IntroductionWelcome| 00:04 | Welcome to Audio Post Workflow
with Final Cut Pro X and Pro Tools.
| | 00:08 | In this course, we'll learn about unique
workflow designed to help finish and optimize the audio
| | 00:12 | of your Final Cut Pro video project.
| | 00:15 | I'll show you the ins and outs of
preparing and transferring the audio tracks of your
| | 00:19 | Final Cut Pro X sequence to Pro Tools.
| | 00:23 | Once there, we'll go over some basics to get you
started on optimizing, editing, and completing your audio mix.
| | 00:30 | When we're finished in Pro Tools, we'll complete the
trip and re-import back to Final Cut Pro to finish.
| | 00:36 | By the time we're done, you'll gain some
great insight on a workflow that will enhance the
| | 00:40 | quality of your project, plus this workflow is the
same one used by professional audio and video post-houses.
| | 00:46 | So you'll be primed and ready to take
your project to any level your heart desires.
| | 00:51 | Let's get started!
| | 00:54 |
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| What you should know before watching this course| 00:00 | Before we begin, I want to point out a few
important items about the Final Cut Pro X
| | 00:04 | to Pro Tools workflow.
| | 00:07 | With the release of Final Cut Pro X, for
better or for worse, Apple removed the longstanding
| | 00:11 | convention of using a file format called OMF or
Open Media Framework to export audio information
| | 00:18 | to Pro Tools and other programs.
| | 00:20 | Now, Apple uses XML or Extensible Markup
Language files to export audio and other information
| | 00:27 | out of Final Cut Pro.
| | 00:29 | Unfortunately, as of now, Pro Tools and
other audio applications do not inherently know
| | 00:34 | how to read or import an XML file.
| | 00:37 | So in this course, we'll be using a
third application called X2Pro Audio Convert.
| | 00:42 | X2Pro Audio Convert is able to read the exported XML file
and convert it to an AAF file, Advanced Authoring Format file.
| | 00:51 | This file is a supported Avid and Pro Tools
file type that can be imported into Pro Tools.
| | 00:56 | A quick word about Pro Tools, we'll be
using Pro Tools 10 in this course, but as of
| | 01:01 | Pro Tools 9, you can run all versions of
Pro Tools without any attached hardware.
| | 01:06 | All you need is an iLok USB dongle
attached with the Pro Tools authorization.
| | 01:11 | So the goal of this course is to get you
familiar with the workflow between these two programs,
| | 01:15 | Pro Tools and Final Cut Pro.
| | 01:17 | We'll spend a little time going over some
audio possibilities in Pro Tools, but what
| | 01:21 | we'll show you is really
just the tip of the iceberg.
| | 01:23 | Some will just use this information of this
course to better manage their project workflow,
| | 01:27 | while others might get really into what's
possible with Pro Tools, and they'll want to
| | 01:30 | learn more about postproduction audio.
| | 01:35 |
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| Using the exercise files| 00:00 | If you're a Premium Member of the lynda.com
online training library, you have access to
| | 00:05 | the exercise files used throughout this title.
| | 00:08 | The exercise files have
been compressed to a ZIP file.
| | 00:11 | Download and uncompress this file, and
you'll see a folder called Exercise Files.
| | 00:15 | I'm going to assume you've used Final Cut Pro X
before, in which case you have two folders
| | 00:21 | in your Movie folder of your Home Finder.
| | 00:24 | One is called Final Cut Events and
one is called Final Cut Projects.
| | 00:30 | To import the content for this course, you
want to copy the content of the two folders
| | 00:35 | named the same thing from the exercise files into
these two folders in your Movies folder on your Finder.
| | 00:43 | Don't replace the folders because you don't
want to write over anything you might have
| | 00:46 | already been working on in Final Cut Pro.
| | 00:49 | Now when you launch Final Cut Pro, you'll
have the LDC Initial Edit exercise project
| | 00:53 | and the media should be online.
| | 00:56 | As for the Pro Tools sessions, I included
one master session folder called FARM Audio PT.
| | 01:01 | In here, there are a bunch of Pro Tools 10
session files that correspond to the beginning
| | 01:06 | and end of all
appropriate chapters in this course.
| | 01:11 | You'll also find the two external files we use
in the course, acoustic song and Birds Morning.
| | 01:16 | You can double-click the Pro Tools session
files to open them, or you can open them from
| | 01:20 | the File menu in Pro Tools.
| | 01:23 | As long as you copy this folder to your work
hard drive and don't go moving any files or
| | 01:27 | folders around, all the files should link up.
| | 01:30 | The first time you open a session or if something
gets moved, Pro Tools might ask you to re-link the files.
| | 01:37 | In that case, tell Pro Tools to
automatically find and re-link, and as long as the files
| | 01:41 | are present on your drive, Pro Tools will
be able to find them and bring them online.
| | 01:46 | If you're a monthly or annual subscriber to
lynda.com, and you don't have access to these
| | 01:50 | online training materials, that's okay too.
| | 01:53 | You can follow along with your own media.
Let's get started.
| | 01:58 |
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1. Exporting Your SoundWhy should you export to Pro Tools?| 00:00 | Why don't we want to take our audio out of
Final Cut Pro? It has audio capabilities.
| | 00:05 | It's a perfectly valid question.
| | 00:06 | In this movie, I'll outline some key reasons
why you'd want go to the trouble of sending
| | 00:10 | your audio tracks to Pro Tools.
| | 00:13 | First and foremost, Final Cut Pro
is primarily a video editing program.
| | 00:17 | There are some audio features bundled in
there, but the whole architecture of the program
| | 00:21 | favors editing video and working
with the visual aspects of your project.
| | 00:26 | Let me ask you a question.
| | 00:27 | Would you use a screwdriver to hammer in a nail?
It's all about using the right tool for the job.
| | 00:33 | As you can see here in Final Cut Pro,
there are some audio tools available to us.
| | 00:37 | As intuitive as they might seem though,
these audio settings are pretty rudimentary.
| | 00:40 | They don't give you a lot of control over
what's actually happening with your audio files.
| | 00:45 | So I say take control of your audio, use the right
tool for the job, which in this case is Pro Tools.
| | 00:50 | It's the professional standard audio software.
| | 00:53 | I'm going to step into Pro Tools, and I want
to point out a few reasons why using Pro Tools
| | 00:57 | will benefit your workflow.
| | 00:59 | Here we have a common dialog situation where there's a
lavaliere track as well as a camera mic or boom track.
| | 01:05 | In Pro Tools, we can objectively listen to
each of the sources and zoom way into the
| | 01:09 | waveforms to make better informed decisions
about whether we want to use one or all of
| | 01:14 | the combination of these
source files in our mix.
| | 01:16 | Next, Pro Tools ships with an arsenal of extremely
powerful processing tools like the seven-band equalizer.
| | 01:23 | These can help you harness the best aspects of
your sounds and fix any problem areas you might have.
| | 01:28 | Plus the ability you have to add on
industry-standard plug-ins to Pro Tools is huge.
| | 01:34 | The editing flexibility you get in Pro Tools
goes way beyond the frame boundaries you are
| | 01:38 | bound to in Final Cut Pro.
| | 01:39 | You can also get very fine-tuned control
over your fades and crossfades in Pro Tools.
| | 01:44 | Finally, when you look at volumes as you mix
your tracks in Pro Tools, you can get a very
| | 01:49 | high resolution and a lot of flexibility with
your volume automation, as you can see here.
| | 01:56 | So whether you're a seasoned video editor
or just a beginning filmmaker, don't let the
| | 01:59 | sophistication of Pro Tools scare you.
| | 02:02 | We'll go through all you need to know to make it
easy to integrate Pro Tools into your postproduction workflow.
| | 02:07 | Trust me, you and your
audience will appreciate it.
| | 02:12 |
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| Preparing your FCP timeline for export| 00:00 | Once our project goes to Pro Tools, the video
will be completely separated from the audio.
| | 00:05 | There are a few preparations we have to make to
ensure that the transition is smooth between applications.
| | 00:10 | These are the same steps you would take if
you're handing off the project to an audio
| | 00:14 | post-house, by the way, so they're good to know.
| | 00:17 | So here we are in Final Cut Pro X.
