Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 631)

296 Part II Rough Editing
Viewing Audio Tracks in the Viewer
Clips in Final Cut Pro can have up to 24 audio items. Clips with multiple audio items
have a separate tab for each mono audio item or pair of stereo audio items in the clip.
The way audio clips appear in the Viewer depends on whether they’re mono or stereo.
 If audio clip items are mono, they’re represented by individual mono tabs in the
Viewer, called Mono (a1), Mono (a2), and so on. Each mono tab displays the
waveform for one clip item, and levels applied to one are completely independent of
any other. Mono clip items are also referred to as discrete audio.
Discrete mono audio is useful when you recorded to separate channels with
independent microphones. (For example, separate lavalier and boom microphones
are often used during interviews to capture the same voice two different ways—
providing a backup audio track in case one microphone records poorly.) Using
discrete audio allows you to adjust levels and pan settings independently for each
audio clip item. You can also trim the In and Out points of each audio item separately
in the Timeline.
Mono (a1) and (a2) tabs