User Manual

Fairlight
The Fairlight panel lets you set up your project’s audio sample rate, as well as setting up various
audio-specific tools in the Fairlight page.
Timeline Sample Rate
This setting can only be changed prior to creation of your first timeline. Once one or more
timelines have been created in a project, the Audio Sample Rate is locked to whatever
was chosen.
The Audio Sample Rate, measured in kilohertz, is the number of samples per second used for
audio processing in DaVinci Resolve. This setting defaults to 48000 (or 48 kHz), which is typical
for broadcast and cinema work. However, you can change this to 96000 or 192000 if you want
to mix and process audio at higher precision. Be aware that using a higher sample rate, such as
96 kHz instead of 48 kHz, will use twice as much processing power and result in media that’s
twice the size.
NOTE: Regardless of the Timeline Sample Rate you select, when you import audio
files at different sample rates, they will be automatically re-sampled to the Timeline
Sample Rate so they play correctly.
Audio Metering
Two options in the General Options of the Project Settings let you customize the Loudness
Meters on the Fairlight page, while the others affect all other audio meters in DaVinci Resolve.
 Target Loudness level: Lets you set the LUFS value that’s used as a reference level
for loudness metering. Defaults to –23 LUFS, which conveniently makes the display of
these meters scale similarly to traditional audio meters that you’re already used to.
 Loudness Scale: Lets you choose which scale you want to use with which to measure
the meters. Options currently include the default of EBU +9 Scale (–18 to +9), and EBU
+18 Scale (–36 to +18).
 Bus Meter Alignment Level:
 Bus Meter High Level:
 Bus Meter Low Level:
 Track Meters: Lets you choose how meters in the Fairlight page display their audio
analysis. There are two options:
–
Post Fader: Meters always display the level of each clip’s signal after whatever fader
adjustments have taken place. Fading a track’s level down diminishes the visible
level of that audio signal in the meter. This setting is good if you prefer a visual
indication of the relative levels you’ve set your various audio tracks to, which is a
very NLE-oriented behavior.
–
Track Source: Meters always use the volume levels of the audio clips in that track,
even if you’ve lowered the level using the sliders. If you’ve keyframed a clip’s
volume, that change will be reflected by the audio meters, even though fader
changes are not. Viewing meters this way means you can always see how much
level is available to clips in your mix regardless of what the current fader levels are
set to, in the event you want to keep track of audio you want to bring back into the
mix later on. This is a very DAW-oriented behavior.
Chapter – 4 Project Settings 170