Audio Ducking in Final Cut Pro X

Working with audio in Final Cut Pro X

One of the most important parts of making a movie is creating the audio soundtrack that goes with that movie. Whether it is for a business video to be shown on a DVD, to be displayed on a website, destined for the movie theatres or is a YouTube video, sound is one very important part of the mix. When people are watching your videos and movies, they may forgive some not very good picture quality, but watchers will always stop watching if the sound is bad.

Final Cut Pro X audio tools

In the past when I have been using Final Cut Pro, I have tended to export audio out of the application to work with in Amadeus Pro, which is a dedicated audio editing application. Today while making a video about how to do audio ducking in Final Cut, I also found there are more tools hidden underneath the surface. It may be that from now on, I will be less inclined to jump into another Mac program for audio editing. This is because the quality of the audio editing tools in Final Cut Pro X is very good indeed. These audio editing tools can be found in the effects browser.


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Audio ducking in Final Cut Pro X

When I initially started using Final Cut Pro, I thought I needed to individually create keyframes for where I wanted things to happen to either the audio or the video. I have since found that there are a couple of short cuts to make things quicker and easier. So instead of running with my mouse to the top right-hand corner of the screen where the information and settings for objects are situated, I can use the option key with a mouse click. Directly in the timeline I can option click to insert a keyframe allowing me to directly control settings for audio.

Controlling audio effects in FCPX

I also found it is very easy to add various effects to my audio clips. You have strange effects available to give your voice an alien effect and then there are also useful things such as tools to reduce noise. By showing the audio animation area in Final Cut Pro, you can also control multiple levels and effects within one single clip. For example, it may be that at the beginning you want to have a certain effect at a higher level and for it to be reduced and be more subtle further along the timeline. By using the timeline and the audio animation area you get a visual representation of how that is happening. When you are working with audio it is a good idea to increase the size of the tracks within the timeline, so that you get a better view of the waveforms.

Final Cut ProFinal Cut Pro X yet? Have you needed to do audio ducking in Final Cut Pro X?

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