ACADEMY
POST-PRODUCTION
“For slight background effects, best practice is tomix between -20 and -30 dB”
if there are explosions, between -6 and -12 dB range. 6: Solo the music and set a level in the same -6 to -12 dB range. It should only be dominant in the mix when there is no voice. 7: Now dip the music under the Dialogue until it becomes clearly audible, normally in the -12 to -20 range or lower. Dipping genius Tomake a dip you could hover near the audio overlay line on a clip and click ‘Add Keyframes’ one at a time, but there is a better way. You need four keyframes for every dip: two to protect the peak and two to set and sustain the dipped level when the Dialogue is present. The quickest way to achieve a dip is using the Range tool: 1: Press ‘R’ to switch to the Range Tool or select it from ‘Tool Select’. 11 2: Click and drag a range on your music track under each dialogue clip, slightly longer than the clip itself. 12 3: Drag on the audio level overlay line inside the range and all four keyframes required for your dip are instantly introduced. If youmove a shot and need to slip all those Keyframes to a new location in time, you can use the ‘Range Tool’ to select them all and drag them to the new location.
Speeding up themix Two shortcuts I use all the time while mixing are ‘Alt S’, which will solo any selected clips, and ‘V’, which enables and disables clips; effectively this is a mute operation. In general, I approach the mixing process in the following order: 9 1: Use ‘Alt S’ to solo Dialogue clips and play to assess and set levels. (Remember to use the shortcut again to un-solo your selection after use.) 2: While playing back, use ‘Ctrl +’ or ‘Ctrl -’ to raise or lower the audio levels, until they register between -6 and -12 dB in the meters. If you set a level on one clip, and it’s relevant tomany others, all you have to do is: 3: Select the clip with the desired setting and copy it using ‘Cmd C’. 10 4: Select the clip or clips you want the level adjustment on and press ‘Shift-Cmd-V’ to pull up the ‘Paste Attributes’ window. 5: Thenmake sure that only the Audio levels option is selected and press ‘Paste’. TIP: this is a great way tomove any video or audio ‘Attribute’ between clips. When your dialogue is hitting a common peak level in your meters, your sound effects are normally the next target. For slight background effects, such as bird song, best practice is tomix somewhere between -20 and -30 dB;
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ABOVE Use the Roles you set up at the beginning of your project to make the most of your mix
The clever thing about roles To get more control over your mix let’s exploit the power of the ‘Roles’ set up initially. 13 1: Go to the ‘Index’ window and select the ‘Roles’ tab. 2: Click the ‘Show Audio Lanes’ to reveal them. Now, all your audio Roles are organised into discrete lanes. 14 If you discover that an element has accidentally been assigned the wrong Role type, you can simply right-click and select the correct one from ‘Assign Audio Roles’. 15 You will see the clip move into the appropriate lane.
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BELOW Use the Range Tool to select and drag Keyframes to a new location in time
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SPRING 2019 PRO MOVIEMAKER
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