Audio is the most common reason people get stuck in Final Cut Pro. Viewers will forgive slightly imperfect video, but they click away from bad sound. Here are the usual problems and how to approach them.
My audio levels are all over the place
Turn on the audio meters (Window › Show in Workspace › Audio Meters) and aim for dialogue peaking around −6 to −12 dB. Adjust clip volume by dragging the horizontal line on each clip, or select several clips and use Modify › Adjust Volume. For a quick starting point, try the Loudness controls in the Audio Inspector.
There’s background noise or hum
Select the clip, open the Audio Inspector, and enable Noise Removal and Hum Removal (choose 50 Hz or 60 Hz to match your region). Start low and increase gradually. Too much processing makes voices sound robotic. Newer versions of Final Cut Pro also include Voice Isolation, which can dramatically clean up dialogue.
My separate audio won’t stay in sync
Select the video clip and the external audio recording in the browser, then choose Clip › Synchronize Clips. Final Cut Pro matches them by their waveforms. If the sync drifts over a long recording, the two devices probably recorded at different sample or frame rates, which we can diagnose together.
Music drowns out the voice
Lower the music under dialogue using keyframes (Option-click the volume line) or the Range tool to dip just one section. Assigning dialogue and music to separate audio roles lets you control each group at once in the timeline index.
Still stuck? Fix it live, on your own project
Audio problems are much easier to solve when someone can hear what you hear. In a one-to-one Zoom class, we’ll open your project, find the cause, and fix it together, so you know how to handle it next time.
More Final Cut Pro help
Importing & organizing · The timeline · Titles, effects & color · Multicam · Captions & social formats · Exporting · Troubleshooting · Keyboard shortcuts · Class FAQ