Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 809)

22 Part I Media and Project Management
Mixing to Call Attention to Important Audio
In most movies, the most important audio (though not always the loudest) is the sound
of people’s voices: the actors, the interviewees, or the narrator. What these people say
is the point of the show, so it’s a safe bet that the average level will be determined by
the level you set for these voices. As a result, all other sound levels in your program will
be adjusted relative to these voices.
This can change, of course, depending on the requirements of your program. If, at
some point in your program, the music becomes more important (such as during a
montage that shows the passing of time), you can raise the levels of your music clip to
the level of the average loudness, and set the voice clips to a lower level. As soon as
the voices become important again, you can raise their levels, and lower those of the
music. This is what mixing is all about.
To mix the levels of the various clips in your sequence, you must determine the loudest
sound in your program, and then set that as the highest level in your mix. You set the
average levels of the dialogue in your program to match the reference level you
choose, making sure that any peaks in the dialogue do not exceed those of the loudest
sound in the program. Finally, you set the levels of all the other audio clips in your
program (music, sound effects, background ambience) so that they do not interfere
with the dialogue.