8. FINAL CUT PRO: BASIC SOUND DESIGN [10:45 min]
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What You'll Need: Final Cut Pro
TRANSCRIPT
Hi I’m Kiarra Drew with We Make Movies.
Sound Editing and Design is one of the most important jobs in post production. Viewers will tolerate bad video, but they won’t tune in long if the audio is bad.
As a filmmaker, your audio Is an integral part of your story. We could fill a whole series of tutorials on Sound Design and Theory.
For now, and for the purpose of this tutorial, let’s go over some of the basics of sound design, and how to use some of the tools in Final Cut to start crafting a basic sound mix for your primary clips in your timeline.
In this tutorial we are going to go over Basic Sound Design in Final Cut Pro 10.4.9.
Fundamentals (Setting up Final Cut Pro)
A good workflow habit is to Duplicate your project to keep a previous version (Save State) while working with audio. Think of these as different versions of your rough edit.
Right-Click a Project, and Snapshot (Shift-Command D) Name your project with a number at the end to differentiate the prior version and the version you are working in.
Audio is represented by waveforms. The waveforms vary in size depending on how loud the sound is.
Play a portion of your timeline. Underneath the video thumbnails are the waveforms. These are the visual representations of the sound you hear from your speakers.
It may seem odd at first, but once you learn how to “read your waveforms” you will be able to see problem areas on your timeline.
Set up Final Cut for Audio Editing.
Show the Audio Meters to the right of your timeline.
Click the Audio Meters icon next to the timecode indicator on the right hand side.
(Shift-Command-8)
Increase the width of the audio meters by selecting the left edge.
Click and drag the edge wide enough so you can see the numbers in the above audio-meters box.
Change Clip Appearance to see the waveforms more clearly.
Click on the Clip Appearance icon.
Click one of the first three clip icons to make the waveforms larger in the timeline.
Underneath the icons is the clip height adjuster, move the control left or right to make the film strip smaller or bigger.
You can also zoom into an area of the timeline by moving the control in the clip appearance window to the left or right. (Command + or Command - to zoom in or out)
(Shift-Z to fit the timeline to fit into the window)
Understanding Audio Levels.
Play a portion of your video with audio in it.
The audio meters will move up and down. A good rule of thumb is to keep your quieter parts of the mix around -20, with all of your dialogue staying between -12 to -6. (In the green)
We will go into why you want to keep your sound mix (The cumulative total of all sounds playing at the same time) around -12 to -6 in a later lesson.
As audio moves closer to 0 the top of the meter will be yellowish. (Audio will be in the yellow) Indicating that your audio is in the caution zone.
The highest audio level you can safely go up to is 0
Once your audio goes past 0, you will have audio clipping and distortion to your sound.
If the audio was recorded “HOT” then you will have clipping already in your sound.
Our previous tutorials have covered how to record good audio at the beginning steps.
For the purpose of this tutorial we will work on the audio that was initially recorded with your video.
Here are some of the tools available to edit your audio to make a more consistent sound.
Adjusting Volume
Select a clip in the timeline.
Right-click and select Expand Audio (Control-S)
This allows you to work with just the Waveform.
Move Playhead over the middle line in the waveform. That is your 0 dB. Line. You can move the line up and down to increase and decrease volume.
The lowest you can decrease your volume (Infinity Symbol, representing complete silence)
The highest you can increase the volume in the timeline is 12 dB.
To adjust the whole clip at once.
Select the whole clip.
Grab the audio line in the waveform.
Move the line up and down.
OR
While the clip is still selected.
Go to the Audio Inspector.
Go to the volume control and move it left to decrease, right to increase.
Keyboard Shortcut:
Adjust Volume Up + 1dB at a time (Control =)
Adjust Volume Down - dB at a time (Control -)
When increasing your volume, you may get some of your audio waveforms in the yellow and red.
This indicates that there might be problems with the volume level. These are the areas you will want to focus your initial attention on.
Play/Scrub an area where you have yellow and red waves.
We will select that area with the range tool.
Using the Range Tool
Use I and O keys to create a Range
Or use the Range Tool
Select R on keyboard.
In the Waveform, click and drag the selection. Up or Down to change the selected waveform volume.
For this lesson we will lower the volume.
