Quiet Down! Reducing Noise in Your Clip

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Filed in: Weekly Tip

Background noise? Air conditioning rumble? Soundtrack Pro makes it easy to fix. By combining the Set Noise Print and Reduce Noise commands you can dramatically improve a clip.

Select a clip in your Final Cut Pro Timeline.
2 Right-click and choose Send To > Soundtrack Pro Audio Project File. The audio moves from your Timeline into Soundtrack Pro.
Zoom into a part of your audio file that contains just the background noise that you’d like to remove. Select the audio in the Soundtrack Pro Timeline.
4 Choose Process > Noise Reduction > Set Noise Print. The noise print identifies the frequencies that you’d like to remove from the file.
Select the audio in the Timeline that you’d like to repair (this will usually be the entire Timeline).
6 Choose Process > Noise Reduction > Reduce Noise. The Reduce Noise dialog appears.
Click the Preview button (play icon) to hear the noise reduction previewed.
8 Drag the Noise Threshold slider left to lower the threshold, or drag it right to raise the threshold.
Drag the Reduction slider to the right to increase the amount of noise reduction.
10 Use the Tone Control slider left to preserve more of the bass or treble content.
To toggle a before and after state, click the Bypass button.
12 When satisfied, click the Apply button.

Like this tip? It comes from the book
Final Cut Studio On the Spot from Focal Press.