Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 662)

Besides making clean-sounding cuts, there are other reasons to edit the audio in your
sequence separately from the video. You can edit mistakes in dialogue, adjust the sync
of off-camera or rerecorded dialogue, or even replace the entire audio of a clip with
another take of the same audio.
For more information, see “Split Edits.”
Make sure that your video and audio clips are in sync
As you edit your audio, you may sometimes find it necessary to adjust the sync relationship
between video and audio clip items. Audiences are quick to notice when audio is out of
sync with the picture, so you need to be extra cautious when you’re editing. Here’s a
good rule of thumb: if you’re finding an audio/video sync issue distracting, your audience
probably will too. In this case, you should make adjustments.
Final Cut Pro keeps track of the sync between video and audio clip items when they come
from the same source media file, or when they have been intentionally linked together.
Red out-of-sync indicators on clip items show you exactly how far the items are out of
sync. You can establish new sync relationships by selecting the clip items and choosing
Modify > Mark in Sync.
For more information about establishing sync between video and audio clip items, see
“Linking and Editing Video and Audio in Sync.”
Minimize differences in tone and quality between audio clips in the same scene
All audio has some kind of background noise, often referred to as ambience or room tone.
Sometimes you’ll find that the audio from the different shots you’re using in the same
sequence has differences in the background ambience. For example, if you shoot a
conversation in a city park, and the shoot lasts all day, you may notice that some shots
have more traffic noise in the background because of rush hour. Assuming you don’t
want to rerecord the dialogue for the whole scene, you’ll need to edit more “rush hour”
background noise into the clips that don’t have any so that all the clips sound the same
within the same 2-minute scene. Otherwise, the traffic noise in the background will pop
in and out from one shot to the next, which will call attention to your edits and distract
the viewer. Usually, the shot with the highest ambient background noise level dictates
the ambient noise level for the entire scene.
Using Waveform Displays to Help You Edit Audio
As you work in Final Cut Pro, waveform displays can be very useful for navigating through
parts of your audio and seeing at a glance how the levels in a track indicate things like
the words and pauses in dialogue and the beats in a piece of music.
662 Chapter 43 Audio Editing Basics