Hearing, Seeing, and Selecting Audio


As you work with audio in Final Cut Express, sometimes you will want to hear the sound, and other times you will want to see a visual representation of the sound. And sometimes you will want to select just the audio portion of a clip.

Scrubbing and Shuttling Audio

You have been scrubbing through clips by clicking and dragging the play-head within the scrubber-bar area in the Viewer and Canvas windows, and even in the Timeline. Scrubbing helps you to find where a specific sound starts and stops while screening or editing a clip. But it isn't the best choice if you actually want to understand what's being said.

1.

Drag the playhead through the Audio Needs Work sequence.

You hear the sound of the clips at whatever speed you drag the play-head. This digitized audio isn't always understandable, but it can be used as a reference to where audio starts and stops.

2.

To turn this function off, choose View > Audio Scrubbing, or press Shift-S. Now drag the playhead through the sequence again.

There is no sound as you drag the playhead across the clips.

Tip

If you are focusing on the visual aspect of your sequence, you may want to work with Audio Scrubbing off so that you don't hear the digital audio track as you drag the playhead through the sequence.

3.

Choose View > Audio Scrubbing again, or press Shift-S, to turn scrubbing back on.

4.

In the Canvas window, use the shuttle slider to run the audio from the clip back and forth. Shuttle slowly enough that you can hear syllables spoken.

Note

Another way to use the shuttle is to click and hold the pointer on either side of the slider. The farther away you click, the faster you will shuttle.

Tip

Use the shuttle slider when you need to understand what's being said, such as a specific word or phrase. Scrub the playhead when you want to get quickly to a specific point, such as where music or sound starts or stops.

Using the Audio Meters

Although audio is the part of the clip you usually hear rather than see, there are two visual aids that can help you see what the audio portion of your clip is doing. One of those visual aids is the Audio Meters window.

The Audio Meters measure the volume of a clip in decibels (dB). When editing your sequence, keep an eye on the Audio Meters window to ensure that the final sound is consistent and not distorted. You may have a good sound level on one clip, but when you combine it with music or sound effects, the level can go over the acceptable level. A good target for DV audio is about 12 dB. Some sounds will fall above or below that, and some audio can peak at around 3 dB. But if any sound reaches 0 dB, it will be distorted and will not sound good in the final output. Always try to be consistent.

Note

If the DV sound level of a source clip peaks at 0 dB, the sound may have been recorded too high or loud during the original shoot. Changing the level as outlined in this lesson might help but will not always correct the problem.


1.

If the Audio Meters window is not showing in your Final Cut Express interface, choose Window > Audio Meters, or press Option-4.

The Audio Meters window contains two vertical audio meters. The small numbers down the middle are used as a reference point for measuring dB levels.

Tip

Keep in mind as you work with volume levels that raising or lowering the volume on your computer speakers or external monitors has no effect whatsoever on the audio level of a clip. The audio on the clip is still at the same level at which it was recorded and captured.

2.

Play from the head of the sequence and watch the Audio Meters.

Some of the audio clips are in the correct range; others have audio levels that are too high or too low.

When working with audio, be consistent throughout your project. For example, if you set the audio of Jimbo talking between 12 dB and 9 dB early in the sequence, make sure that the similar Jimbo talking clips later in the sequence are at that level as well.

Disabling Individual Clips' Audio or Video

You have already disabled the audio or video of an entire track by clicking the Audible or Visible controls in the Timeline track area. However, there are times when you want to disable a single clip's audio or video, or both, rather than the entire track. To do this, you use the Clip Enable function, which toggles the selected clip's tracks off and on.

1.

In the track area of the Timeline, click the Audible control for A3 and play the sequence.

The entire A3 track turns dark when it is disabled, and all sound effects clips on that track are not heard.

2.

Click the A3 Audible control again to turn the track back on.

3.

Ctrl-click the water lapping.aif clip and choose Clip Enable from the shortcut menu.

When Clip Enable is checked, the selected clip can be heard. Selecting it toggles it to a disabled or muted state. Turning off the sound of just this one clip may be all you need at times.

4.

Now play the sequence from the crowd applause.aif clip.

The crowd applause.aif clip on A3 is heard, but not the water lapping.aif clip.

5.

Ctrl-click the water lapping.aif clip again and choose Clip Enable from the shortcut menu. You can also use the shortcut by selecting the clip and pressing Ctrl-B.

Note

Selecting Clip Enable also works for video clips.

Viewing an Audio Waveform

Another way Final Cut Express allows you to see your audio is to display a visual representation of the audio levels. This visual display is called a waveform display and can appear in two places: the Viewer and the audio tracks in the Timeline. You will work with audio in the Viewer later in this lesson. Here, we'll look at waveform displays in Timeline clips.

1.

Click the Timeline to make sure it is the active window, and press Shift-Z to bring the sequence into full view.

2.

Press Cmd-Option-W to turn on the audio waveform display in the Timeline audio tracks.

A waveform representing the clips' audio appears in all the audio tracks.

