Final Cut Pro X Ripple Lesson - Editing Voice Over - SOUND

Question 1

One of the most common video editing tasks is cutting voice-over. In this lesson, you’ll see not only how to edit voice-over faster than real time, but also learn how to use a unique cocktail of audio effects to _____________ eliminate breathy pauses while ______ presence.

Answer 1

automatically, adding

Question 2

If you’re listening with headphones, you can hear bleed noise typically coming from ceiling fans, air conditioners, computer chassis and hard drives. If you’re only dealing with 30 seconds or so of voice-over, the best solution is probably to edit away unwanted regions of the voice-over using many of the techniques you’ve learned thus far.
If you’re talking about a half hour or more of voice-over, you’re going to be spending a great deal of time cleaning up your audio. But there is a much better way. That was is a _____ ____.

Answer 2

NOISE GATE

Question 3

Noise Gate
Enter the Noise Gate. The Noise Gate is a magic effect that automatically eliminates sounds _____ a certain level of volume.

Answer 3

below

Question 4

Noise Gate
Enter the Noise Gate. The Noise Gate is a magic effect that automatically eliminates sounds below a certain level of volume. It’s essentially the reverse of a __________.

Answer 4

COMPRESSOR

Question 5

Noise Gate
Enter the Noise Gate. The Noise Gate is a magic effect that automatically eliminates sounds below a certain level of volume. It’s essentially the reverse of a Compressor.
Instead of boosting quiet sounds, it actually cuts the quiet sounds entirely allowing loud sounds through. It’s called a gate for a reason; when your audio is quiet the gate is closed, meaning that absolutely no sounds pass through. When the audio is loud the gate opens allowing sound through at it’s _______ volume.

Answer 5

regular

Question 6

Noise Gate
Select the voiceover clip in the timeline, open the effects browser and select the levels category. Double click a noise gate to add it to the voiceover. The ________ immediately reacts to the change and we can identify where the gate is closed and where it’s open.

Answer 6

waveform

Question 7

Noise Gate
In the audio inspector, click to open the noise gate’s HUD. The most important control is the threshold. The threshold determines how ____ a noise needs to be to trigger the noise gate. Until a sound triggers the gate, the output will be completely silent.

Answer 7

loud

Question 8

Noise Gate
Drag the threshold up and down and watch the waveform. At higher thresholds ____ of the wanted sound passes through, and at lower thresholds ____ of the noise passes through.

Answer 8

less, more

Question 9

Noise Gate
With the clip selected we’ll use forward slash to play through the clip and adjust the threshold so that it directly triggers at the _____ of any voice-over phrase. A threshold value of -30 dB seems to work well.

Answer 9

start

Question 10

Noise Gate
Next we need to adjust the release. The release determines how long it takes to _____ the gate once the sound has dropped _____ the threshold.

Answer 10

close, below

Question 11

Noise Gate
Think of the release like an audio fade out. Set the release time too short and you’ll end up clipping the tail end of certain syllables like “S”s. Set it too long and you’ll end up including some of the background noise you’re trying to remove. So adjust until you get a nice balance between hearing the tails of your _____ without picking up unwanted ______.

Answer 11

words, sound

Question 12

Noise Gate

You want attack set as _____ as possible so to avoid missing out on the very first part of a new vocal phrase.

Answer 12

short

Question 13

Noise Gate
You want attack set as short as possible so to avoid missing out on the very first part of a new vocal phrase. In fact, Final Cut Pro’s noise gate includes a ____ _____ function.

Answer 13

look ahead

Question 14

Noise Gate
Look ahead will add a slight delay (aka a time delay or a constant preview) to the signal to allow it to trigger the gate before the loud sound actually arrives. Use this slider to guarantee you don’t lose any quiet proceeding sounds in the vocal phrasing. The ____ look ahead of 20 milliseconds will often produce good results.

Answer 14

full

Question 15

Noise Gate
There are a couple of other controls here worth mentioning. The hold control allows you to set a delay which keeps the gate open after the audio has fallen below the threshold again. This can sometimes be useful if you hear awkward silences between drawn out phrases in the voice-over, but often a generous _______ will take care of this.

Answer 15

release

Question 16

Noise Gate
And then there’s hysteresis. Hysteresis is simply a second threshold to trigger the _______ of the gate. By default it’s set to -3dB, which means the gate won’t close until it’s signal is 3 decibels lower than the original threshold.

