Apple Final Cut Pro 6 - Manual (Page 847)

62 Part I Audio Mixing
Unlike the track and Master audio meters, the floating audio meters do not show levels
above 0 dBFS.
Setting Proper Audio Levels
When you work with audio, you need to make sure you set proper levels at each stage
of your production:
 Production: During this phase, you record the elements used in your movie: actors’
voices, ambient location sound, music, and so on. This is the first and most critical
step in any audio production process. Any audio recorded poorly at this phase will be
difficult to fix later in the process. There is no match for properly recorded sound, no
matter how good your audio cleanup tools are.
 Capture: Transferring your production audio to Final Cut Pro should be a transparent
process that affects your audio as little as possible. The audio levels of your source
footage and captured media files should match exactly.
 Audio peak detection: Audio that is too loud causes distortion and often cannot
be salvaged. You can find audio peaks in Final Cut Pro by using the Mark Audio
Peaks command.
0 dBFS
Floating audio meters
Levels above 0 dBFS
Master audio meters