Compressor Limiter with Final Cut Pro to fix audio
If you are running short on time, and you have a voice-over track where the audio is inconsistent, what do you do?
Well, fortunately there is a quick fix that may help you compress the audio levels so you do not need to spot check every single edit. It’s called compressor / limiter. Here is out it works:
Navigate to the effects tab within the Final Cut Pro Browser window. Find the audio filters / Final Cut Pro category. Drag the compressor / limiter filter to your clip(s) in your sequence.
Note:It's best if you can apply the compressor / limiter filter to an entire track. Otherwise, you'll need to copy and paste the attributes to all the other clips to keep the compressor / limiter settings the same for your entire sequence.
Double click on your clip to load it back into the Final Cut Pro Viewer window. You should then see an audio filters tab. Click on the tab to adjust the settings.
Threshold Slider: defines how loud the loudest portion of the clip can be before compression is applied.
Ratio Slider: This affects how much compression is applied. Be careful, not to overdue this parameter.
Attack Time Slider: This slider defines how long it takes for the filter to react to changes in volume.
Release Time Slider: This slider defines how long it takes for the filter to react to how slowly the filter let's go of changes.
The values for 'Attack' and 'Release' are generally fine.
If you are using a relatively new version of Final Cut Pro, you can adjust these slider in real-time to hear changes. I typically use the 'scroll wheel' on my mouse to adjust the slider's left or right while having my sequence set to play-loop so I can adjust the parameters until I am happy.
