Apple Final Cut Express HD - Manual (Page 626)

626 Part VIII Audio Mixing
Step 4: Choose an audio track and duration for your voiceover
In the Browser, select and open the sequence to which you want to add a voiceover,
then set In and Out points where you want the voiceover to begin and end.
Step 5: Determine the offset of your audio interface
Every digital recording device has some latency from the time audio enters the
microphone to the time it’s processed. This latency can cause your narration to be
offset by a few frames from your video. You can adjust this offset in the Voice Over tool
window so that your audio is recorded exactly in sync with your sequence. In general,
USB audio interfaces have an offset of one frame and DV camcorders have an offset of
three frames. Other interfaces may have different offsets.
To determine the offset of your audio recording device:
1 Set the In point of your Timeline at 10 seconds, then set the Out point at 20 seconds.
2 Hold the microphone that’s connected to your audio recording device to the speaker of
your computer.
3 Choose Tools > Voice Over, then click the Record button.
(What you’re doing is recording the audio cue beeps that your computer plays back.)
Recording stops automatically and this new audio clip is placed in the Timeline.
4 In the Timeline, drag the end of the newly recorded audio clip to the right to show the
last 2 seconds of the audio recorded after the Out point.
5 Compare the position of the first frame of the final cue beep’s waveform to the position
of the Out point in the Timeline.
To toggle the audio clip’s waveform in the Timeline, press Command-Option-W.
6 If there’s a difference, add this number of frames to the offset already selected, then
choose this new number from the Offset pop-up menu.
Alternatively, you can move the clip after recording it to compensate for latency.
Step 6: Plug in your headphones
Connect your headphones to the headphone port of your computer, and you’re ready
to start recording.
20-second point
First frame of the ending beep
that occurs two frames later