While the Range is still selected. Hit / on your keyboard to play just the selection.
Keyboard shortcut of (Command L) to Loop Playback.
You can make adjustments in real-time as audio is looped back.
You can switch back to your Select Tool at any time by hitting A on the keyboard.
Keyframes:
When you changed the volume inside your Range Selection, 4 white dots were created on the audio line. These are called keyframes.
The two keyframes on the outside are the anchors. These keep the incoming and outgoing audio in place, so the volume won’t change.
The line on the inside of the 2 inner keyframes is the area that will be adjusted. Click on the line, and move it up and down to change the audio.
You can select and move the keyframes to move them, or inside the line of the keyframes to “feather” the sound incoming or outgoing.
This will make the audio change more gradual and less abrupt.
Creating Keyframes Manually:
To create keyframes on any part of the audio line.
Move to an area BEFORE the audio you want to change.
Option click on the line. This will create a keyframe.
Move your pointer a few frames over, Option-Click again to create another keyframe.
Move your pointer to the area AFTER the audio you want to change.
Option-Click the line to create a keyframe..
Repeat the step again to create another keyframe.
You will have 4 keyframes total in the area you want to change.
Click on the line between the middle or the inner keyframes and move it to change volume.
Creating A Split Edit (J/L Cuts)
When you have watched shows with multiple video angles, particularly interviews, have you ever noticed that sometimes an interviewer will ask a guest a question, and the interviewer will be shown on the screen, while the guest starts to talk for a bit BEFORE the scene switches to the guest.
Or the opposite, The audio of the interviewer is still heard AFTER the scene has switched over and you see the guest on screen for a bit.
These are called Split Edits, commonly referred to as J and L cuts.
These are named after the shape the clips make when the audio comes before or after the video.
To Create a Split Edit.
Tap the Up or Down key on your keyboard to move to the Playhead between two clips.
Move your Playhead to a video edit point in the timeline.
Double-Click the clip on the left’s Audio waveform to expand the audio from the video.
Double Click the clip on the right’s Audio waveform to expand the audio from the video.
Click and drag the Audio from the left clip (Outgoing Clip) underneath the Right Clips Video (Incoming Clip) around 5 seconds.
Click and drag the audio from the right clip (Outgoing Video) Underneath the Left Clips Video (Incoming Video) about 5 seconds.
Play the area of the split edit.
The extended audio of these two clips begin and ends suddenly and abruptly
To make the overlapping audio sound more natural. You can fade in and out the waveforms of your clip by using the built-in frame handles.
Using and Adding Fade Handles.
Zoom into the edge of the outgoing Audio Clip, (Outgoing Video) if need be, to see the frame handle.
Click and drag the handle in the clip to the left until it lines up with the beginning of the Incoming Audio Clip.
A line will appear inside the audio clip as you drag. This line is the duration and the fade effect on your clip.
A time duration box will show as you drag showing how long the fade effect takes to complete.
Select and right-click the frame handle of the clip to change the fade type.
Repeat the steps above for the Incoming Audio Clip underneath (Incoming clip) Except move the frame handle Right until it lines up with the edge of the Outgoing audio clip.
You have just created an Audio Cross-Fade.
You can also apply the fade effect in the Modify Menu.
Modify > Adjust Audio Fades
There are a few options under this setting.
Keyboard Shortcut for Apply Fades across a clip (Shift-Command F)
CONCLUSION:
Go through clips in your primary timeline, change the audio levels, Select an audio clip range that might be close to peaking or not loud enough and change its level. Add some cross dissolves to your clips.
When you play your clips after the changes, look at the meters to see what their dB level plays at. Do this for some of the “Trouble areas” of the timeline.
When you have finished, Congratulate yourself! You have just completed your first sweep of sound design! To listen to the difference, open and play black your previous version of your project in the timeline. Then open and play your current sound design. Do you hear the difference? That is the difference that your audience will hear too!
Take you time to understand the skills and workflows techniques we just covered, and practice what you have learned going forward in new projects. Soon you will get a feel for the audio tools and how they work in Final Cut!
Your career as a Final Cut Sound Designer is just beginning! We will be covering additional Final Cut Pro advanced sound design and techniques in the next tutorial.