Hal9000 said:
Anyone have any advice for laying down stereo music in a 5.1 mix? Should I lay down the stereo track twice, one for the L and R front speakers and a quieter version for the two back ones? Or are there any utilities you have used to "convert" it into something more suitable to drop in?
i think you have two options here, depending on where you want the music to actuallly project from - just the stereo speakers, or other speakers as well? If it is the case of the former, than yes, it is simply a matter of laying the tracks down, making sure they map the L/R channels, and then adjusting the audio levels of the existing new channels appropriately so that the new music comes through at the desired level you want. Sometimes you are aiming for augmentation, sometimes completely replacement. But you do need to make sure if there is an overall volume change you need to work into it gradually. FCP7 does have audio level meters available which you can make use of. It's one the myriad of windows that can be displayed.
If you are aiming to convert the stereo mix to project on other channels as well, then yes, you will need to probably do this outside of FCP7 first to convert the stereo to 5.1, where you can work with the sound image so that the appropriate amount of sound comes through each of the channels (for example much less should come from the back channels, if this is just music). FCPX has this built in, so some other editor would need to advise on other software to use. audacity (a free do-everything audio tool available on the Mac) might be able to help, but I don't know for sure.
usually, when it is music, I just go the first route and combine it with the existing L/R.
I'm also curious, seciors, how you go about muting dialogue. I've been using the pen tool to somewhat gradually bring the center channel to mute, and raising the L and R channels just as gradually to +4 dbl each.
Ok, so this is important when you are trying remove unwanted sounds (either dialog or annoying character noises) - you AlWAYS need to replace whatever you are muting with something else on that same channel. Otherwise the channel will just drop out, which won't be noticeable when listening on your computer (due to the stereo downmix) but WILL be noticeable from a surround sound setup, especially if it is from the center, left, or right speakers.
so, what you need to do is duplicate one of the other tracks (usually the L or R channel) and reassign it to the track you are replacing. then do that gradual ease-in/out like you described to replace the sound in question. Don't just the volume of the other channels. However, you may need to raise the new tracks volume in order to match what you are replacing so as not to get a noticeable drop in overall volume.
Another use case is that you are trying to completely restore a section, either because the unwanted dialog/noise bleeds into all the channels, or you just want to change the music. In this case, you can probably make due with doing all of the above, but also muting the existing L/R and Ls/Rs channels, and route a tiny but of the new music into the Ls/Rs channels by duplicating them. Finally, in this scenario, you still might need to have a new center track from the new music track, if the original audio you are replacing is also on the center track (all too common in Star Wars) So you will need to try and smoothly make the dialog pieces blend in to the new music, while muting (or lowereing the volume of) the spaces between the dialog.
After doing all this, your final check on whether is sounds ok will always have to be on a surround system. That can come during the work print phase though, as hopefully one of your reviewers will listen to the surround mix version and can point out any problems (or it's something you can do yourself if you have the right setup).
sometimes you have to experiment with what to replace the sound you are removing with; a music channel doesn't always work, since sometimes you are working with a section that has a lot of background noise on the center channel and the change topuremmusic can be noticeable. You just wil need to play around with different approaches...such as trying to find some background without dialog from the same scene to use.
perhaps others who are more experienced with audio work can chime in as well - this is not my area of expertise. As most of this question is not Mac specific, you could also solicit advice on the tech forum devoted to audio (I think there is one...otherwise use the other tech questions forum).
however, the most important thing is to never let the sound drop out completely on a channel - you need to have something there or else it will be very noticeable on a surround sound system and sound bad.