We're looking at the Project Library.
| | 00:21 | As you can see, when I click the film reel
in the lower-left to reveal the timeline,
| | 00:26 | our initial edit is a fully realized sequence.
| | 00:29 | It has many video clips, crossfades,
volume adjustments, these were all made in
| | 00:34 | Final Cut Pro during the video edit.
| | 00:36 | First, to be safe, we should make a duplicate
of our project so we don't screw anything up.
| | 00:41 | So click to go back to the Project Library, then
right-click on LDC Initial Edit, and choose Duplicate.
| | 00:51 | Final Cut Pro will ask if we want to
include reference events or clips and media.
| | 00:55 | No, we just want to duplicate the reference
to those things, just the timeline reference.
| | 01:01 | Let's name it LDC Audio Export.
| | 01:04 | Next, let's step into the
timeline of the new project.
| | 01:09 | You'll notice that the timeline starts at
zero hours, zero minutes, zero seconds, and zero frames.
| | 01:15 | This is fine for working only in Final Cut Pro.
| | 01:18 | But now we want to make it start at a timecode
that's useful for working outside Final Cut Pro.
| | 01:23 | The convention is to make the first frame of
action of our project, or FFOA, start at timecode hour 01.
| | 01:32 | But we want to back-time that a little bit
to include a countdown leader before hour 01.
| | 01:37 | You'll see why in a second.
| | 01:39 | So to change the project timecode, go back
to the Project Library, make sure the project
| | 01:45 | is selected, and click the
Inspector button on the right.
| | 01:50 | Just above the I there's
a little tool button icon.
| | 01:54 | Click this to go your project preferences and
change the Starting Timecode to 00:59:50:00.
| | 02:04 | That's 10 seconds before hour 01, just
enough time for our 10-second countdown.
| | 02:10 | Now in your Farmers Market event,
you'll have the LDC countdown file.
| | 02:16 | This simple countdown
video counts from 10 down to 2.
| | 02:20 | Only the 2 lasts for exactly one frame and
corresponds with a one-frame beep or pop of audio.
| | 02:27 | This is what is known as a 2-pop, and it will
be used as a reference until we get into
| | 02:33 | Pro Tools to ensure sync was
maintained between the two programs.
| | 02:37 | If you loaded the sequence from the exercise
files, the 2-pop and tail-pop might already
| | 02:41 | be in your timeline, but I'm going
to show you how to do this anyway.
| | 02:45 | Take the cursor to the beginning of the
timeline and click the Insert Edit button.
| | 02:50 | Now we have a leader, and the first
frame of action begins at hour 01.
| | 02:55 | Next, we want to make sure that the show
is still in sync at the end so that no drift
| | 03:00 | of any kind occurred during the transfer.
| | 03:04 | So we'll insert a simple 1-frame video
and corresponding audio beep at the end.
| | 03:09 | This is known as a tail-pop.
| | 03:11 | We have a tail-pop movie also
available in the Farmers Market event.
| | 03:15 | Finally, when we reference the video in Pro Tools,
it's really useful to have the timecode
| | 03:21 | burned in to see visually
what frame we are on as we work.
| | 03:25 | This can be easily done with
Final Cut Pro's generators.
| | 03:29 | Click the Generator button on the
right and choose Elements > Timecode.
| | 03:35 | Now drag the Timecode event to
the top layer of the sequence.
| | 03:41 | This can be a little tricky, but
it needs to be on the top layer.
| | 03:45 | Once it's in there, you can pull it out.
It'll take a few minutes to fully render.
| | 03:50 | And when you're done, you'll have a timecode burn that
you can reference in Pro Tools as you're watching the video.
| | 03:56 | Now our sequence is ready to export.
| | 04:01 |
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| Completing the export| 00:00 | Now that we have our video prepped for export
with our 2-Pop, tail pop, and time code burned,
| | 00:05 | in this movie we'll do the
actual export and XML translation.
| | 00:10 | Exporting the audio is easy, simply
select the project and go to File > Export XML.
| | 00:17 | This process shouldn't take long since an
XML is just a text document containing all
| | 00:21 | the parameters of the sequence.
| | 00:24 | Then you'll export a copy of the video, go to Share >
Export Media and choose H.264 and Video and Audio.
| | 00:35 | While we won't be working with this audio
directly, it's the temp mix from the original
| | 00:40 | video edit, and it'll be useful in Pro Tools
as a reference and guide track as we work.
| | 00:45 | Choose a place for the file and let it
render out a movie, name it Farm VID REF.
| | 00:51 | This will take a little while since it
actually has to process the file and render the movie.
| | 00:57 | Next, we need to use a third-party
application called X2Pro Audio Convert.
| | 01:04 | X2Pro Audio Convert effectively translates
the XML file we just exported and makes it
| | 01:09 | intermediary file called an AAF,
standing for Advanced Authoring Format.
| | 01:15 | AAFs are intermediary files used by
programs like Pro Tools to move media and metadata
| | 01:20 | from one project like Final Cut
Pro to another like Pro Tools.
| | 01:25 | AAFs keep track of cross fades and volume
information and edits, and they do a great
| | 01:30 | job of translating two very
different timeline so they can work together.
| | 01:34 | X2Pro Audio Convert is available
in the Apple App store for $99.
| | 01:39 | Once we're in X2Pro, we'll choose the XML file we made
as the source and set a place for it on the desktop.
| | 01:45 | Remember we chose the Export folder on the
Desktop for the location of this XML file,
| | 01:50 | then we'll choose a destination for the AAF
file we'll be creating. We can use the same
| | 01:54 | Export folder on the desktop.
| | 01:57 | We'll choose the Convert any non-PCM file
like MP3s, for example, to 16-bit which is
| | 02:03 | the bit rate will be using in Pro Tools.
| | 02:05 | Now click Start to start writing the AAF file.
This will take a minute or two to write it.
| | 02:12 | X2Pro will give you some error reports if you
have any incompatible information in the timeline
| | 02:18 | This error we get here about re-timing shows
that any re-timing doesn't make the translation.
| | 02:22 | That should be okay here.
Choose Close to wrap it up.
| | 02:28 | Now that we've exported, we're ready to bring these files
into Pro Tools and get to work on organizing our tracks.
| | 02:33 |
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2. Setting Up in Pro ToolsSetting up Pro Tools for video post| 00:00 | Before we start working with Pro Tools,
it's useful to setup the global parameters for
| | 00:04 | the way we will be using the program.
| | 00:05 | Since it's not strictly a video postproduction
audio application, there are few settings
| | 00:10 | you need to get straight before
working with audio for video on Pro Tools.
| | 00:14 | First, let's open up Pro Tools. We will have to open
up a dummy session to get into some of these parameters.
| | 00:19 | So go ahead and open an empty session, let's
use the standard video parameter, 16 bit
| | 00:25 | 48 kHz Sample Rate, and we'll
use Stereo Mix as the I/O setup.
| | 00:31 | We'll name this session
setup and click Save to open it.
| | 00:34 | Once we're inside Pro Tools we'll see the
Edit window, it's where you'll see the timeline
| | 00:38 | and do most of your work in Pro Tools.
| | 00:41 | First of all, let's clear up the timeline
rulers we won't be needing when we working
| | 00:44 | with audio for video. There is a lot
pertaining to music stuff we won't be dealing with.
| | 00:50 | You can Option-click to remove all of these
timeline rulers except for Minutes, Seconds,
| | 00:56 | Timecode, and Markers.
