how do i normalize an imported audio file? in fcp 7 i had the command "nomalize audio", which i used when i imported an audio file which was recorded with a zoom h4n recorder. it had to be normalized or else it was way too silent for use.
how to do in fcp x?
Click on the audio clip or video clip with the audio in it on your timeline. Go to Inspector window under Audio tab. Go to audio enhancements and click on the arrow pointing to the Right. Check Loudness to normalize audio.
are you sure this is the same function as in fcp7? i tried this before and it was still not loud enough, so i canceled this effect…
This is the normalize. I use the Zoom H2, and I know its audio preamp level is a little low. After you normalize the audio using Loudness, keep that checked and go back to the audio tab again with the clip selected and adjust the overall audio level up until the audio waveform on your audio clip in the timeline starts barely hitting the red peaks (after the yellow range). You use the level control in addition to the Loudness setting. Then, if you are wanting more pro-like quality to the audio and loudness, go to the effects browser and click on the audio levels category. Then drag the Adaptive Limiter effect over onto your audio clip with its default values. This will help even out the low and high volume peaks in the audio in a smooth and natural way. Finally, in the audio tab of the inspector (with your clip selected), make sure you have audio on both channels in the Dual Mono boxes. If you do not have a waveform on one or the other, check only the one that has a waveform. This will put your audio in the center of the audio mix. Then make final adjustments on your audio level as described above. Best wishes.
stephen
ok, thanks, i'll try.
it's my first live-project i'm cutting with fcp x, after a few hundred in the last years with fcp studio. still i have a lot of trouble with fcp x, crashes, searching for solutions, learning everything new… i'm not sure if i like it or not.
anyway, thanks for your help, regards
wolfgang
Have you used the Zoom media with FCP's sync clips function? How did it work for you? Any problems with drift?
no, i draged the audio file in the timeline and adjusted the video manually. sync clips does that automatically? i'll search for that…
still_learning wrote:
Click on the audio clip or video clip with the audio in it on your timeline. Go to Inspector window under Audio tab. Go to audio enhancements and click on the arrow pointing to the Right. Check Loudness to normalize audio.
Why does Apple change an industry standard nomenclature, (Normalize) into a term found on 1980's stereo receivers? It's not even the same function. Normalize -in it's simplist form- takes the peak amplitude of an audio file and raises it to 100% keeping the ratios intact.
Referencing audio, loudness is so basic a term as to be incorrect, it means enhancing the bass frequencies at lower listening levels to make up for the natural tendencies of human hearing.
Does Apple think it's customers can't learn something new?
Tom,
I have not used anything with FCP's sync functions yet. I am so old school, and I just line up the audio waveforms from the camera video and the zoom. I go by sight and have gotten fairly fast at it. I should try the sync functions sometime just to learn some new tricks. And yes, happily, the Zoom H2 is right on target for both start and end of projects that are up to an hour long ... never had to make adjustments, and I do one project a week typically.
stephen
What you said is accurate ... but there is a lot of pro audio gear out there that actually adds a little bit of compression of the dynamic range between the high and low peaks to get "normalized". In other words, it never seems to have been really standardized at how you to normalize. Normalize should carry the overall audio up to where the high peaks do not exceed 0dbm. And, true, "loudness" was traditionally a thing done in mastering after mixdown to boost the overall "perceived" volume for the target playing device (car audio, home stereo, etc). But, as you point out ... with Apple, those meanings are wandering 🙂 I heard an old management rule about when a company wants to be perceived as a leader ... You simply make up some new term, market it to the max, and you will be perceived as the industry expert in that technology. We are just along for the ride.
stephen
still_learning wrote:
What you said is accurate ... but there is a lot of pro audio gear out there that actually adds a little bit of compression of the dynamic range between the high and low peaks to get "normalized".
Hi stephen,
With Normalization there should be no compression added, it's a simple mathmatical operation, an industry standard. Maybe you're thinking of another recently coined term, "Maximize" which can be a combination of limiting and compression.
This is a dumbing down of software to the point where less than correct terms are used.
I hate that.
If they do this type of cr@p to Logic_Pro there will be repercussions.. thank goodness the original German programmers still do the Logic code.
Thanks.
This is not accurate.
Loudness (or Loudness Compensation) is simply an eq setting which should be enabled when listening to certain audio at low volume. Normalizing audio is a completely different function, which brings the highest peak of an audio file to a target level (usually 100%), thus bringing the audio to its highest level without clipping.
The Normalization function in any DAW as well as FCP, should do this whether or not the original level of the audio was shy of, or had already passed into red. So I did a little test.
In FCPX, I started with an audio clip that was already pushed into the red, and applied this Loudness effect. If it were truly a Normalize function, it would have brought that signal down as far as it needed to avoid clipping. What it did was just the opposite, in that it pushed it further into the red, indicating that it is not a Normalize function, but rather a Loudness/eq setting. Which is what it's labelled, after all, so at least Apple got that correct. But no user should ever think that Loudness and Normalization is the same thing, and as far as I can tell, there is no Normalize function in FCP.
And on that note, it's unfathomable that there isn't a Normalize function in FCPX. It's literally the most basic function of audio post-production, and it's especially mind-boggling when you see all the other audio filters and effects included with the software, but yet Normalize is nowhere to be found. If Apple ever wants FCPX to be seen as something other than iMovie Pro to be used by amateurs and hobbyists, they should get on this. Then again, I've been hitting them with that suggestion since 10.0.1, so I guess it's just not one of those things they think is important.
Since FCP doesn't have a Normalize function, your best bet is going to be to round trip the audio to another program that can Normalize it. Logic can, Soundtrack Pro can, Waveburner can. If you don't have any of those, good ol' Audacity can do it, and probably some other free audio programs as well.
normalize audio
