AC3 Audio in Final Cut Pro

AC3 Audio may cause problems with some features

If your shooting video with Sony or Panasonic cameras, chances are your shooting using the AVCHD Video Format. You'll see the video file end with ".mts" or ".m2ts."

There's nothing wrong with this format until you decide to synchronize video and audio files.

Problem with Synchronize Clips

One of the things I noticed when I attempted to synchronize a video clip with a separate audio file, is that it was taking Final Cut Pro a long time to generate a new file. When I decided to quit the synchronization, it would take a long time for the cancelation to complete. I would have to force quit the application.

I didn't encounter this issue with any other video source.

There's something about the mts format that is triggering some weird behavior with Final Cut Pro Synchronize engine.

It may have something to do with the AC3 Audio format (Dolby AC-3) as seen in the difference between the two converted files.

Ah Ha, I checked out Final Cut Pro Supported formats document and I can see that AC3 Audio is not listed.

Quick Solution

My quick solution was to convert the video file using QuickTime Player or Smart Converter Pro.

In QuickTime Player, I used the "Greater Compatibility (H.264)" settings. Export the clip as 1080

In Smart Converter Pro, I used the Apple TV 4 setting.

Once I converted the Video and Audio, I had no problems using the Synchronize Clips feature.

Not Using Synchronize Clips?

If you're not using Synchronize Clips, you may encounter problems with other audio functionality. For example Audio Effects or with the Auto Enhance Audio functionality.

Find Clips that Have AC3 Format

Here's how to see the Audio format of the clips that are in your Final Cut Pro projects:

1. In Final Cut Pro make sure that the Browser is displayed and in List Mode.
2. Right click on any Browser column, for example, Camera Name. You should see a drop down menu. Select "Codecs"(Third from the bottom)
3. The Codecs column data list Audio and Video format for each of the clips being used.

Look for clips that have the AC3 audio format. When you find one, right-click on it to reveal in Finder.

Use the "Quick Solution" that I described earlier to convert it. I know it's painful to have to convert multiple files, but this should fix issues that you may be having.

Toggle Inspector Height

How to fix the height of the Inspector Window.

Sometimes the Inspector panel can take up too much room, here???s how to fix that.

Side-By-Side view of the Final Cut Pro window with the Inspector panel using the full left side.

If you see the Info Panel using up the complete left side of the Final Cut Pro window, and you have no idea what happens. This is because somehow you have the ???Toggle Inspector Height??? enabled.

You can enable/disable this feature by using the shortcut Control Command 4, or selecting the menu item under the View Menu.

This blog post came about because a few people have posted on a Facebook group about how to reduce the size of the inspector panel.

Help Can Guide the Way

Check out the above image.

If you search for "Inspector" using the help menu, and then select the "Toggle Inspector Height" the help will guide you to where to find the "Toggle Inspector Height" section.

Blade Tool Tricks

Quickly cut multiple tracks

Sometimes when I am editing, I want to do a complete scene cut. That includes multiple videos and audio tracks. In the past, I would use the blade tool on individual clips. Wasn't the best method - it would result in a long time editing the video.

There is a better way.

Cut All Clips at the Skimmer

To do a "super" cut off all the clips at the current skimmer point. This is useful when you want to make a drastic change to that moment in time. Use the short cut: Shift-Command-B

Cut Certain Clips

It's super easy to cut specific clips at the current skimmer point. This is useful if you need a simple cut from two similar scenes. Simply select the clips or audio and then use the shortcut: Command-B to add a cut at the current skimmer point.

Useful Tips

I have been using Final Cut Pro for several months and this is the first time I hear about this shortcut.

Multiple Displays

Using Multiple displays can make you productive in Final Cut Pro

Final Cut Pro is so much better with multiple monitors. You don't need two similar monitors, just two good ones. This is the layout that I have on my home computer:

The 20-inch Apple Cinema Display is a ten-year-old monitor, and it works perfectly well for me.

Setting Up Final Cut Pro

Here's all you do to get Final Cut Pro to use two monitors:

Connect a second monitor to your computer. (That's pretty obvious.)

Under the 'Window' Option you'll see a "Show in Secondary Display" this is where you select the content to display on the second monitor. When you select this the item is removed from the primary display.

You have 3-options:

Browser - This is all the media files in your project. Use this option when you're starting the project and trying to figure out what clips to put in the timeline.

Viewers - This is the preview window. I usually have my second display always set to this. Having this on the second display makes navigating the timeline so much easier. This is especially true when you have multiple clip layers.

Timeline - This is the video timeline. Useful if your second display is a wide screen.

Quick Shortcut

In the top of the main window there is an icon that shows two computers. You can toggle using two displays simply by clicking on this icon. (Its the green box in the above screenshot)

I have found this to be a quick way to display Final Cut Pro to use the second monitor when I want to do something outside of Final Cut Pro, such as browse the internet or check email

Adaptive Limiter

Final Cut Pro has a powerful Audio clean up tool called Adaptive Limiter

One of the things I have learned is that using Normalize is not the best way to fix audio that might be too soft. Normalize is available in audio applications like Fission and Audacity.

The problem is that if your audio clip has one large pop, then Normalize won't work.