| | 00:58 | You can also optionally go to the
pulldown menu to uncheck these rulers.
| | 01:02 | The highlighted time ruler, currently Minutes
and Seconds, is your Master time ruler.
| | 01:08 | Let's change our master time ruler to Timecode.
| | 01:11 | To change it, click in the Main
Counter and change it to Timecode.
| | 01:15 | Next, let's make a few tracks. You can use
the key command Shift+Command+N to make new tracks.
| | 01:22 | You should probably memorize that,
but if you don't want to you can use to Track
| | 01:26 | menu and choose Track > New,
let's make four new mono audio tracks.
| | 01:32 | Once we've done that we'll change the
editing mode on the top left to Grid. This keep us
| | 01:36 | accurate to the frame, although you can go to
Slip mode later to go to find our resolution
| | 01:41 | all the way down to the Sample level which is much
finer than you can get in Final Cut Pro, by the way.
| | 01:46 | Next we will go to the Edit window view
selector on the top left of the Edit window, let's
| | 01:51 | show Inserts A-E, since we'll be using
some real time plug-in inserts later on.
| | 01:56 | Also, let's show I/O so we can see our Volume
and Pan Parameters for each track as we work.
| | 02:02 | There is one preference that's off by
default that will need to change, go to Pro Tools >
| | 02:06 | Preferences and under the Operations tab
change Edit Insertion Follows Scrub/Shuttle.
| | 02:13 | Just click that. This will allow us to easily
scrub the playhead through our clips when we edit.
| | 02:18 | Finally, let's change the
way our Solo button works.
| | 02:21 | The Solo button lets you hear one track at
a time. By default, Pro Tools allow you to
| | 02:25 | latch more than one track together soloed.
| | 02:28 | But for postproduction audio, it's better to
only solo one at a time, so we can compare
| | 02:32 | what's on each track. Let's change this in Options >
Solo Mode, and let's choose X-OR (Cancels Pervious Solo).
| | 02:41 | Great, these new settings can stay with our
global Pro Tools settings as we open our AAF
| | 02:46 | file in progress in this course.
| | 02:48 | Go ahead and close the session. You can
save it if you want, but it isn't necessary.
| | 02:53 |
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| Importing to Pro Tools| 00:00 | In this movie we will look at importing and
verifying sync with the video and audio elements
| | 00:04 | we exported from Final Cut Pro.
| | 00:07 | You can open the AAF file from within Pro Tools
by going to File > Open, to choose the AAF file.
| | 00:14 | We will select the one we
exported to this Desktop folder.
| | 00:19 | You can also double-click the file if you
don't already have Pro Tools open, and it
| | 00:22 | will open the file and Pro Tools the same time.
| | 00:25 | Pro tool will pause in a dialog
box asking for Session Parameters.
| | 00:30 | The standard parameters for videos are
either broadcast wave, BWF, or AIFF, 16 bit 48 kHz.
| | 00:38 | So we'll stick with those.
| | 00:41 | Next, Pro Tools will ask where
to save your Pro tool session.
| | 00:44 | A Pro Tools session is a group of folders
and files that reside in one session folder.
| | 00:50 | For ease of use here, I'll put it on the
desktop, and we will name it Farmer's Audio Mix.
| | 00:55 | You may want to thing about putting your projects
in a separate work drive for better organization.
| | 01:00 | Next, we will see the
Import Session Data dialog box.
| | 01:04 | This is how we manage all the parameters from
the AAF file as it gets imported in the Pro Tools.
| | 01:09 | On the top left, this area tells us info
about the original Final CutPro project settings.
| | 01:14 | We see the frame rate that was used,
the sample rate, the bit depth.
| | 01:17 | There is also a number of advanced options
on the upper right of the dialog box, but
| | 01:22 | because of the way we open this AAF file we
can leave all these parameters the same, and
| | 01:26 | it should work fine.
| | 01:28 | But you could change some of them such as Offset
Timecode to do some more advanced settings with your import.
| | 01:34 | This Import session data box is used for
all types of importing, not just AAF files.
| | 01:39 | So it offers a lot of
flexibility for all kinds of scenarios.
| | 01:43 | Again because we imported the AAF the way
we did, these setting should be good, and
| | 01:47 | we can leave them as they are.
| | 01:49 | Below we have a listing of all the tracks
from the original Final Cut Pro sequence.
| | 01:53 | You may not remember having 14 tracks in
Final Cut Pro, but the AAF file splits out stereo
| | 01:59 | and multi channel tracks.
So you may see more here than you expected.
| | 02:04 | All tracks that are highlighted in blue will come
into Pro Tools. By default, they should all be selected.
| | 02:09 | Now about the settings below.
| | 02:11 | Import Rendered Audio Effects will convert
the Final CutPro Fades to Pro Tools Fades
| | 02:15 | so we'll keep that checked.
| | 02:18 | Clip Gain will convert Final CutPro clip
volumes to Pro Tools Clip Gain if you're using
| | 02:22 | Pro Tools 10, which is pretty useful.
So we will leave that checked as well.
| | 02:26 | Finally, Volume Automation will convert
any volume rubber banding which we had done in
| | 02:30 | the music tracks in Final Cut Pro
to Pro Tools Volume Automation.
| | 02:33 | So we will keep that checked as well.
| | 02:36 | The tracks will come in, the timeline will
populate, and you will see the waveforms start to appear.
| | 02:41 | Next we want to import a video.
| | 02:43 | Go to File > Import > Video,
find the video, and import it.
| | 02:52 | Video Import options will ask if you want
a new track--we do--and also if we want to
| | 02:57 | import the audio from the source video.
| | 03:00 | That's our reference audio from
the original Final Cut Pro project.
| | 03:03 | So we will say yes. Also we will choose
Session start for the placement.
| | 03:08 | When we hit OK, Pro Tools will ask where
we want to put the audio we are importing.
| | 03:13 | Pro Tools defaults the location of the
audio files folder associated with your current
| | 03:18 | session, and that's what we
want, so we will just click Open.
| | 03:23 | When it imports, the video window will be
pretty big, so we can resize it by clicking
| | 03:27 | and dragging on the bottom right of the
window or we can right-click right in the video and
| | 03:31 | choose say Half Size to downsize the video.
| | 03:36 | Great, now that we have these
elements in, we will check the sync.
| | 03:40 | Make sure you are in Grid Editing mode so
we can see the background frame grid, now
| | 03:45 | the grid values are set to 1-frame resolution.
| | 03:48 | You can do this next to the
main counter in the Edit window.
| | 03:51 | I'll be using the Pro Tools one stroke key
command here to zoom in and out. That's the R and T keys.
| | 03:58 | One-stroke key commands are enabled by clicking the A
to Z button on the top right of the Edit window.
| | 04:07 | As you can see, our reference sound should
have the two paths which you can see visually
| | 04:11 | at exactly 00:59:58:00.
| | 04:15 | You can also use Command+Left and Right
brackets to zoom in and out, if you don't want to use
| | 04:19 | the one touch key commands.
| | 04:23 | Now let's also verify that the 2-pop from
our AAF Import also lines up to that exact frame.
| | 04:30 | Then we also want to verify and check
the end pop at the end of the video.
| | 04:36 | Remember it also should correspond to the
one frame of video and one frame of beat on
| | 04:41 | both our reference and our AAF tracks.
| | 04:47 | Now I want to show you one
last housekeeping measure.
| | 04:49 | I like to preserve the original AAF import
before I start messing around with any of
| | 04:55 | these clips so I can always come back to it if I
move something out of sync or mess anything up.
| | 05:01 | So let's select all tracks except
for the video and reference track.
| | 05:07 | Select the tracks by holding on
Shift as you click on the track headers.
| | 05:11 | Once all the tracks are selected, right-click
any track header and choose Duplicate tracks.