A waveform displays an audio level from a central reference point. A higher audio volume is displayed as a taller waveform. A lower volume is displayed as a shorter waveform. When there is no volume, as in the A2 track of the no leash LOW clip, the display is a flat line.

3.

Observing the height of the waveform display in each clip, determine which clip in the sequence is the loudest. Which is the softest? Play the sequence to see if you're right.

4.

Drag the playhead through the sequence across the audio where the volume changes.

5.

To make just the audio tracks taller and allow room for a larger waveform display, press Option and drag the A1 track boundary line down.

Note

Changing the track height makes the waveform display bigger but does not affect the sound level in any way.

6.

Move the playhead to the beginning of the sequence. Drag the Canvas shuttle slider slowly to the right to hear Jimbo speak very slowly. Watch the clip's waveform as you drag.

7.

Press Shift and drag any Timeline track boundary line to make all tracks uniform. You can also click one of the Track Height control columns.

Tip

Another way to turn off and on audio waveforms is by clicking the Timeline Layout Popup control (arrow) in the Timeline and choosing Show Audio Waveforms from the pop-up menu.

Selecting Linked Clips

When you capture a clip, you generally capture one track of video and two tracks of audio. These three tracks are linked together to form a single clip. Once this clip has been edited to the Timeline, you can select and adjust all three tracks of the clip at once. But you may at times want to select or adjust the tracks individually. To do this, you must turn off a function that automatically selects linked clips.

1.

In the current sequence, click the back up again clip in the video track.

Only the video portion of this clip was used in the sequence, so it does not naturally link to the music beneath it.

2.

Click the surfing dan.aif music track beneath it.

This audio came from a CD. Since it is not linked to the video, you can select it separately.

3.

Click the video portion of the name clip.

If both the audio and video are being used from the originally captured clip, all three tracks become highlighted when any one track is selected.

Tip

A line beneath the clip name indicates that the tracks are linked together.

4.

Deselect the name clip.

In order to select just one of the clip's tracks by itself, such as the video portion of the clip, you must turn off the Linked Selection control in the Timeline button bar next to the Snapping control.

5.

Click the Linked Selection control to turn this default function off. You can also press Shift-L to toggle this function off and on.

The Linked Selection control looks like two green chain links. When Linked Selection is on or enabled, you can click any track of a linked clip in the Timeline, and all of the clip's tracks become highlighted. When it's off or disabled, the control appears black and convex, and only the individual track you select becomes highlighted.

6.

With Linked Selection off, click the name video track again to select it.

This time you can select the video or audio portions of the clip separately.

Just like video clips, audio clips can be cut, copied, and pasted. For example, now that you can select these tracks separately, you could delete the name video track, replace it with a video cutaway, or copy and paste it elsewhere in the sequence.

7.

For now, click the Linked Selection control in the Timeline to turn it back on.

Tip

It's a good idea to work with the Linked Selection function turned on in the Timeline. When you need to select or adjust a clip's audio or video, you can easily turn Linked Selection off to make your selection or adjustment and then turn it back on again.

Project Tasks

1.

In the current sequence, make sure the audio waveform is still displayed. Make the audio tracks taller, and zoom in to the name clip so that you can see an expanded waveform for this clip.

2.

Using the waveform of the audio as a guide, use the Ripple Edit tool to trim the In and Out points of the name clip so that you hear only Jimbo saying, "My name is ... since I was 5 years old."

3.

Press A for the default Selection tool and drag the crowd applause.aif clip to the left to reposition it so that the sound of this clip begins immediately after Jimbo finishes talking. Use the waveform in both clips as a guide.

The crowd applause.aif clip now overlaps the two clips above it.

4.

Again with the waveform as a guide, use the Slip tool (keyboard shortcut, S) to slip the surfing dan.aif clip left until the music waveform begins exactly at the clip's In point.

5.

Ctrl-click the water lapping.aif clip and choose Clip Enable. Then trim a little off the end of the no leash LOW clip so that it ends when Jimbo stops talking.

Tip

Since this is the last clip in the sequence, you can just drag the clip's Out point left to trim this clip. Make sure the default Selection tool (keyboard shortcut, A) is selected.

Currently, Jimbo's audio is very low, but you will fix it in the next exercise.

6.

After you've trimmed the no leash LOW clip, trim the water lapping.aif clip to end at the same location.

7.

Enable the sound for all clips and play the sequence.

Tip

Working with the audio waveform display in the Timeline is like working with thumbnail images in that it uses additional computer RAM. When you do not need to see the waveform display, it's a good idea to turn that option off.

8.

Press Cmd-Option-W to turn off the audio waveforms in the Timeline.

9.

Press Cmd-S to save these changes to your project.




Apple Pro Training Series Final Cut Express HD
Apple Pro Training Series: Final Cut Express HD
ISBN: 0321335333
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 174
Authors: Diana Weynand

flylib.com © 2008-2017.
If you may any questions please contact us: flylib@qtcs.net