Help my imported video waveforms are upside down. I exported video from FCP 7 to mov files and started a new project in FCP X. I imported these files and the waveforms are displaying upside down i.e. the peaks are pointing wownwards.
I thought the same thing when I first started working with FCP X. I came from an audio environment with the dark color representing the audio waveforms ... but what if the light color is the waveform and the dark the background? Then what if instead of the positive and negative going peaks that true audio has, FCP X only showed you the positive going peaks? It turns out that the peaks go from the bottom of the clip upward. The dark area above them is just background ... not audio. By the way, when you drag the horizontal line going from left to right across your clip ... when you drag it upward, at some point the top of your light-colored peaks will turn yellow or even red just like an audio mixer tells you when you are approaching, or over the clipping range thereby resulting in distortion in your sound. It's actually pretty cool. Hope this helps.
stephen
What you are saying makes sence and is what I expected based on what I've seen in some videos. This is looking more strange than that and as I look more closely I see whay.
Fist some background just in case it matters. The project audeo started as suround sound but was really stereo. I then changed it to stereo it that makes any differance.
When I look at the wave form more closely I actually see two waveforms. I detatched the audeo so I now see the audeo in the green track look. I then broke that appart into two green clips so I would have both chanels even though the cameral recorded it in mono.
Now when I look at just one of the geen clips I see two waveforms. I see the bright green waveform starting at the bottom and going upwards. I also see a dard green waveform starting at the top and going downwards. Inbetween the two waveforms is meadium green color. I see this pattern in both green tracks and also in the normal mode i.e. at the bottom of the blue track. I have know idea why I'm seening this dark waveform coming from the top downwards.
I was just wondering if this may have something to do with the surround sound mode. If you click on the clip and go to the inspector under the audio tab, I wonder if what you are seeing would change if you set the Pan Mode to stereo under the Volume and Pan section in the inspector. Can't help but wondering how they would portray the waveforms when surround sound is set as the mode. Would a stereo setting change the appearance? Just thinking ... Sorry I can not be of more assistance.
stephen
One more quick thought ... you say the camera recorded in mono. Since most cameras only record in mono when an external mic is hooked up to them, I am assumming you used an external mic. However, even when an external mic is used, most cameras have to be told to capture the external mic instead of the built in mic. If you did not specify which source the audio would be recorded from, even though the external mic was connected, the camera (in some cases) might have recorded the built in mic which is usually stereo or surround sound. One of my cameras even allows me to mix the external mic with the built in mic. All this to say it seems like the waveforms you are seeing are not simple mono sound. And I don't know for sure how surround sound would be portrayed in the waveform display by FCP X. I also have some clips where I can see various waveforms in the "background" of the most dominant waveform, but I usually ignore them. In the end, I can go to Volume and Pan in the inspector and choose Create Space for the Pan Mode then, with the drop down space designer arrow, I can move the surround sound placements around until I get the stereo reprepsentation I am looking for. That usuall means moving the placement bubble toward the 12 o'clock position. Don't know if this helps.
stephen
I changed it to stereo from none and nothing changed. Thanks for the idea. I attached two pictures so you could see what I'm seeing. One is the waveform still attached with the video. The other is with the audio split out and set to duo mono. Both are set to -10 db so you can more easily see the background waveform.
Now that I look at them again I think the second waveform isn't the dark one at the top it's the middle one that's the midtone color and it's pointing upwards. But I still don't know what it is.
Thanks for the reply! I didn't have an external mic. I just used a $500 Canon HD video camera. The video was shot in 1080i. Can you take a look at my previous reply, I posted pictures that might better explain what I'm seeing.
Wow! After looking closely at your display, I think I got it figured out ... at least what the "ghost" waveform is. Having been an engineer most of my life and looking at waveforms day-in and day-out, it looks like the "ghost" waveform is simply a "shadow" of the real waveform in the lighter color ... only the ghost is elongated, or stretched upwards. If you pick any of the patterns atop your lighter color waveform and go right above them to the ghost waveform, you will find the same pattern exactly ... but stretched vertically. I haven't a clue as to why they would do that, but it looks like that's what it is.
stephen
OMG, that's exactly what it is! I never would've seen that and like you I have know Idea why it's there. One mystery solved one more to go.
Thanks!!!!
Which mystery are you still looking to solve?
Those are called "reference waveforms" Below is an image from the user's manual showing exactly the same thing you're seeing.
A reference waveform shows the maximum visual resolution possible for the actual audio waveform. By factoring out loudness changes, reference waveforms let you see the details of the sound more clearly.
Good job ... I guess reading all the manual (and stopping to ask for directions) are not in my DNA 🙂 It does seem, as well, that the reference waveforms also boost things out of the noise level that can make low sound levels almost lost visually. Thanks for the info.
stephen
I figured it was a feature not a bug so I searched the manual for "waveform" then went through the results looking for an image similar to yours.
Thanks so much for all you guys help with this, I was so confused.
Help my imported video waveforms are upside down