| | 05:17 | Once the tracks are duplicated,
select all the clips in these new tracks.
| | 05:23 | Do this by dragging a
selection around all these clips.
| | 05:27 | Now type Command+L to lock these clips.
| | 05:29 | You will see a little lock icon in the
clips to verify that you have locked them.
| | 05:34 | Now with all these track header still selected, right-
click any one of them and choose Hide and Make Inactive.
| | 05:41 | This copy of our original imported tracks
will now always be available from our TRACKS
| | 05:45 | list column on the left.
| | 05:47 | We don't have to see or thing
about it as we continue working.
| | 05:50 | Congratulations! Now we have fully
imported and verified sync with our AAF sequence.
| | 05:54 | In the next few movies we will
start working with our sound mix.
| | 05:59 |
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3. Working in Pro ToolsChoosing sources and assigning tracks| 00:00 | Now that we are set up in Pro Tools,
it's time to organize our audio files.
| | 00:03 | The transfer from Final Cut Pro
is now frame accurate.
| | 00:06 | But the differences in timelines Final Cut Pro
and Pro Tools make it so there are a few
| | 00:11 | discrepancies we need to work through.
| | 00:14 | You may notice as you scroll around the timeline that
audio tracks are kind of scattered around the timeline.
| | 00:19 | In this movie we will work through how to organize
them and make them easier to work with in Pro Tools.
| | 00:24 | The most glaring of these discrepancies are the
music tracks, or any stereo tracks you may have imported.
| | 00:30 | As you can see, Pro Tools pull them on to single
mono audio tracks and also panned them to the center.
| | 00:36 | This isn't really how we should be
hearing these stereo audio tracks.
| | 00:39 | So we want these kind of files to reside on
stereo tracks in Pro Tools, and each of the
| | 00:44 | channel should be fully panned left and
right to make it a stereo compatible file.
| | 00:49 | So let's type select type Shift+Command+N
to make two new stereo audio tracks.
| | 00:55 | We will name these tracks MUS 1
and MUS 2 from music 1 and 2.
| | 01:01 | They will be our two
music tracks for this project.
| | 01:05 | Before moving our audio tracks, we want to
pan the top track left and the bottom track
| | 01:10 | right of each of the source music tracks.
| | 01:13 | To do this, we will need to show the Pan
automation for each track, and we will move the Pan line
| | 01:19 | with the Trimmer tool all the way to the
top, which is panned left for the top channels,
| | 01:25 | and then we will go to the bottom tracks,
and we will move the lines all the way to the
| | 01:29 | bottom which is right.
| | 01:31 | If there is any break points written here, we
want to select them and hit Delete to erase them.
| | 01:40 | Now we will go back to
Waveform view on these tracks.
| | 01:44 | Now to pull audio into other tracks, you have
to be very careful in Pro Tools to make sure
| | 01:48 | it remains in its exact position horizontally.
| | 01:52 | To prevent audio clips from moving left and
right while you move clips around, you will
| | 01:56 | hold the Ctrl key as you move them.
| | 02:00 | When you hold Ctrl and drag these music
tracks into the stereo tracks, you will see that
| | 02:03 | you are not able to move
them to the left or right.
| | 02:05 | This is very important as we move forward,
and we move clips from track to track.
| | 02:10 | Now for dialog and B Roll tracks.
| | 02:13 | I recommend making all new tracks and pulling
audio from the original AAF import onto them.
| | 02:20 | This takes a little longer, but it's worth
it in the end, because as you do this, you
| | 02:24 | will be listening and getting familiar, and
you will be able to assess each clip of audio
| | 02:28 | as you move it onto its corresponding track.
| | 02:32 | So let's make seven new mono audio
tracks, again I am using Shift+Command+N.
| | 02:37 | Once they are made we will name them,
DIAL for dialog 1, DIAL 2, DIAL 3, DIAL 4.
| | 02:51 | Notice I am clicking Next just
go to the next track to rename it.
| | 02:56 | And then the last two tracks
we will name B Roll 1 and 2.
| | 03:04 | For the final track, we will name it Tones.
That's where we keep our reference files like
| | 03:08 | our 2-pop and our end pop.
| | 03:10 | Great, so now we will start working through
our imported audio, and we will pull those
| | 03:14 | clips onto their appropriate tracks.
| | 03:20 | The BD interview is an example
of a multi-microphone source.
| | 03:26 | Here the INT BD clip of the farmer
talking has more than one source track.
| | 03:32 | Let's listen to each source.
| | 03:33 | We will use the Solo button to
isolate each track as we listen and compare.
| | 03:39 | (male speaker: --about a hundred different
herbs--herbs, vegetables--herbs, vegetables.)
| | 03:49 | You will notice the top track sounds like a
closer mic source like maybe a Boom mic or
| | 03:52 | a Lavalier mic and the bottom two sound like
maybe like a camera mic, a little bit more distant.
| | 03:58 | Here we will need to make a decision.
| | 04:00 | Do we use both of these sources or just one?
Sometimes it is helpful to use both tracks
| | 04:04 | and blend them together, at other times you want
to just pick the best sounding one and go with that.
| | 04:09 | In this case, I will choose the top track the Boom or
a Lavalier track, and I will disregard the other two.
| | 04:14 | I will simply select the unused regions and delete
them from the timeline by clicking the Delete key.
| | 04:21 | Remember, we have a saved copy of our original
AAF import in case we need to go back to any clips.
| | 04:28 | So now I will pull this Boom track onto the
dialog track 1, and I will continue with all
| | 04:32 | the interview files called INT BD, since
they all have the same source and similar sound.
| | 04:43 | Don't worry too much of some of the clips
overlap as we pull them into their corresponding
| | 04:46 | tracks because later we can edit and
cross fade these to how we want them.
| | 04:53 | So you want to continue this process with
all the clips in the movie, pulling them onto
| | 04:57 | their corresponding tracks.
| | 05:00 | In documentary work like this, there's only
a few principal interviews, so it makes sense
| | 05:04 | to keep one interview source per track.
| | 05:08 | This will allow you keep
settings for each interview.
| | 05:10 | In this project we really have two main
interviews, we have the BD interview that we were just
| | 05:15 | looking at, and then we
have John in the kitchen.
| | 05:18 | We will use dialog tracks 1 and 2 for those.
| | 05:21 | We will keep dialog tracks 3 and 4, and
they will be shared and used for all the other
| | 05:27 | interviews that happen in this project.
| | 05:29 | So it is okay to share
tracks when it makes sense.
| | 05:32 | You may come across a scenario when
it looks like there are two sources.
| | 05:36 | But really it's the same source duplicated.
| | 05:38 | You will find this happens often in a
video edit. Sometimes video editors will do this
| | 05:42 | just to make a track louder.
| | 05:44 | The John Downey interview has this issue.
| | 05:46 | It looks like these files might be separate
sources, but let's pull the tracks next to
| | 05:50 | each other to verify that.
| | 05:52 | Just click and drag on a track
header on the left to reorder the tracks.
| | 05:57 | Now as we zoom in, we see the
waveforms are actually identical.
| | 06:00 | These really aren't two different sources.
| | 06:03 | It's just the same one duplicated
because the waveforms are identical.
| | 06:06 | So we will want to delete one of these,
and we will only use one of these sources.
| | 06:10 | It doesn't really make sense to
have two copies of the same thing.
| | 06:14 | So remember the interviews of the other people from the
farmers market will share dialog tracks 3 and 4.
| | 06:20 | For organization, it's fine to share tracks like
this for the minor interviews, but it's good
| | 06:25 | to checkerboard them if possible.
| | 06:27 | This will keep us organized and
make the tracks easier to work with.
| | 06:32 | So now we will continue listening, choosing, and
organizing until we get through all of the clips.
