Altering Audio Clips from Final Cut Pro in Soundtrack Pro
Final Cut Pro Editing
The Final Cut Studio is a complete workflow that allows you to really engage in all aspects of post-production from editing, to sound mixing, to DVD authoring. Soundtrack Pro is an in depth sound mixing program that allows you to take your video clips from Final Cut Pro and alter their sound in a much more mature and involved fashion than you can in Final Cut Pro alone. Here is a guide to the simple process of taking those clips from Final Cut Pro into Soundtrack Pro and back again.
Find Your Final Cut Pro Clip
First isolate your clip or sub clip and make sure that it is in the Timeline. You are somewhat limited to how easily you can export and it is usually best to alter a clip that is isolated from its base clip. If you do want to alter the base clip in Soundtrack Pro the best tip to follow is to figure this out and alter that base clip ahead of time before you begin working with it.
Send Final Cut Pro File to Soundtrack Pro
Select the clip you want to use and make sure that its associated audio tracks are linked. Go to File and select Send To and Soundtrack Pro Audio File Project. This will bring up a pop up window that will ask you to name the file that you are going to create. What will happen is that you will eventually save the audio file that you altered in Soundtrack Pro to area of your project files. This is done so that the alter audio track can be reference by Final Cut Pro when you are working with it.
Working in Soundtrack Pro
Once you set the name and save location and accept these you will open up Soundtrack Pro with the audio file for the clip loaded up in it. From here you can make all the alterations you want, ranging from distortion to EQ.
Saving It
After you are done altering your audio in Soundtrack Pro you will go to the File and Save it. You will get an Audio File Project preference window that will tell you that the project you are saving references outside files and will ask you how you want to save it. You will select Include Source File instead of Reference Source File. It will take a moment to actually alter and save your project.
Back in Final Cut Pro
After you close out of Soundtrack Pro you will simply be back in Final Cut Pro, which is where you were before you sent over the audio. Now the audio track of the clip you altered will maintain the changes you made in Soundtrack Pro. A good tip to follow is to listen to it several times once it is back in the flow of your project to see how the changes you made actually affect it over all. Often times you will have to raise the level of the sound when you get it back in Final Cut Pro or add another audio effect.
This post is part of the series: Final Cut Pro Interface Tutorials
Here is a series of tutorials on how to work with different features in the Final Cut Pro interface.