Apple's Logic has a powerful way to balance the audio and that's something called: Adaptive Limiter. Apple included the functionality in Final Cut Pro

Feature Description

Things I Learned

This can be found in the Effects section, check for Audio then Levels.

Simply drag and drop Adaptive Limiter to the audio that you wish to enhance and the audio will be enhanced.

If you want to make further Adaptive Limiter adjustments on the clip, go to the audio section of the clip, scroll down and look for Effects. You should see the Effects section.

You can make whatever adjustments you want, I would recommend maling slow adjustments and test the clip peaks and valleys.

There is an Advance Effect Editor UI for those audio pros. This is a powerful audio tool to play around with.

At the End of The Day

Using applications like Fission and Audacity is great for simple audio files. The audio functionality in Final Cut Pro is pretty powerful. There are a lot of audio effects built - 109 to be exact.

You shouldn't have to use a third party to fix audio issues. In most cases, it can be professionally cleaned in Final Cut Pro.

Lower Third

Setting your own default on Lower Third

Today is election day in the United States and tonight many people will be glued to their TVs watching election results. You'll likely see lots of lower-thirds graphics. I thought looking at lower-thirds would be a good topic this week.

Lower-Thirds is a text graphic used most commonly on TV news stations. This is usually used to inform the viewer of the speaker or location that they are watching.

Example of a Lower Third

One of the nice things about Final Cut Pro is that you can???t define a default lower third. What this does is any time that you want to use that template your simply type in the shortcut: Control - Shift - T

Final Cut Pro uses the default lower third when you apply the short cut, but it's really easy to change that.

Change the Default Lower Third

1. Go to the Title and Generator Sidebar: Option - Command - 1
2. Find a tile that you want to apply with the keyboard shortcut. (Note: It doesn't have to be a lower third, it can be any title.)
3. Right click on the image and select "Make Default Lower Third"

Jump Cuts

Final Cut Pro has built in Jump Cuts Effects

When you have a long boring scene it might help spice things up by using jump cuts. They seem to be in all the rage with YouTubers. They seem to be very popular with Rebecca Zamolo YouTube Videos.

What Are Jump Cuts

Jump cuts are when you remove a set of frames with the intent to make the scene go quicker. In Final Cut Pro, you have the option to easily skip 3,5,10,20,30 frames. The more frames you remove the bigger the effect it has.

How to apply Jump Cuts

In Final Cut Pro, you define Jump Cuts with markers.

1. Simple mark where you want to apply a Jump Cut
2. Select the "Retime" pop-up menu just below the viewer - the icon looks like a dashboard speed gauge. Then go all the way down and select Jump Cut.
3. Note: If the Jump Cut option is not available, it is because you didn't select the clip to apply the jump cut to.
4. Then select the number of frames to remove. I have found that "20 frames" works best in most cases.

After you apply the Jump Cut, you'll see a green bar on top of the clip, this is the Retime Editor. If you want to add additional Jump Cuts, you still have to follow the above steps. There are no keyboard shortcuts to add Jump Cuts.

Transparent Background in PowerPoint

How to make the background in Powerpoint transparent for Final Cut Pro

While Apple makes it easy to create transparent movies from Keynote to Final Cut Pro, it's a bit tricky to get it to work with Microsoft Powerpoint.

Why use Microsoft Powerpoint?

PowerPoint has some unique transitions and effects that are not available in Keynote. If you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed it might be better to use that for some cool effects.

Using PowerPoint or Keynote might be better than using Apple Motion for simple tasks.

How to Export Transparent Background

To get a transparent background in PowerPoint you need to use the green screen effect. There is no way to control the export video type.

Example

This has all the transitions that are available in Microsoft PowerPoint. I used a green background and used the Keyer effect to remove that background in Final Cut Pro. (That???s how you remove the green screen. )

Trim Start and End

Cool Shortcut to quickly cut out a clip

A common task that I have to do in Final Cut Pro is trim a clip. Usually, this is to just clean up the tail end of the clip that doesn't make sense to keep for the story, or when I need to end the clip smoothly.

The quick way to get this done is to use the "trim to end" short cut key:

How this Works

When you mouse over a clip in the timeline and use the above short cut, the clip will get trim from the point of the red mouse over and not the white preview line.

If you make a mistake, simply type in Command - Z to undo the last action.

Quick and Easy Tip

Once you start using this a couple of times, you'll see that this is such a time saver. This is so much better than adding a blade and then deleting the section.

Lower Third Overlay

Comedy Central has a guide on where to place the lower third.

If your building your own lower third from scratch, you may want to have an overlay guide to help you align text correctly.

I found the image overlay on Comedy Central to be very useful to properly laying out the lower third title. The image overlay has a logo placement helps to professionally align a logo on the bottom right of the screen.

Basically you add this image to your Title project and align your lower 3rd correctly. Once you are done simply remove it from your project.

Steps to Add the Overlay in Motion

1. Download the file from the Comedy Central's overlays website
2. Open up any Final Cut Pro Title Project
3. Import the overlay. (You'll see that the overlay fits perfectly into a standard 1920x1080 format.)
4. You may need to move the Overlay layer below the text layer.
5. Now adjust the text layer so that its below the lower third line.
6. Hide the Comedy Central overlay image and continue working as normal.

Don't want to use the guide?

Simply turn on the ruler and look for the 200 on the left side. (See the above screenshot)