| | 06:36 | This is a good opportunity to really listen
to each sound and get familiar with what you
| | 06:40 | will be working with.
| | 06:41 | I want to close this project
and open a finished version.
| | 06:50 | Now that we are in this finished project,
you can see that all the audio clips have
| | 06:53 | been pulled into the tracks we made.
| | 06:55 | We are left with some empty
original tracks that we started with.
| | 06:59 | Let's select these empty tracks by
holding the Shift key as we select them.
| | 07:03 | Now we can right-click in any one of
the track headers and click Delete tracks.
| | 07:07 | Great, now we are done organizing our session.
| | 07:10 | We can continue working
with audio from here on out.
| | 07:15 |
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| Adding sound effects and music| 00:00 | In the previous movie we concentrated on
organizing our sound clips in Pro Tools.
| | 00:04 | In this movie we'll look at adding
outside audio to our project to enhance it.
| | 00:08 | So let's say we decided we want to
chain one of the music cues in the piece.
| | 00:12 | I'm going to show how to import audio from
outside Pro Tools and place it in the timeline.
| | 00:17 | The method that offers the most
control is to go to File > Import > Audio.
| | 00:22 | Here we see the import dialog box.
| | 00:25 | In this box we can audition the source
audio and even control the volume as we listen.
| | 00:33 | (music playing)
| | 00:39 | We can also see info about its properties.
| | 00:42 | Notice the sample rate is 44.1 kilohertz
and remember our session is at 48 kilohertz.
| | 00:48 | Once we decide this is the audio we want, we
will choose Convert. It should be converted
| | 00:52 | rather than added since it has a
mismatching file type and sample rate.
| | 00:56 | But you could choose Add and Pro Tools 10
will now allow mismatched audio types all
| | 01:00 | in one session, though I like to
keep everything the same if I can.
| | 01:03 | We'll choose Apply SRC, which stands for Sample
Rate Conversion, to make the file 48 kilohertz
| | 01:10 | to match our session sample rate.
| | 01:13 | Pro Tools asks you where do you want to put
the file, and it defaults to the Audio Files
| | 01:16 | folder for the current session.
This is what we want.
| | 01:19 | Next, Pro Tools ask you if you want to put
it on a New Track or in the Clips List which
| | 01:24 | is the big list of clips to the right-
hand side of the Pro Tools edit window.
| | 01:29 | Let's choose New Track and Pro Tools
will create a new track for us.
| | 01:32 | It'll name the track the name
of the source audio file as well.
| | 01:37 | Now we want to place this music about halfway
where the other music is, so we'll place it there.
| | 01:43 | If our Edit tool is still a Smart tool, which
is all three tools combined, we can go to the
| | 01:48 | end of the clip, and we will trim and
fade each music to make two music cues.
| | 01:56 | If you go to the top right or left of the
clip and pull down, you can fade it in and out.
| | 02:02 | If you go to the just the
side of the clip, you can trim it.
| | 02:07 | Now we will go over the Volume view of this track,
and we will adjust to Track volume as necessary.
| | 02:12 | You can also just click and drag in the
following display to change the volume of the track.
| | 02:16 | Next, we want to import some background sounds to
enrich the audio in some of these outdoor shots.
| | 02:22 | This time we'll try another technique for importing.
| | 02:24 | We will just drag and drop
audio straight into Pro Tools.
| | 02:27 | But first, we should set one preference.
| | 02:30 | Go to Pro Tools > Preferences
and then click the Processing tab.
| | 02:36 | Choose the options Copy Files on Import and
Convert Copied Files to Session Format.
| | 02:42 | These will ensure that anything we drag and drop
into Pro Tools we be properly converted and
| | 02:46 | added to our Pro Tools Session folder.
This is good practice to get into.
| | 02:51 | Next, let's make a stereo track for the
ambient sound effect to go on, use Shif+Command+N
| | 02:56 | and select Stereo Audio track.
| | 03:02 | Now we will go to the Finder, and we will drag
this Birds Morning file right into the track we made.
| | 03:07 | Again we can adjust the volume as necessary,
you can also copy and paste it to make it
| | 03:11 | longer if we need it.
| | 03:13 | As you have seen in this movie, adding music
or sound effects from outside Pro Tools is
| | 03:17 | really easy, and it's really
helpful to enrich your audio tracks.
| | 03:20 | In the next few movies we will take closer look
at editing, fixing, and mixing your audio tracks.
| | 03:25 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
|
|
4. Enhancing Your AudioUsing crossfades effectively| 00:00 | One of the most powerful ways to smooth out
your audio is to make sure transitions between
| | 00:05 | audio clips are as seamless as possible.
| | 00:08 | In this movie we'll look at how to use Fades and
Crossfades to smooth out these transitions in Pro Tools.
| | 00:13 | It's an unwritten rule that for audio no clip
should start or stop without at least a small fade.
| | 00:19 | Without the small fades, even if they're imperceptible
to the ear, you're in danger of pops and clicks
| | 00:24 | that can occur between edits.
| | 00:26 | First, let's open up Preferences
to set up our default Fade settings.
| | 00:31 | Go to Pro Tools > Preferences
and click on the Editing tab.
| | 00:37 | Here you see the Default Fade
Settings for Fade In, Fade Out, and Crossfade.
| | 00:46 | I've found that for audio postproduction,
Equal Power fades work better than Equal Gain,
| | 00:51 | especially when fading to clips
of a similar material together.
| | 00:55 | So let's change all three of
these to be all Equal Power fades.
| | 01:01 | Now all of our default
fades will be equal power fades.
| | 01:04 | Now back in the Edit window, you can
make fades in a couple different ways.
| | 01:08 | If you use a Smart tool on the top left or
right edge of a clip and pull it out you can
| | 01:13 | fade in or out of the clip.
| | 01:15 | While I am using a smart tool at the bottom
of two adjoining clips lets you pull out a
| | 01:19 | crossfade between the clips.
| | 01:22 | For more control you can select over the
area you wish to fade and type Command+F--you can
| | 01:30 | make your settings and adjust the
fade and hit OK to create the fade.
| | 01:37 | If you want to trim the length of an already-
made fade, you can use the Trimmer tool to do that.
| | 01:44 | If the Smart tool is active, the Trimmer tool
appears as you approach the middle edge of clip.
| | 01:52 | You can get back into the Fades dialog box
by double-clicking the fade area with the
| | 01:56 | Grabber or Hand tool, which appears in the
Smart tools close to the bottom of the clip.
| | 02:03 | Selecting a fade and typing the
Delete key gets rid of the fade altogether.
| | 02:07 | When you have a bunch of clips stacked
together as in the BD interview here, you may want
| | 02:12 | to simply make sure they're no
pops and clicks between the edits.
| | 02:16 | For this kind of
operation you can use Batch Fades.
| | 02:20 | As long as your selection covers over more
than one clip, as you're doing here, when you type
| | 02:24 | Command+F you get the Batch Fades dialog box.
| | 02:29 | Here we can choose the type of Fade Pro Tools
will make between all regions in the selection.
| | 02:34 | Let's choose Equal Power, 3 milliseconds, and uncheck
Adjust existing fades to leave any previous fades alone.
| | 02:42 | This should help smooth out any edits
between clips, and since these fades are happening
| | 02:45 | so fast you won't hear them as
audible volume changes over the cuts.
| | 02:50 | Now that we've made them, if we zoom in
really close you can see that there is tiny fades
| | 02:56 | in between all these clips.
| | 02:59 | Fades are a very useful tool in the Pro Tools
arsenal, and it's not unusual to have at least
| | 03:03 | a small fade on virtually every clip
in the session to avoid pops and clicks.
| | 03:07 | With the Batch Fades feature, this can be
extremely fast. Definitely take the time to know and
| | 03:12 | use fades and use them to enhance the
smooth out the audio for your video.
| | 03:17 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Enhancing sound with the EQ 3 7-band equalizer plug-in| 00:00 | The Equalizer is possibly the most
powerful sound processing tool we have, because it
| | 00:04 | can fine-tune specifics of
the audio spectrum that we hear.
| | 00:08 | In this movie I'll show you how to hone in an
unwanted audio, so you can make your clips sound better.
| | 00:14 | As you might have noticed, the John Downey
interview in the kitchen has a lot of noise in it.
| | 00:19 | Let's open a real-time EQ-7 plug-in from our
Inserts Menu on that track to see if we can
| | 00:24 | do something about this.
| | 00:26 | Just click on any of the available Insert
slots and under the plug-in > EQ, you see
| | 00:31 | the EQ 3 7-Band Equalizer.
