Importing Audio?

When importing audio, what is the difference between having the "Separate mono and group stereo audio" selected and not having it selected?

I have a stereo file from a recorder, checked or un-checked, the file in FCP X appears and acts the same either way, or am I missing something?

And on another note, where are the audio dissolves located? They don't seem to be in my Effects?

Thanks.

Jonathan

First, there are no audio only dissolves for clips that also contain video content. I think Alex3D has a custom one posted on this forum.

That that option does is tells FCPX to look at your file's audio channels, and the content on each. If they are the same, they are configured by default to be a stereo pair. If the content is different on each channel, for example if you had an interviewer's mic on Channel A, and the interviewee's mic on channel B, they are configured as dual mono. These can be changes after import in the Inspector > Audio > Channel Configuration. On a clip that has the same content on both channels, this setting won't do anything, since they were recorded as such, and FCPX will recognize them as such, and leave them set that way.

Thanks Ben!

After poking around a bit I did see that plug in from Alex3D. I'm also playing around using the "handles" in the audio after expanding the clip.

So here's another question: Like I mentioned, my original recording is stereo and on the left channel is the interviewer, and the right channel is the interviewee.

In FC, if I make a Dual Mono track, it creates a Mono 1 and Mono 2. Which one is left, and which is right?

Thanks again. UH oh, this may be a dumb?

JL

Jonathan,
For more control of audio, don't forget to "detach audio" from video as this opens up lots of additional audio only manipulations.
Here is a pretty good vid by Michael Wohl on advanced audio…
Slightly old, but still good. Really shows how to work the LogicPro filters via the inspector.
Also Mark Spenser for MacBreak Studios has a great tip on creating crossfades for audio here…
You can use audio automation on the audio only clip, move the and modify the fades, and even key frame if needed.

Hope this helps, Greg

Hi VidGreg.

Thanks. I never understood the difference between detach and expand, except I think with detach, you can't re-attach audio to video like expand. At least in older versions of X.

But either way, aside from basic audio fade in or out, expanding is where all major surgery takes place as you said.

Jonathan

There is a difference between Expand Audio Components, and Expand Audio/Video. Components is where you do the surgery. I don't see the need to detach audio when you can expand the components. It allows you to filter, fade, adjust each channel independently, and never risk losing sync.

Which is left and which is right, in stereo? Channel 1 is usually left, I think. But when you change to dual mono, they're panned center, both of them.

For a 2 person interview, IF the two people are visually away from each other, you MAY (or may not) want to pan each out, not much, but just enough to give the non-noticeable illusion of spacial depth. Pan them too much and it just sounds fake, plus your levels get messed up when someone listens to it on a mono system.

Hi BenB.

This is going to be a single person reading from script. (Teleprompter) in my studio.

So to get this straight, when I record I'll be using two mics. A lav going into one mixer input, and a boomed mic into a second input.

For discusion, I'll be panning the lav to the Left channel on mixer and the boom will be panned to the right channel. The boom is just a back up.

So when I import audio into FCP X as a Stereo audio file, There is no left/right channel in the inspector. So I'm assuming that if I set the pan mode in the inspector to Stereo Left/Right, if I pan to the left, it is the lav that I'm hearing. If I pan to the right, it would be the Boom. Doe this sound right? The only problem is that the audio that I want will be coming out the left side when I actually want it centered. To me, in the inspector if it says stereo there should be a separate L/R channels.

And I guess what confuses me more is the dual Mono where you DO see two channels, but they are called Mono 1 and Mono2. If in fact Mono 1 is the LEFT channel, then I could just deactivate (uncheck) Mono 2, boom mic.

Scratching head....just trying to figure out the best way to get that lav audio.

Jonathan

Are you video taping, also, or just audio recording?

A stereo pair is a married pair, fixed panning, period. Panning only reverses left to right and right to left.

Dual Mono is what you want, and you'll have to change that.

Browser, select the clip, Inspector, Audio, Channel Configuration, and change it to Dual Mono. Then you'll get to adjust each channel's pan independently.

So, why use both mics together, rather than just one good mic as a mono channel?

Hi BenB.

I will be recording video along with audio. I thought about using just the one lav, but the boom serves two purposes: one as a back up track just in case, and the other is to be able to add a tiny bit of room ambience to what would normally be kind of a dry lav mic.

And as I think and read more about this, I've sort of come to the conclusion that for what I want, it is not really a FCP X issue. It is more that I want to record those two mics to their own individual "tracks". Those separate "tracks" can then be imported into FCP X, Logic, whatever and altered any way I choose. So if I have a recorder that can handle four "tracks", then I am assuming upon import, I'd have four separate audio tracks in my project. I could then select each individually and do a basic mix in FCP.

I think these files are called PCM polyphonic WAV files.

Jonathan

My old HVX200 and HPX170 were DVCPRO-HD P2 that supported 4 channels. I always got 4 channels when I imported them. I can set them at 2 stereo pairs, or 4 monos, or 1 stereo pair plus 2 monos.

Multitrack audio depends on the audio/video codec. WAV is one of many flavors that supports that, not the only one.

Yes, sometimes we do two mics, but on-camera mic and lav. Mixing in room tone is something done very lightly, not too much, you don't even want it noticeable. But it can fill out the overall sound nicely.

When I do NOT do that, is when I have lots of cutaways with SOT, a lot of music, lots of situations in the video where I use the interview voice, but there's other sound. Then I don't want the interview to have room tone, it can interfere with the other stuff. And you want it to sound constant across the board. Dry talking head is OK if there's not much actual talking head time on screen, mostly cut aways, inserts, music, etc.

Not "tracks", that's what a DAW has, but "channels". Then you'll mix those dual mono channels in FCPX. Mute the boom channel, and set the lav channel to where it sounds optimum. Then slow, gently, carefully bring in the boom, just enough to fill it out, without being noticeable.

Hi BenB.

Isn't Dual mono mixing what was separate L/R to two identical L/R, if that makes any sense. I see what you are saying though in the previous post. Thanks again.

Channels are not married to left and right outputs. Dual monos are by default panned center. Stereo pair marries them to be one exclusive left and one exclusive right. But you can mix them, pan them, how ever you want with dual mono. Nothing anywhere states one channel has to go to one output.

Thanks again kind sir!!!!

I just had a mini break through today.

The issue I was having was working with audio that was synchronized, but not sure if that matters.

So before synchronizing, If I select ONLY audio clip in the browser and then go to "Open in Timeline", I actually can see and edit channel 1, which is LEFT and channel 2 Right. I can independently adjust those that way.

Is it best to do these adjustments prior to Synchronizing? And once I've made some tweeks to the audio file, will those adjustments follow through after Sync?

Makes no difference to Sync. It looks at waveforms and matches them up. A lav and boom will have the same wave forms, same auditory content. Makes no difference. Adjust channels after sync.

And again, thanks. This is all coming together very nicely!