Apple Final Cut Pro 7 - Manual (Page 865)

This chapter covers the following:
• About Audio Meters (p. 865)
• Setting Proper Audio Levels (p. 870)
You use audio meters to keep levels consistent throughout your movie and to make sure
audio signals never get so high that they distort.
About Audio Meters
Audio meters display the level of your audio signal in an objective way, helping you to
set consistent levels throughout your program and ensuring that you have sufficient
headroom and dynamic range.
Average and Peak Audio Levels
Before you begin to adjust audio levels, take a closer look at an audio waveform to better
understand how it corresponds to what you hear during playback.
Waveform from an excerpt of electronic music
Average loudness
of track
Peaks
The most important distinction is the difference between an audio clip’s peaks and its
average loudness:
• Peaks: These are short, loud bursts of sound. In spoken dialogue, letters like P,T, and K
at the beginning of words can result in peaks if the person speaking is close to the
microphone. In music, peaks occur at the very beginning of sounds from percussive
instruments such as drums.
865
Evaluating Levels with Audio
Meters 54