. In this case, our talent sounds as if they’re speaking underwater.
Drag out a selection range to just include the dialog section, make sure loop playback is enabled, then choose > play selection. Shortcut is _______ _____. As the clip plays back, drag the Amount slider to the left to reduce the amount of noise reduction.
You want to be doing this with a good pair of speakers connected to your Mac - or at the very least a good pair of headphones. Continue reducing the amount of noise reduction until you no longer hear the voices being affected. For this clip an amount of 30% works well. The background noise is reduced and the talents voices are accentuated without being distorted. Pause Playback.
FORWARD SLASH
Background Noise Removal 4
For example, often I’ll ignore the green check marks next to background noise and turn this enhancement on. And quite surprisingly, background noise is radically reduced improving the dialog quality - particularly on outdoor scenes. Let’s take a listen…
Select the Talent Mic component of the first clip, then enable Background Noise Removal by checking this box. Immediately you see a change in the waveform. Before playing it back press Option-S to Solo the component. As you can hear, the noise reduction algorithm has done it’s job and most of the low-end rumble of the harbor has been removed. This is a good start, but one of the problems with background noise removal is that the default setting affects too broad a range of frequencies resulting in unnatural sounding voices. In this case, our talent sounds as if they’re speaking underwater.
Drag out a selection range to just include the dialog section, make sure loop playback is enabled, then choose > play selection. Shortcut is forward slash. As the clip plays back, drag the ______ slider to the left to reduce the amount of noise reduction.
You want to be doing this with a good pair of speakers connected to your Mac - or at the very least a good pair of headphones. Continue reducing the amount of noise reduction until you no longer hear the voices being affected. For this clip an amount of 30% works well. The background noise is reduced and the talents voices are accentuated without being distorted. Pause Playback.
AMOUNT