Answer 16

release

Question 17

Noise Gate
Once you’ve set threshold and release, listen back to a lengthy section of the voice- over to make sure you’re happy. If you hear awkward silences between some phrases, try adding some ____ time. You should find that when set correctly, the noise gate will work well for all voice-over recorded during the same session, under the same conditions.

Answer 17

hold

Question 18

Noise Gate
You should find that when set correctly, the noise gate will work well for all voice-over recorded during the same session, under the same conditions. With the noise taken care of, you can now add some ___________ and __. Watch the lessons on those topics for more information.

Answer 18

COMPRESSION and EQ

Question 19

Noise Gate

And sometimes adding a small touch of room ______ can help to expand the sounds of the voice-over.

Answer 19

reverb

Question 20

Noise Gate
Let’s finish with a quick tip on how to edit voice-over faster than real time. When voice-over artists make mistakes, most often they keep repeating a section of voice-over until they get it right.
Now, you could listen to the entire recording until you hear the right take, but when you have an hour of voice-over to edit, that could be a day of work. The solution is to watch the waveforms. In the case of the voice-over we’re looking at here, we have the same phrase repeated multiple times.
Paying attention to the shape of the waveforms, you can quickly see where a given phrase starts over, so rather than ___________ each phrase, you can skim to just before the phrase begins, then press I to set an in-point. Skim to the beginning of the next phrase, then press O to set an out point.
Press delete and Final Cut’s magnetic timeline will remove the section then close the gap. You can then move to the next repeated phrase then rinse and repeat. Soon, you’ll get very fast. Let’s play back the edit to hear the result.

Answer 20

auditioning

Question 21

Audio Matching
If you do a lot of voice-over editing it’s fairly common to have sections of recorded dialogue or voice-overs that do not _______ match each other. Perhaps your talent recorded voice-over in one location and another part of the voice-over in another location. Or perhaps two different mice were used to record them.

Answer 21

tonally

Question 22

Audio Matching
If you do a lot of voice-over editing it’s fairly common to have sections of recorded dialogue or voice-overs that do not tonally match each other. Perhaps your talent recorded voice-over in one location and another part of the voice-over in another location. Or perhaps two different mice were used to record them.
In any event, you could use a graphic or parametric EQ to deal with the problem, but there’s a much faster method called _____ _____.

Answer 22

MATCH AUDIO

Question 23

Audio Matching
Open the EQ Match Project. In it I’ve placed 3 recorded clips of my voice-over talent.
The first two clips are identical as I wanted a clip we could easily compare against the original after applying EQ matching. These first two clips were recorded with a Shure dynamic mic and the third clip was recorded with a Sony condenser lav mic.
Let’s take a listen. We’re going to attempt to match the Shure dynamic Mic to the Sony condenser Lav Mic. Start by selecting Shure dynamic mic. There are 2 ways to initiate a match. Select Match from the EQ pop menu in the inspector, or click the Enhancement button on the toolbar and choose Match Audio.
Skim to the clip you want to match (in this case, the Sony condenser lav mic clip), then click once on the clip to copy the EQ curves from the clip. In the ______, click Apply Match. That’s it. Let’s listen to the clips to compare….
It’s definitely not perfect match, but we’re in the ballpark.

Answer 23

viewer

Question 24

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect match, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the _____ of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.

Answer 24

level

Question 25

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect MATCH, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector pane (for the audio clip we just changed) to bring up the Match EQ Hud (notice in the inspector that it says Match next to __________ (under Audio Enhancements section of this inspector pane)).

Answer 25

Equalization

Question 26

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect MATCH, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector pane (for the audio clip we just changed) to bring up the Match EQ Hud (notice in the inspector that it says Match next to Equalization (under Audio Enhancements)). What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the _______ clip.

Answer 26

matched

Question 27

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect MATCH, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector pane (for the audio clip we just changed) to bring up the Match EQ Hud (notice in the inspector that it says Match next to Equalization (under Audio Enhancements)). What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the matched clip.
Here we cans see that some bass frequencies were attenuated and some mid and treble frequencies boosted.
Using the _____ slider you can increase or decrease the amount of EQ applied.

