Building the Soundtrack - The Craft of the Cut - page 236

1. Select Scene 17 Slate 31 Take 2 in the Timeline and open the Inspector. Select the Audio pane and click
the Channel Configuration disclosure triangle. The clip's audio is configured as a single stereo file. Press
+Shift+8 to open the audio meters (if they aren't already open) and play back Scene 17 Slate 31 Take 2 in
the Timeline. As you can see from the audio meters, all the dialogue is recorded on the left channel of the
file, which is common practice when recording audio on the set. Because the right channel is of no use to
us, let's remove it.
2. Under Channel Configuration in the Inspector, choose Dual Mono from the Channels drop-down menu.
The single stereo file is replaced by two mono audio strips under the Channel Configuration section. As you
can see from the waveforms, there is hardly any audio recorded on the bottom Mono track, so un-check the
check box beside the bottom audio track to disable it (see Figure 13.3).
Figure 13.3 Disabling a mono track in the Inspector.
3. Choose Window ⇒ Media Browser ⇒ Effects to open the Effects Browser (if it isn't already open) and type
EQ into the search field. Select Scene 17 Slate 31 Take 2 in the Timeline and double-click the Channel EQ
plug-in in the Effects Browser to apply it to the clip.
4. With Scene 17 Slate 31 Take 2 still selected, open the Inspector and click the Audio tab. Under Effects,
you'll find the Channel EQ setting for the clip. Click the EQ button to bring up the plug-in interface and
then click the Parameters disclosure triangle to access the settings.
5. Click the Analyzer button on the Channel EQ Interface and play back Scene 17 Slate 31 Take 2. The
Analyzer shows quite a bit of low-end rumble occurring during the clip. Let's remove these unwanted bass
frequencies. In the Inspector's Channel EQ settings, check the Low Cut On/Off check box to activate the
Channel EQ's high-pass filter. You can also turn the high-pass filter on by clicking on the first of eight but-
tons that run across the top of the Channel EQ's interface (see Figure 13.4). As its name suggests, a high-
pass filter cuts off low frequencies while allowing high frequencies to “pass” through. A low cut of around
144 Hz should be enough to remove the unwanted low frequencies. Drag the Low Cut Frequency slider to
144 or type the value into the name field and press Return (see Figure 13.5).