Apple Final Cut Pro X 10.1.2 User Guide

							 Chapter 8    Edit audio 2 01
Delete keyframes
Do one of the following:
 mSelect a keyframe in the Audio Animation Editor, and press Option-Shift-Delete.
 mNavigate to a keyframe in the Audio inspector, and click the Keyframe button.
Keyframe button
Hide audio animation
Do one of the following:
 mSelect the clip in the Timeline, and choose Clip > Hide Audio Animation (or press Control-A).
 mClick the close button  in the upper-left corner of the Audio Animation Editor.
 mControl-click the clip in the Timeline, and choose Hide Audio Animation from the shortcut menu. 
In addition to the tasks described above, you can manipulate multiple keyframes simultaneously. 
This works the same way for audio keyframes as it does for video keyframes. See Modify groups 
of keyframes
 on page 264.
You can also copy specific keyframes between different attributes or between different clips. See 
Copy and paste keyframes
 on page 246 .
Audio tools and techniques
Enhance audio
Final Cut Pro includes several powerful tools for both analyzing and enhancing the audio portion 
of clips, including:
 •Loudness: Improves the main audio signal and makes it more uniform.
 •Background Noise Removal: Reduces background noise.
 •Hum Removal: Reduces common electrical hum noise at either 50 or 60 Hz.
You can analyze audio and adjust loudness, background noise, and hum using the Audio 
Enhancements inspector. You can also analyze and fix audio problems when you import a clip.
The Audio Enhancements section of the Audio inspector also includes:
 •Equalization: Enhances the high-end (treble), midrange, or low-end (bass) frequencies.
All enhancements are designed to correct most common audio problems automatically or with 
minor adjustments. 
Note:  When you import a clip, the analyze and fix audio function only corrects severe audio 
problems. If the clip contains moderate problems, these appear in yellow next to Audio Analysis 
in the Audio Enhancements section of the Audio inspector after the clip is imported. To correct 
these, you need to automatically enhance audio in the Audio Enhancements inspector.
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Analyze audio
 1 Select an audio clip or video clip with audio in the Timeline.
 2 To analyze the audio, do one of the following: 
 •Choose Window > Go To > Audio Enhancements (or press Command-8).
 •Choose Show Audio Enhancements from the Enhancements pop-up menu in the toolbar.
 •In the Audio inspector, click the Audio Enhancements Inspector button  next to Audio 
Analysis in the Audio Enhancements section. ( The button changes color if any adjustments 
have been made.)
The Audio Enhancements inspector appears. After analysis, indicators appear next to each 
enhancement to show results:
 •A red sign indicates severe problems.
 •A yellow warning triangle indicates potential problems.
 •A green checkmark indicates OK.
 3 To close the Audio Enhancements inspector, click the back button .
You can automatically or manually change enhancement settings to correct any problems. 
Automatically enhance audio
You can automatically enhance audio to analyze for and correct loudness, background noise, 
and hum.
 1 Select an audio clip or video clip with audio in the Timeline.
 2 Do one of the following: 
 •Choose Modify > Auto Enhance Audio.
 •Choose Auto Enhance Audio from the Enhancements pop-up menu in the toolbar.
 •Click the Auto Enhance button at the bottom of the Audio Enhancements inspector.
 3 To close the Audio Enhancements inspector, click the back button . 
After analysis, a green checkmark next to an enhancement indicates that the clip was analyzed 
for that enhancement. Details appear if a correction was automatically applied.
A blue checkbox appears next to each enhancement that was turned on to apply a correction. 
Deselect the checkbox to turn off an enhancement.
Apply enhancements manually
After you analyze audio, you can adjust the enhancements manually.
 1 Select an audio clip or video clip with audio in the Timeline.
 2 To show the Audio Enhancements inspector, do one of the following: 
 •Choose Window > Go To > Audio Enhancements (or press Command-8).
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 •Choose Show Audio Enhancements from the Enhancements pop-up menu in the toolbar.
 •In the Audio inspector, click the Audio Enhancements Inspector button  next to Audio 
Analysis in the Audio Enhancements section. (After you make any adjustments, the button 
changes color.)
 3 To turn on an enhancement, click its icon or select its checkbox (when the enhancement is 
turned on, its checkbox is blue).
Blue checkbox
 4 If necessary, do any of the following:
 •To change Loudness settings: Drag the Amount and Uniformity percentage sliders. The 
Amount slider increases or decreases the overall loudness (compression) of the clip, while the 
Uniformity slider increases or decreases the dynamic range affected.
 •To change the percentage of Background Noise Removal: Drag the Amount slider.
 •To remove hum: Select either 50 Hz or 60 Hz for Hum Removal.
 5 To close the Audio Enhancements inspector, click the back button . 
Adjust equalization
 1 Select the clip in the Timeline.
 2 In the Audio Enhancements section of the Audio inspector, choose an Equalization preset from 
the Equalization pop-up menu, or click the Controls button to make manual adjustments.