That's the one we're going to use.
| | 00:36 | The EQ 3 7-Band EQ comes with Pro Tools, and
it gives us a really nice display to work with.
| | 00:42 | Audio frequencies are measured in hertz.
| | 00:45 | At the far left we see 20 Hz. This is
the lowest pitch sound our ears can hear.
| | 00:50 | I'm talking about earthquakes, low rumbles,
thunder, these are the kind of sounds that
| | 00:54 | have frequency information down here at this range.
At the top end we see 20K.
| | 01:00 | This means 20 kHz, it's the same as 20,000 Hz.
This is the highest pitch sound we can hear.
| | 01:07 | I'm talking here about very high pitched
hisses and really trebly stuff in the 10-20K range.
| | 01:14 | Now in the middle lies where the human voice
exists, mainly from around 100 Hz to 6000 Hz.
| | 01:21 | We can start out helping our audio
here by removing anything we don't need.
| | 01:25 | In this audio clip we're primarily
concerned with hearing this guy John's voice.
| | 01:29 | So let's start by removing any low frequencies
that exist below the frequencies of his voice.
| | 01:34 | To do this we'll use something called a
High Pass Filter, abbreviated here by HPF.
| | 01:39 | So let the highest pass and remove any low
frequencies that exist below the frequencies of his voice.
| | 01:46 | I want to click the IN button for HPF
and change the Slope to a higher slope.
| | 01:53 | Let's go up to 18 dB/octave.
| | 01:55 | This will help cut out low frequencies
more directly than the default setting.
| | 02:01 | We'll move the frequency
with this knob up to 80 Hz.
| | 02:04 | If you're wearing headphones or have good
speakers with extended low end, you'll immediately
| | 02:08 | be able to hear difference
here as we play it through.
| | 02:11 | Let's take a listen, and I'll
bypass the plug-in as I play it back.
| | 02:15 | (male speaker: We opened this restaurant in
1982, and in about 1983 BD came through.
| | 02:26 | We opened this restaurant in 1982--)
| | 02:28 | If you can hear those low frequencies come
and go, you'll notice it's really helping.
| | 02:32 | I'd say it's safe to insert a High Pass Filter on
every dialog in B Roll track in this whole session.
| | 02:38 | Since we don't really need any low
information from these tracks to tell the story, it will
| | 02:42 | clean up the project to a
great deal just by doing that.
| | 02:45 | Next, we'll use the parametric or bell-shaped
EQs to hone in on some hum coming from the
| | 02:50 | refrigerators and other
machinery that are in the room.
| | 02:54 | We'll again start low, using the LF Low Filter.
| | 02:58 | Let's switch it to Parametric mode by
clicking on the little circular button.
| | 03:03 | Now for hums in kitchens or indoor spaces, I
always start around 60 Hz, because in the
| | 03:08 | United States the alternating
current of our electricity is 60 Hz.
| | 03:12 | And a lot of machines
generate hums near that frequency.
| | 03:17 | So I'll turn the queue here all the way up.
| | 03:19 | This makes the EQ Band as narrow as possible.
| | 03:23 | Then I'll increase the Gain and sweep it
around until the hum becomes the loudest.
| | 03:28 | (male speaker: We opened this restaurant
in 1982, and in about 1983--)
| | 03:36 | I noticed the hum is most evident just
below 60 Hz, around 57 Hz in this clip.
| | 03:43 | Now we'll just turn the
Gain down to notch it out.
| | 03:46 | Next, go up to double that
frequency, so that will be 114 Hz.
| | 03:50 | This is how a lot of hums work in multiple
harmonics, twice and three times the base frequency.
| | 03:58 | We'll want to notch this frequency out too.
| | 04:01 | Now let's go one more to 230 Hz, which is
two times 114, the last setting we made.
| | 04:09 | We have to be careful here because this is
getting into the tone of this guy's voice, but we
| | 04:12 | can still notch it out a little bit.
| | 04:15 | Now what about high frequency hiss? In this
clip, we can definitely use a Low Pass Filter,
| | 04:20 | which is the opposite of the High Pass Filter.
| | 04:24 | It lets the lows pass,
and it cuts out the highs.
| | 04:28 | Let's introduce that one more
gradually to the top end as I'm doing here.
| | 04:32 | Finally, there's one more
frequency that I can hear.
| | 04:36 | It's a very high frequency that televisions make.
| | 04:40 | I'm not sure, but I'm willing to bet there's
a TV off screen somewhere in this kitchen.
| | 04:44 | That frequency is a very specific 15,650 Hz.
| | 04:48 | It's just a number that you kind of know
if you've been doing this for long enough.
| | 04:53 | Let's type that number into the highest frequency band,
and we'll notch that frequency out, too, to get rid of it.
| | 04:59 | Okay, now let's play this clip with these
settings, and I'll Bypass it as we're going
| | 05:03 | to hear if we are actually making a difference.
| | 05:06 | (male speaker: We opened this restaurant in 1982, and in
about 1983 BD came through the back door. He's dedicated--)
| | 05:16 | As you can hear, it's a lot clearer
and cleaner with these EQ Settings.
| | 05:21 | So we're doing something good.
| | 05:23 | So now you can see just how effective EQ
can be with carving out unwanted frequencies.
| | 05:28 | Now that you've got some insight on how EQ
works, feel free to enhance and fix problems
| | 05:32 | on all your audio with these powerful tools.
| | 05:37 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Dealing with noise problems| 00:00 | There're several noise reduction software
plug-in bundles out there that you can buy
| | 00:03 | as add-ons to Pro Tools.
| | 00:05 | But you would be surprised how much
you can do just by simple editing.
| | 00:08 | A lot of noise problems are just short
events that if edited out properly can really make
| | 00:13 | a difference in how clean your clips sound.
| | 00:16 | Let's take the John Downey
interview, for example.
| | 00:19 | Here is one of these noise issues. Right on
the cut it sounds like he is smacking his lips.
| | 00:23 | Let's take a listen.
| | 00:26 | (video playing)
| | 00:30 | Our first inclination is to
select this area and delete it.
| | 00:33 | But we have to be a
little more crafty than that.
| | 00:36 | Because this whole interview is a little noisy, we'll
really miss that background sound if it's just deleted.
| | 00:41 | So what we want to do is scroll through the
clip and find some empty air where we hear
| | 00:45 | just the background noise
only and no one's talking.
| | 00:49 | There's actually a bunch
here at the end of the clip.
| | 00:52 | Now we'll select this, and we'll copy
it to our clipboard by typing Command+C.
| | 00:57 | Now we'll use a handy
technique here called paste to fill.
| | 01:00 | We will go back to the area where we want
to fill where the problem is, and we'll type
| | 01:04 | Command+Option+V to paste it in.
| | 01:07 | By using this command instead of just the
regular paste command, Pro Tools will fill
| | 01:11 | just exactly the space we selected.
| | 01:13 | If the space was longer than the clip you
had in the clipboard, Pro Tools will loop
| | 01:17 | and cross fade the clip for
you until it fills the gap.
