… for Apple Final Cut Pro X

Tip #530: Enhance Audio in Final Cut

Larry Jordan – LarryJordan.com

Audio can be enhanced manually or automatically.

This tip originally appeared as an Apple KnowledgeBase article. This is an excerpt.

Final Cut Pro includes several powerful tools for automatically analyzing and enhancing the audio in your projects, 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.

All enhancements are designed to correct most common audio problems automatically or with minor adjustments.

You can let Final Cut Pro analyze audio and adjust these problems in your audio clips automatically, or you can make manual adjustments in the Audio Enhancements section of the Audio inspector. You can also analyze and fix audio problems when you import a clip.

NOTE: When you import a clip with the “Analyze and fix audio problems” import option selected, only severe audio problems are corrected. 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 problems, you need to automatically enhance audio in the Audio inspector.

In Final Cut Pro, select an audio clip or a video clip with audio in the timeline.

NOTE: Audio enhancement works on the component level, not the clip level. If your audio clip has more than one audio component (for example, a dual mono clip), select an individual component, then proceed with the enhancements.

• Choose Modify > Auto Enhance Audio (or press Option-Command-A).
• If it isn’t already open, open the Inspector, then click the Audio button at the top.

In the Audio inspector, do any of the following:

• Adjust equalization: In the Equalization section, click the Equalization pop-up menu and choose an equalization preset, or click the Controls button to make manual adjustments.
• Change loudness settings: Drag the Amount and Uniformity percentage sliders in the Loudness section. The Amount slider increases or decreases the overall loudness (compression) of the clip, and the Uniformity slider increases or decreases the dynamic range affected.
• Change the percentage of background noise removal: Drag the Amount slider in the Noise Removal section.
• Remove hum: Select either 50 Hz or 60 Hz in the Hum Removal section.

To turn off an enhancement, deselect its checkbox.

EXTRA CREDIT

• Blue. A blue checkbox appears next to each enhancement that was turned on to apply a correction. You can turn on additional enhancements by selecting their checkboxes (when an enhancement is turned on, its checkbox is blue).
• Green. A green checkmark next to an enhancement indicates that the clip was analyzed and, if necessary, adjusted for that enhancement.
• Yellow. A yellow warning triangle indicates potential problems.
• Red. A red sign indicates severe problems.