Controls button
Choose a preset from this pop-up menu.
If you want a clip to sound like another clip, you can match the audio.
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Sync audio and video
Final Cut Pro can automatically analyze and sync the audio and video clips in your project.
For example, if you select two video clips and three audio clips from different sources that were 
all recorded during the same take, Final Cut Pro automatically analyzes and syncs the clips 
together into a new clip in the Browser. Final Cut Pro analyzes the clips for sync points such as 
markers you’ve added, timecode, file creation date, and audio content. If no sync points can be 
found, the clips are synced at their respective starting points.
For finer control of the syncing process, you can use custom settings to adjust several 
different parameters.
Selected clips in the Browser
New clip containing synchronized clips
Synchronized
clip contents
Primary storyline
for the synchronized clip Connected 
clips
Sync clips automatically
 1 In the Browser, select the audio or video clips you want to sync.
 2 Do one of the following:
 •Choose Clip > Synchronize Clips (or press Option-Command-G).
 •Control-click the selection and choose Synchronize Clips from the shortcut menu.
 3 In the window tha
t appears, type a name for the synced clip in the Synchronized Clip Name field.
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 4 Use the In Event pop-up menu to choose the event in which you want to create the new 
synced clip.
 5 To sync clips using audio waveform data, select “Use audio for synchronization.” 
This option makes precision sync adjustments using audio waveforms.
Sync point
Note:  Some audio recordings are not suited for use with this feature. Selecting this option may 
result in long processing times during which Final Cut Pro is not available for editing.
 6 If the automatic settings are not shown, click Use Automatic Settings.
The automatic settings appear.
Note:  The automatic settings are shown by default, but if the last synced clip you created used 
custom settings, those settings are shown.
 7 Click OK.
Final Cut Pro creates a new synced clip in the event you specfied.
Sync clips using custom settings
 1 In the Browser, select the audio or video clips you want to sync.
 2 Do one of the following:
 •Choose Clip > Synchronize Clips (or press Option-Command-G).
 •Control-click the selection and choose Synchronize Clips from the shortcut menu.
 3 In the window tha t appears, type a name for the synced clip in the Synchronized Clip Name field.
 4 Use the In Event pop-up menu to choose the event in which you want to create the new 
synced clip.
 5 To show the custom settings, click Use Custom Settings.
The custom settings appear.
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Note:  The automatic settings are shown by default, but if the last synced clip you created used 
custom settings, those settings are shown.
 6 In the Synchronization pop-up menu, choose how the clips are synced:
 •Automatic: Final Cut Pro syncs the clips automatically. 
 •Timecode: Final Cut Pro syncs the clips using timecode recorded in the clips. If you recorded 
timecode in your clips, choose this option. It’s the fastest and most frame-accurate method of 
syncing clips.
01:00:00:00
01:00:00:00 
01:00:00:00
01:00:00:00
Sync point
 •Content Created: Final Cut Pro syncs the clips using the date and time information recorded by 
your camcorder or video recording device.
12:59 PM
12:59 PM
12:59 PM
12:59 PM
Sync point
The Content Created method can sync clips within 1-second accuracy (because in most 
camcorders the smallest unit in date and time information is 1 second). If you choose this 
syncing method, consider doing any of the following to make the sync frame-accurate: 
 •Select “Use audio for synchronization.” (See step 7.) Final Cut Pro uses the Content Created 
data as a starting point and then further refines the sync.
 •Manually adjust the sync. (See “Manually adjust or slip a synced clip,” below.)
Note:  At any time, you can change the Content Created date and time of your source clips in 
the Browser. Just select one or more clips and choose Modify > Adjust Content Created Date 
and Time.
 •Start of First Clip: Final Cut Pro uses the first frame in each clip as the sync point. 
Sync point
Tip:  The Start of First Clip method is useful if you want to use specific range selections of your 
source clips only. In the Browser, add keywords or the Favorite rating to the ranges you want 
to use, and then filter or search for the clips. When you create your synced clip, Final Cut Pro 
uses only the media showing in the filtered view.
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 •First Marker on the Clip: Final Cut Pro uses the first marker in each clip as the sync point. 
Sync point
Tip:  With this method, you can use the first marker to define a region that can be fine-tuned 
with the “Use audio for synchronization” option (described in the next step). In other words, 
you don’t need to place the marker exactly—just close enough so that the automatic audio 
sync feature can sync the clips the rest of the way.
 7 To sync clips using audio waveform data, select “Use audio for synchronization.” 
This option makes precision sync adjustments using audio waveforms.
Sync point
Note:  Some audio recordings are not suited for use with this feature. Selecting this option may 
result in long processing times during which Final Cut Pro is not available for editing.