Answer 27

APPLY

Question 28

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect MATCH, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector pane (for the audio clip we just changed) to bring up the Match EQ Hud (notice in the inspector that it says Match next to Equalization (under Audio Enhancements)). What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the matched clip.
Here we cans see that some bass frequencies were attenuated and some mid and treble frequencies boosted.
Using the Apply slider you can increase or decrease the amount of EQ applied. I’ll loop the clip, then drag upward on the amount. The EQ in the mids and highs are _______.

Answer 28

boosted

Question 29

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect MATCH, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector pane (for the audio clip we just changed) to bring up the Match EQ Hud (notice in the inspector that it says Match next to Equalization (under Audio Enhancements)). What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the matched clip.
Here we cans see that some bass frequencies were attenuated and some mid and treble frequencies boosted.
Using the Apply slider you can increase or decrease the amount of EQ applied. I’ll loop the clip, then drag upward on the amount. The EQ in the mids and highs are boosted.
Dragging the other direction, you are reducing the intensity of the EQ, and if you drag far enough, you’ll eventually ______ the curve.

Answer 29

invert

Question 30

Audio Matching
It’s definitely not perfect MATCH, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. Reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector pane (for the audio clip we just changed) to bring up the Match EQ Hud (notice in the inspector that it says Match next to Equalization (under Audio Enhancements)). What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the matched clip.
Here we cans see that some bass frequencies were attenuated and some mid and treble frequencies boosted.
Using the Apply slider you can increase or decrease the amount of EQ applied. I’ll loop the clip, then drag upward on the amount. The EQ in the mids and highs are boosted.
Dragging the other direction, you are reducing the intensity of the EQ, and if you drag far enough, you’ll eventually invert the curve.
You’ll find the best setting near the original EQ curve that was produced by the _________. Again, a good pair of speakers or headphones really helps when making these adjustments. Pause playback.

Answer 30

algorithm

Question 31

An _________ is a procedure or formula for solving a problem.

Answer 31

algorithm

Question 32

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing _________, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.

Answer 32

artifacts

Question 33

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid ___________ a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer.

Answer 33

frequencies

Question 34

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a ________ builds around your pointer. As you learned in the lesson on EQ, you can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.

Answer 34

waveform

Question 35

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. As you learned in the lesson on EQ, you can drag right or left to _____ the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.

Answer 35

sweep

Question 36

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. As you learned in the lesson on EQ, you can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.
If you hold the _____ Key while dragging, you can include more or less frequencies to be affected. You’ll recall from my lesson on EQ, this was called _________ control or _.
(YOU CAN ONLY DO THIS AFTER CLICKING AND RAISING/LOWERING THE FREQUENCY ON IT’S OWN DURING THE INITIAL PARAMETRIC EQ IN THIS MATCH AUDIO HUD) Pause playback.

Answer 36

Shift, Bandwidth, Q

Question 37

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. As you learned in the lesson on EQ, you can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.
If you hold the Shift Key while dragging, you can include more or less frequencies to be affected. You’ll recall from my lesson on EQ, this was called bandwidth control or Q.
Pause playback.
If you feel you are making the audio worse not better, you can ______ _____ the graph to return to the original EQ curve and start over.

Answer 37

OPTION CLICK

Question 38

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. As you learned in the lesson on EQ, you can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.
If you hold the Shift Key while dragging, you can include more or less frequencies to be affected. You’ll recall from my lesson on EQ, this was called bandwidth control or Q.
Pause playback.
If you feel you are making the audio worse not better, you can option-click the graph to return to the original EQ curve and start over. With Match Audio and this useful HUD, you can get your mismatched voice-over very close in _____ proximity.

Answer 38

tonal

Question 39

Audio Matching
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ Hud.
…
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. As you learned in the lesson on EQ, you can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.
If you hold the Shift Key while dragging, you can include more or less frequencies to be affected. You’ll recall from my lesson on EQ, this was called bandwidth control or Q.
Pause playback.
If you feel you are making the audio worse not better, you can option-click the graph to return to the original EQ curve and start over. With Match Audio and this useful HUD, you can get your mismatched voice-over very close in tonal proximity. Lets compare the original mic with the EQ’s version.
Now let’s compare it with the Lav version….In most cases, you won’t get a perfect match and they’ll be a slight difference in tonal quality. But with _____ and _______ added to the mix, your client would be hard-pressed to hear the difference.
In the next lesson we’ll look at a variety of audio effects that can prove useful in your audio sweetening work.

Answer 39

music and effects