FCPX Audio Levels Off?

[BrendanLeahy]

Hey all -

I remember being able to do edits before and get it close to 0dB, but now, I'm running into a strange issue where, regardless of how much I push the audio, it maxes out around -6dB. Did FCPX update settings that I'm not aware of?

 

[Mike Altino]

That doesn't sound good. Haven't come across this, but any chance a limiter got placed in your timeline unknowingly somewhere along the way?

 

[BrendanLeahy]

That doesn't sound good. Haven't come across this, but any chance a limiter got placed in your timeline unknowingly somewhere along the way?

Nope - I've actually tried to intentionally place a limiter just to see if it would do anything, and even boosting everything up as far as it can go gain-wise in the limiter and output of 0dB, the audio still caps off at -6dB when played :/

 

[Sabovic Adis]

Is your channel fader or master fader set to -6 dB?

 

[Bob Gundu]

Is this on a new project or opening existing ones? Is the original embedded audio really low?

 

[Brian Timmons]

This could be an issue where your audio was recorded so low that the max gain in the audio panel is not enough to get past -6db.

In the EFFECTS PANEL go to the AUDIO SECTION and select the LEVELS category. From there SELECT the GAIN tool.
- or quick shortcut just type in GAIN in the search tool in the effects window.

The GAIN tool is much more powerful for pushing an audio signal and better for raising loudness of a lower recorded clip.
I tend to use that to get things ballpark and the audio panel for finer adjustments.

Brian Timmons
BRITIM/MEDIA