 8 If you want the synced clip’s timecode to start at a value other than the earliest timecode value 
in the selected clips (the default), type a timecode value in the Starting Timecode field.
 9 If you want to change the video properties for the synced clip, select Custom in the Video 
Properties section and change the settings as appropriate.
Note:  By default, Final Cut Pro analyzes the selected clips and configures these settings 
according to the most common clip properties among the clips.
 10 If you want to change the audio or render settings for the synced clip, select Custom in the 
Audio and Render Properties section and change the settings as appropriate.
 11 Click OK.
Final Cut Pro creates a new synced clip in the event you defined.
Manually adjust or slip a synced clip
You may need to adjust a synced clip (by slipping the sync, for example). You can do this by 
opening the contents of the synced clip in the Timeline. 
 1 Select the clip in the Browser or the Timeline.
 2 Do any of the following:
 •Choose Clip > Open in Timeline.
 •Control-click the synced clip and choose Open in Timeline from the shortcut menu.
The Timeline displays the contents of the clip.
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 3 Make adjustments to the contents of the synced clip.
The contents of a synced clip include a clip in the primary storyline and one or more connected 
clips. You can adjust or slip the sync by dragging the connected clips left or right to change 
the points at which they connect to the clip in the primary storyline. For more information, see 
Connect clips to add cutaway shots, titles, and synchronized sound effects
 on page 10 3.
 4 When you’re done, click the left arrow in the upper-left corner of the Timeline to save your 
changes and close the contents of the synced clip.
Synced clips appear in the Browser. The original clips are not affected. To easily view all synced 
clips, you can create a Smart Collection that uses the Type search category set to Synchronized 
as one of the search criteria. For more information, see Save searches as Smart Collections
 on 
page 75.
If your synced clip contains audio channels that aren’t being used, you can turn them off. See 
Configure audio channels
 on page 171 .
Match audio equalization settings
The Match Audio function uses equalization (EQ) to let you match a selected clip’s sound to 
another clip. This is particularly useful when you have multiple audio clips recorded in different 
environments but want the clips to sound similar to each other. 
Match audio
 1 Select the clip or clips you want changed in the Timeline.
 2 Do one of the following:
 •Choose Modify > Match Audio.
 •Choose Match from the Equalization pop-up menu in the Audio Enhancements section of the 
Audio inspector.
 •Choose Match Audio from the Enhancements pop-up menu in the toolbar.
 3 Click to select the clip whose sound you want to match.
 4 Click Apply Match.
Once you match a clip, you can make adjustments to settings in the Audio Enhancements 
section of the Audio inspector.
Remove audio matching
 1 Select the clip in the Timeline.
 2 In the Audio Enhancements section of the Audio inspector, choose a different equalization 
setting from the Equalization pop-up menu.
To remove all equalization, choose the Flat setting.
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Preserve pitch when retiming clips
By default, Final Cut Pro preserves pitch when retiming clips so that the pitch doesn’t sound 
higher when the clip is faster or lower when the clip is slower. You can turn this feature on or off 
before or after a clip has been retimed.
Turn Preserve Pitch on or off
 1 In the Timeline, select an entire clip, or a range within a clip, whose speed you plan to change.
 2 Choose Preserve Pitch from the Retime pop-up menu in the toolbar.
A checkmark to the left of the command name indicates that Preserve Pitch is turned on. To turn 
it off, choose Preserve Pitch again.
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							  210
Transitions, titles, eff ects, and gener ators o verview
You can easily add special effects to video, audio, and photos in your projects.
Final Cut Pro provides several kinds of effects and controls: 
 •Transitions: Add an effect between clips to control how they change from one to the next. See 
Transitions overview
 on page 2 11.
 •Titles: Use to add text at any point in your project. See  Titles overview on page 220.
 •Effects: Use to do a wide variety of things to your video and audio clips, from subtle (add film 
grain or a color effect to the video, or a graphic equalizer to the audio) to not so subtle (add 
droplet ripples or an insect-eye view to the video, or apply an exaggerated pitch shift to the 
audio). There are two main types of effects:
 •Built-in effects: Use these standard effects to resize, move, rotate, trim, skew, crop, or apply 
the Ken Burns zooming effect to a video clip. These effects are already part of each Timeline 
clip—you just need to adjust them. See Built-in effects overview
 on page 228 .
 •Clip effects: Use these effects to change your video and audio clips to either correct issues or 
create stunning new looks or sounds. See Clip effects overview
 on page 2 41.
 •Generators: Add a special element like a placeholder clip, a timecode generator, or a 
countdown timer, or add colors, patterns, or animated backgrounds to your project. See 
Generators overview
 on page 249 .
 •Onscreen controls: Customize many of your effects using onscreen controls. See Onscreen 
controls overview
 on page 253.
 •Video Animation: Vary effect settings as a clip plays. See  Video animation overview on 
page 258.
Add transitions, titles, effects, 
and generators
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