Apple Final Cut Pro 5 - Manual (Page 875)

88 Part I Media and Project Management
 Stereo pair clip items: The panning sliders of tracks containing a pair of stereo clip
items at the position of the playhead are locked together with an inverse
relationship, giving you control over the stereo image of the clips. Changing the
stereo distribution of one of the audio items inversely adjusts the stereo distribution
of the other, resulting in a gradual swapping of the left and right audio items in these
tracks. Control over the stereo image of a clip is most useful when swapping the left
and right channels of a two-channel audio clip that already has stereo imaging
associated with it, such as a piece of music.
 Mono clips, or clips that are linked as part of a dual mono pair: Mono audio clips at the
position of the playhead have panning sliders that can be adjusted independently of
each other.
If two audio items are linked together as part of a dual mono pair, the stereo
distribution of each item can be independently controlled using the panning slider in
the corresponding track strip. This is useful when panning mono audio clips, such as
sound effects, between the left and right channels to create specific stereo imaging,
such as to create the illusion that a car is passing from left to right across the screen.
Changing a Clip’s Pan
Both stereo and mono clip items can be panned in the Audio Mixer. When you adjust a
stereo clip item’s pan, the other clip item in the pair is adjusted by an equal and
opposite amount. Mono clip items’ pan is adjusted independently.
To change the pan of an entire clip:
1 Make sure the clip doesn’t have any pan keyframes already applied.
2 Make sure that the Record Audio Keyframes button in the button bar at the top of the
Audio Mixer is not selected.
3 In the Timeline, position the playhead so that it’s over the clip you want to change.
4 Drag the panning slider of the relevant track strip.
Sliding it to the left pans that clip’s audio increasingly to the left channel. Sliding it to
the right pans that clip’s audio increasingly to the right channel.