| | 01:19 | Don't forget to put in some small
crossfades to smooth out the edit.
| | 01:23 | Let's do this, and then
we'll take a short listen.
| | 01:30 | (video playing)
Great, that sounds much better.
| | 01:36 | Now that we have his room tone in our clipboard,
there're some other places in the interview
| | 01:39 | where we can use the same technique.
| | 01:40 | Check out at time code 01:03:28:10,
there's a clicking sound we can cover up.
| | 01:47 | (video playing)
| | 01:51 | So we'll just select that area where we want
to fill, and Command+Option+V to paste it in.
| | 01:57 | (video playing)
| | 02:00 | Don't forget to fade the
in and out of your paste.
| | 02:04 | Towards the end of this interview, near time
code 01:03:43:19, is also another type of noise,
| | 02:10 | but this is some kind of digital click rather than
something that happened at the location. Take a listen.
| | 02:18 | (video playing)
| | 02:23 | These kinds of digital clicks can happen from
faulty wireless microphones or even just digital
| | 02:28 | glitches that can occur
somewhere along the project's creation.
| | 02:31 | The good thing is these types of
glitches can be edited out as well.
| | 02:34 | We're going to use the Pencil tool to
actually redraw the waveform to fix this problem.
| | 02:39 | Now this is one of the few processes in Pro Tools
that is destructive, and it will forever
| | 02:43 | alter your source media.
So you may want to make a copy first.
| | 02:47 | Let's do that by selecting and
going to Edit > Consolidate Clip.
| | 02:51 | This will just make another copy of this file
that we can alter and not mess up the original.
| | 02:57 | Now what we will next do is known as
scrubbing. By holding down the Ctrl key and dragging
| | 03:02 | in the clip, we can hear what's
underneath until we find the glitch.
| | 03:08 | (video playing)
| | 03:15 | Once we find the exact glitch, our cursor
will be centered on it, and we can zoom way in.
| | 03:20 | Once the waveforms turned to a thin line, we can
select our Pencil tool, and we'll redraw the waveforms.
| | 03:28 | When you're redrawing the waveform, just try to imagine
the originals shape how the waveform was and follow it.
| | 03:33 | There're actually two problem
areas here that we can repair.
| | 03:39 | Now let's zoom out and take a listen
and see if we can still hear the glitch.
| | 03:44 | (video playing)
| | 03:48 | Great that sounds pretty good.
We've fixed the glitch.
| | 03:51 | If you want to learn more on noise reduction
and using third-party noise reduction add-ons,
| | 03:55 | be sure to watch the more advanced Audio
for Film and Video with Pro Tools course.
| | 04:00 | There're tons more on this subject there.
| | 04:05 |
| | Collapse this transcript |
| Using automation for volume and other parameters| 00:00 | In some of the previous movies, we talked
about changing the volume of your tracks,
| | 00:04 | but with some tracks like the music tracks,
you might have noticed that when you move
| | 00:07 | the volume, it automatically
snaps back when you hit Play.
| | 00:12 | Watch the volume level after I
adjust the volume and hit Play.
| | 00:18 | (music playing)
| | 00:26 | It snaps back to a different value.
| | 00:29 | This is because this track has volume
automation breakpoints already written to it.
| | 00:34 | In this movie, we will explore how to view and
draw in volume automation and plug-in automation also.
| | 00:40 | To see volume automation, you have to
first change the view of your tracks.
| | 00:44 | Let's go to the volume view in the MUS 1 track.
| | 00:48 | You can also click into the track and type the minus
key to toggle between waveform and volume view.
| | 00:56 | So here's our volume automation.
| | 00:59 | These breakpoints came across from
Final Cut Pro in our XML/AAF transfer.
| | 01:04 | But now we will refine
them further in Pro Tools.
| | 01:07 | With the Smart tool you can click and drag
on any of the breakpoints to move them around.
| | 01:13 | To create new breakpoints, hold the
Command button and click on the line.
| | 01:20 | You can also select the Pencil
tool and draw in automation by hand.
| | 01:26 | To delete a breakpoint, hold
Option and click the breakpoint.
| | 01:30 | To delete more than one breakpoint, you can
select a range and type Delete on the keyboard.
| | 01:36 | Automation can also be copied and pasted
from one area to another as we see here.
| | 01:42 | Select Command+C to copy and Command+V to paste.
| | 01:47 | And during the mixing stage of your project,
you can and should spend time refining the
| | 01:51 | volumes of all your clips in
the sequence with automation.
| | 01:54 | But remember, volume isn't the
only parameter you can adjust.
| | 01:58 | Basically, any parameter you can imagine is
able to be automated over time in Pro Tools,
| | 02:04 | like plug-in parameters for instance.
| | 02:07 | Plug-in parameters can be automated just like
volume, but there's one small twist: you have
| | 02:11 | to first enable the parameter
you want to be automated.
| | 02:15 | Let's take, for example, this
EQ insert on the B ROLL track.
| | 02:18 | Let's solo the track, and we will take a
listen to this first clip called B ROLL picking.
| | 02:23 | It has a nice open sound.
| | 02:27 | (video playing)
| | 02:33 | Now let's take a listen to the second
two clips, especially the second half.
| | 02:37 | You will hear some high-frequency hiss in there.
| | 02:40 | (video playing)
| | 02:49 | So we will use automation to enable a low
pass filter on the second two clips while
| | 02:55 | we'll leave the first clip alone, and any other clips
on this track will be left alone if we do this right.
| | 03:00 | First, let's enable the low pass filter
and dial it in for the second two clips.
| | 03:08 | Click the IN button on the low pass
filter and dial it back until it sounds good.
| | 03:12 | Around 7 kilohertz, we
should hear the hiss reduced.
| | 03:15 | (video playing)
| | 03:20 | Next, we have to enable
that parameter to be automated.
| | 03:24 | So we'll click the box right below
the word Auto in the Plug-In window.
| | 03:29 | This opens our Plug-In Automation enable menu.
| | 03:32 | Here we can scroll down, and we will add
the LPF Enable to our list of parameters.
| | 03:38 | Once we do this, we will click OK.
| | 03:41 | Here's a good hint, another way to enable a
plug-in parameter is to Ctrl+Option+Command,
| | 03:48 | all three modifiers, click on
the parameter you want to add.
| | 03:52 | That way you don't have to
go into that complicated menu.
| | 03:55 | Now that we have the Low-Pass filter enabled,
I will close the Plug-In window for a second,
| | 03:59 | so we can see better.
| | 04:01 | Now where we found the volume automation in this menu,
we can see the 7-Band EQ and Low-Pass filter is there.
| | 04:07 | We will select it.
| | 04:09 | Now this parameter has two
states, it's either on or off.
| | 04:13 | So let's enable it in just for those two
clips we want to alter with the Trim tool.
| | 04:19 | Good! Now if I open the Plug-In window again
and hit Play, we will see I will go in just
| | 04:26 | before the clip, and it will
turn off just after automatically.
| | 04:29 | (video playing)
| | 04:32 | We have now automated this plug-in parameter.
| | 04:35 | So now that you have seen how automation
works in Pro Tools, your project's mix can now be
| | 04:41 | as dynamic and flexible as you want it to be.
| | 04:44 | In the next movie, we will talk about
where your volume level should be ideally.
| | 04:49 |
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| Exploring loudness and mixing| 00:00 | Overall loudness of your mix is both a
hot topic and a confusing one at best.
| | 00:05 | The short answer to how loud you
should mix is, well, it depends.
| | 00:09 | In this movie I'll guide you through a few
techniques to monitor and control the overall
| | 00:13 | levels of your mix, so it'll
sound right wherever it gets played.
| | 00:17 | To see how loud our program volume is,
let's make a Master Fader, type Shift+Command+N
| | 00:23 | and choose Stereo > Master.
