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For more information about mixing your sequence right in the Timeline, see the
Final Cut Pro documentation.
Soundtrack Pro, on the other hand, is a dedicated environment for this sort of work and
offers many more tools and options for sound design, noise suppression and filtration,
and mixing. If you’re trying to decide whether to mix a sequence in Final Cut Pro or send
it to Soundtrack Pro, consider the following questions.
How complicated is your audio?
If your audio needs are fairly straightforward, and you’re pretty happy with the way your
audio sounds, there may be no need to send it to Soundtrack Pro for finishing. Final Cut Pro
has all the tools you need to do a high-quality stereo mix, and if isolated clips require
more work, you can always send those to Soundtrack Pro for individual adjustment. (See
“Sending Specific Clips to Soundtrack Pro for Cleanup.”)
If, however, your project is more complicated, it may be to your advantage to move all
of your tracks to Soundtrack Pro to do more intricate work. See “Audio Finishing Using
SoundTrack Pro.”
Do you need a surround mix?
If you require the features necessary to create a surround mix, you’ll be best served by
working in Soundtrack Pro, which has surround panner and mixdown support as well as
filter support for surround imaging. For more information about surround mixing, see
the Soundtrack Pro documentation.
Audio Finishing Using SoundTrack Pro
Soundtrack Pro is a dedicated audio editing and mixing application that provides all the
software tools you need for dialogue editing and sound design, with features designed
to facilitate audio/video synchronization, in-place sound editing, automated dialogue
replacement (ADR), and sound effects library management.
Tools for taking corrective measures include tools for noise reduction, click and pop
removal, equalization matching, and de-essing, among many others. After you have
edited the audio and fixed any problems, there are numerous features designed to help
you create the final mix. Support for automated mixing using control surfaces, bussing
for submixes, surround panning, and a complete assortment of professional-quality filters
for equalization (including channel and parametric EQ), dynamics (with several methods
of compression and expansion), and stereo and surround imaging round out the
Soundtrack Pro feature set.
With this in mind, sending all of your sequence’s audio to Soundtrack Pro is an easy
process.
93Chapter 5 Finishing