Using the Match Audio Function in Final Cut Pro X
In “Under 5 Minutes” Steve Martin will teach you how to match two sections of audio that were recorded with two different microphones.
Welcome to Final Cut Pro X in Under 5 minutes. I’m Steve from RippleTraining.com.
Often when recording talent you are sometimes forced to record them in different environments or with different microphones. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to use Final Cut Pro’s Match Audio command to get your mismatched audio into tonal proximity.
I have open a timeline with 3 recorded clips of my voiceover talent.
The first two clips are identical as I wanted a clip we could easily compare against the original after applying EQ matching.
These first two clips were recorded with a Shure dynamic mic and the third clip was recorded with a Sony condenser lav mic.
Let’s take a listen.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
I’m going to match the Shure Mic to the Sony Lav Mic. I’ll start by selecting Shure mic. There are 2 ways to initiate a match. Select match from the EQ popup menu in the inspector, or click the Enhancement button on the toolbar and choose Match Audio.
Skim to the clip you want to match, in this case the Sony clip, then click once on the clip to copy the EQ curves from the clip. In the viewer, click Apply Match. That’s it. Let’s listen to the clips to compare.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
It’s definitely not a perfect match, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. I’ll reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ HUD. What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the matched clip.
Here we can see that some bass frequencies were attenuated and some mid and treble frequencies boosted.
Using the Apply slider you can increase or decrease the amount of EQ applied. I’ll loop the clip, then drag upward on the amount.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
The EQ in the mids and highs are boosted. Dragging the other direction, you are reducing the intensity of the EQ, and if you drag far enough, you’ll eventually invert the curve.
You’ll find the best setting near the original EQ curve that was produced by the algorithm.
A good pair of speakers or headphones really helps when making these adjustments.
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. You can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.
If you hold the Shift Key while dragging, you can include more or less frequencies to be affected.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
If you feel you are making the audio worse not better, you can option-click the graph to return to the original EQ curve and start over.
With Match Audio and this useful HUD, you can get your mismatched voiceover very close in tonal proximity.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
Now let’s compare it with the Lav version.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
You may not get a perfect match, but with music and effects added to the mix, your client would be hard-pressed to hear the difference.
If you’re interested in learning more about sound editing, I’ll be releasing a new tutorial called Sound Editing in Final Cut Pro on Oct 22. Check the link below for more information.
Often when recording talent you are sometimes forced to record them in different environments or with different microphones. In this episode, I’m going to show you how to use Final Cut Pro’s Match Audio command to get your mismatched audio into tonal proximity.
I have open a timeline with 3 recorded clips of my voiceover talent.
The first two clips are identical as I wanted a clip we could easily compare against the original after applying EQ matching.
These first two clips were recorded with a Shure dynamic mic and the third clip was recorded with a Sony condenser lav mic.
Let’s take a listen.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
I’m going to match the Shure Mic to the Sony Lav Mic. I’ll start by selecting Shure mic. There are 2 ways to initiate a match. Select match from the EQ popup menu in the inspector, or click the Enhancement button on the toolbar and choose Match Audio.
Skim to the clip you want to match, in this case the Sony clip, then click once on the clip to copy the EQ curves from the clip. In the viewer, click Apply Match. That’s it. Let’s listen to the clips to compare.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
It’s definitely not a perfect match, but we’re in the ballpark. Lets’ see if we can make it sound better. The first place to start is matching the level of the Lav mic. I’ll reduce the volume of the Shure mic 4dB.
Click the EQ button in the inspector to bring up the Match EQ HUD. What you’re looking at is a graph of the EQ curve that was applied to the clip based on the EQ sample or template extracted from the matched clip.
Here we can see that some bass frequencies were attenuated and some mid and treble frequencies boosted.
Using the Apply slider you can increase or decrease the amount of EQ applied. I’ll loop the clip, then drag upward on the amount.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
The EQ in the mids and highs are boosted. Dragging the other direction, you are reducing the intensity of the EQ, and if you drag far enough, you’ll eventually invert the curve.
You’ll find the best setting near the original EQ curve that was produced by the algorithm.
A good pair of speakers or headphones really helps when making these adjustments.
Another useful slider is Smoothing. Smoothing as the name suggests, will smooth out the sharp volume transitions between the neighboring frequencies. A little smoothing can improve the quality of the EQ by reducing artifacts, but too much smoothing will not be as faithful to the original audio sample you matched from.
But here’s what’s really cool. There’s a Parametric EQ built right in this interface. Let’s boost the mid frequencies a bit. Click and drag upward on the graph and a waveform builds around your pointer. You can drag right or left to sweep the audio looking for the frequencies you want to accentuate.
If you hold the Shift Key while dragging, you can include more or less frequencies to be affected.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
If you feel you are making the audio worse not better, you can option-click the graph to return to the original EQ curve and start over.
With Match Audio and this useful HUD, you can get your mismatched voiceover very close in tonal proximity.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
Now let’s compare it with the Lav version.
“Sea Turtle migrations are extreme, with turtles sometimes traveling thousands of miles between cooler feeding grounds and warmer nesting grounds.”
You may not get a perfect match, but with music and effects added to the mix, your client would be hard-pressed to hear the difference.
If you’re interested in learning more about sound editing, I’ll be releasing a new tutorial called Sound Editing in Final Cut Pro on Oct 22. Check the link below for more information.