| | 00:27 | A Master Fader is like a final level control
and meter that our entire mix gets sent through.
| | 00:33 | Next, let's insert a
PhaseScope on the Master Fader.
| | 00:36 | This is a plug-in that comes with Pro Tools, and
it allows you to meter your levels as you work.
| | 00:42 | Change the meter on the left to Peak and RMS.
| | 00:46 | A Peak meter shows us instantaneous volume
changes, while RMS--which stands for Root
| | 00:52 | Mean Square--is more of an
average of volume over time.
| | 00:56 | Now I'll play a little bit of this program
back, and notice the Peak meter is shown in
| | 01:00 | green and the RMS level is
shown in blue in this meter.
| | 01:03 | Check out the differences in the way the
two meters interact when I play it back.
| | 01:07 | (music playing)
| | 01:10 | (male speaker: My name is BD Dautch, and I have
Earthtrine Farm, where we've been since 1998,
| | 01:19 | and we've got about 10 acres in Ojai,
and it's all certified organic by--)
| | 01:24 | These are two common ways to
view your levels in a meter.
| | 01:27 | So how do we control this in our mix? The
short answer is with volume automation, like
| | 01:32 | we saw in the using automation for
volume and other parameters movie.
| | 01:37 | But we can use meters to give us a general
ballpark range about where our levels are.
| | 01:41 | The first thing to know about meters is
that they never give you the entire picture.
| | 01:45 | It's impossible to characterize how our complex
hearing system experiences loudness through meters.
| | 01:51 | But they can provide some useful information.
| | 01:53 | I'll give you some guidelines for where
program material tends to read on meters.
| | 01:59 | The overall loudness of your mix will
differ depending on what the intended venue is.
| | 02:03 | If your project is destined for the Internet,
you'll want it louder and have less dynamic
| | 02:08 | range from quiet to loud, since most viewers will
be listening on small laptop or computer speakers.
| | 02:14 | For a material destined for places like YouTube or
the Internet, peaks in the range of -1 to -3 can happen.
| | 02:21 | RMS will be around -16
or -17 for optimum levels.
| | 02:27 | For Television and Broadcast, it will need
to be less loud and may need to meet certain
| | 02:31 | overall level specifications
in terms of how loud it can be.
| | 02:35 | Peaks are usually limited to -8 or -10.
| | 02:38 | Sometimes audio engineers will use a limiter
processor to do this, and the RMS can hover around -18 to -20.
| | 02:46 | For a movie theater, you can have the most dynamic
range between the quiet and loud passages of the project.
| | 02:51 | This is because the audience will be
sitting in a quiet room with full range speakers.
| | 02:56 | Film and theatrical mixes are going to be
similar in general to broadcast mixes except,
| | 03:01 | there is no limiter necessary.
| | 03:03 | So in really loud passages, peaks can get
up to -1 and subsequently higher RMS will
| | 03:08 | happen in during these sections as well.
| | 03:11 | Another more important thing to consider is
that most professional audio engineers don't
| | 03:15 | use meters too much.
| | 03:16 | They rely on their ears to tell
them when it's too loud or too quiet.
| | 03:20 | To do this, you have to
calibrate your monitor system.
| | 03:23 | You can find more information on calibration in the
Audio for Video Professionals with Pro Tools course.
| | 03:28 |
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5. Exporting Back to Final Cut ProExporting out of Pro Tools and back into FCP| 00:00 | Once we've mixed and finished our
project, to complete it, we have two options.
| | 00:04 | We can either import a clean version of our
final edit without the timecode burn and print
| | 00:09 | our audio to that, or we can just bounce the
audio out of Pro Tools to a Stereo file and
| | 00:14 | reimport it back into Final Cut Pro.
In this movie, I'll go over both methods.
| | 00:20 | Let's start with bouncing
to a QuickTime movie.
| | 00:22 | I'll import a clean no-timecode version
of the movie without any audio.
| | 00:27 | Go to File > Import > Video and find the video.
I have it here on my Desktop.
| | 00:36 | There's no need to import
the audio for this movie.
| | 00:40 | Once it's in Pro Tools, let's make the movie
active, make sure you select the entire length
| | 00:45 | of the piece on any track to
determine the in and out points.
| | 00:49 | And then we will go to File >
Bounce to > QuickTime Movie.
| | 00:52 | We'll leave the settings at 48 kilohertz,
Interleaved, and we'll name it final mix,
| | 00:57 | and we'll save it to our Desktop.
| | 01:01 | Keep in mind this process
happens in the real time.
| | 01:03 | So if you have a 2-hour long movie, you
have to make sure you have 2 hours to do this.
| | 01:11 | (music playing)
| | 01:17 | When it's done, your new QuickTime Movie
will contain your new stereo audio mix.
| | 01:20 | But what if you still want to alter some visual
stuff in Final Cut Pro like titles or graphics
| | 01:26 | after you import your finished sound?
| | 01:28 | For this method, we'll bounce our
audio only mix to disc in Pro Tools.
| | 01:31 | Then we'll reimport it back into
Final Cut Pro and finish it there.
| | 01:35 | Again, select the length of the piece on any track
to determine the in and out points before you bounce.
| | 01:40 | Then go to File > Bounce to > Disk, and let's keep
it full-res, 48 kilohertz, WAV, 16 Bit, Interleaved.
| | 01:48 | Now click Bounce, and we'll name it audio
only mix, and we'll also put it on our Desktop.
| | 01:53 | Remember, this happens in real time as well.
Now, let's step back into Final Cut Pro.
| | 02:01 | Now right-click the Audio Export
project, and we'll make a Duplicate Project.
| | 02:06 | We'll call it final audio mix.
| | 02:12 | Now with the final audio mix project selected,
go into the Timeline view by clicking the
| | 02:16 | film reel icon on the bottom left.
| | 02:19 | Once we're here, type Command+A
to select all your clips.
| | 02:26 | Now with all the clips selected, right-
click on any clip and create a compound clip.
| | 02:31 | Once you've the compound clip, right-
click on it and choose Detach Audio.
| | 02:35 | This will separate the audio.
Now select this audio and delete it.
| | 02:41 | Next we'll import our Audio Mix.
| | 02:44 | Go to File > Import > Files, and find our
stereo audio mix we just bounced out of Pro Tools.
| | 02:54 | Now in our Farmers_Market event,
we should have our mixed audio clip.
| | 02:58 | Select it and drag it into
the beginning of the timeline.
| | 03:03 | Don't forget the usefulness of the 2-pop
and tail pop to verify sync was maintained.
| | 03:09 | And there we go, our final mix is now
imported into the timeline for this project.
| | 03:14 | You have now completed your cycle.
| | 03:16 | You went out of Final Cut Pro, you went into
Pro Tools, you edited and mixed and finished
| | 03:20 | your sound, and now you have
brought it back into Final Cut Pro.
| | 03:23 | That's an awesome workflow
if I've ever seen one.
| | 03:28 |
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ConclusionFinal thoughts| 00:00 | In this course, we've looked at how to master a
workflow that involves sending our soundtracks
| | 00:04 | from Final Cut Pro X to Pro Tools and back.
| | 00:07 | Along the way, we explored some options and
how to optimize your audio mix in Pro Tools.
| | 00:12 | While we just barely scratched the surface
on what you can do in Pro Tools, at the very
| | 00:16 | least, you have a good sense of how this
workflow operates and what kind of things are possible
| | 00:21 | when you expand your
methods to include Pro Tools.
| | 00:24 | If you're interested in more in-depth audio
for video techniques, please watch my other
| | 00:27 | course called Audio for
Film and Video with Pro Tools.
| | 00:31 | There we get more heavily into concepts like
noise reduction and postproduction mixing techniques.
| | 00:35 | We even get into surround mixing.
| | 00:38 | Thanks again for watching this course.
I'll see you next time.
| | 00:43 |
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