aiff from fcp

When I play an audio recording from tape in FCP6 it sounds fine, when I export to AIFF and burn in toast it's horrible. The levels in FCP aren't clipping, customer just wants sound bite on CD, what am I missing?

Rick

After you export to AIFF, if you play that in Quicktime, does it sound ok? At what point does it go wonky? And what is the definition of 'sounds horrible'?

Hi Jude, if I open in quicktime it sounds ok, if I export from FCP as aiff and burn in toast to CD then play back CD it sounds like clipping, overmodulated?

What happens if you burn it to CD via iTunes instead? Might be a setting in Toast that needs tracking down?

> if I open in quicktime it sounds ok, if I export from FCP as aiff and burn in toast to CD then play
> back CD it sounds like clipping, overmodulated?

One of my producers had this issue just last week. Sound that was six to eight dB into the red in FCP didn't sound blown out on her laptop despite external speakers; you could have the same situation. Check the FCP sound meters -- if it looks and sounds blown out there, then it's blown out.

Also, where are you playing the CD?


www.derekmok.com

I'm playing the timeline out thru a Sony monitor sounds fine there, if I switch to external off it sounds OK on the thru my Mac. I'm burning in toast then playing the CD back in the computer thru external speakers and it sounds raspy.

Jude, you were right burning thru itunes works, I have will go back and see what gives in Toast.

Thank You Rick

Is it a possibility of a bad 48khz-44.1khz converter? CD audio is at 44.1khz. Also, there could be a noise reduction/maximizer turned "on", messing around with your sound.

strypes- where is the noise reduction / maximizer just curious?

Rick

Some software maximises volume by default. An example, compressor compresses encodings in ac3 (dialnorm& film standard compression). Apologies on the terminology error- i don't mean noise reduction (that's usually not in use). I meant compression/normalization (or dialog normalization in the case of dolby). There's usually a checkbox somewhere, or in the settings. Can't seem to find it in Toast, but i remember seeing it in Nero, a couple of years back.

Distortion should not happen on an audio cd, as audio cds allow for dynamic range up to 0dBs without distortion. Run a detect audio peaks and do an audio mixdown before export.

What does it sound like? Can you convert the audio to mp3 and upload it?

Also, 48khz is not audio cd standards, so it would be downsampled to 44.1khz, resulting in some audio problems (but likely not in your case).