Make one clip louder, quieter or silent

You can ask Eddie to change the sound of one part of an edit and leave the rest alone. Eddie can make a clip louder or quieter, or mute the clip's own sound.

Ask Eddie

Say which part you mean and what you want. For example:

• "The third clip is too loud. Turn it down."
• "Make Sam's answers a bit louder."
• "Mute the sound on the drone shot."
• "Put the second clip back to its normal level."

Eddie sets a level in decibels (dB). 0 dB is the clip's own level. -6 dB is about half as loud, and +6 dB is about twice as loud. The range is -24 dB to +12 dB. A mute silences the clip's own sound. Music, voice-over and sound effects keep playing.

When you name a speaker, Eddie changes every clip where that speaker talks.

Where you hear it

• The player. A quieter clip and a mute play at once. A clip made louder plays at its normal level in the player, because the player cannot play a file louder than it is. Your MP4 and your editor get the full boost.
• The MP4. The cloud MP4 render carries the level and the mute.
• Your editor. Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve FCPXML carry the level as the clip's volume. Premiere XML and the Premiere project carry it as the clip's Volume Level. A mute arrives as -96 dB, so you can bring the sound back in your editor.

These do not carry the level: the DaVinci Resolve project (.drp), EDL, OTIO, Avid AAF, and an MP4 made by the desktop app on your computer. The export notes say so. Use FCPXML, Premiere or a cloud MP4 to keep the levels.

Things to know

• Export again after a change. A file that you already exported does not change. Export the edit again to get the new levels.
• Evening out speakers is a different setting. To bring every camera or microphone to one level, ask Eddie to auto-level the speech. A clip level adds to the auto-level.
• The level stays with the clip. It stays when you trim or move the clip, and undo takes it back. A new cut of the edit starts every clip at its own level.
• It is free. Changing a level costs no credits.

Take a clip's sound from another file

In a multicam project, you can keep a clip's picture and take its sound from another file of the same multicam group. For example:

• "Use the lav audio under this shot."
• "Use camera B's sound for the third clip."
• "Put this clip back to the normal audio."

Eddie places the other file's sound with the group's sync, so the words line up with the picture. Eddie does this only for files that are synced with the clip. If the file is not in the clip's multicam group, if the group has no sync for it, or if it was not recording for the whole clip, Eddie tells you why and changes nothing. To sync a file first, ask Eddie to make a multicam group. To change the sound of every clip in a group, ask Eddie to change the group's main audio instead.

• The player and the MP4 play the chosen sound.
• Final Cut Pro FCPXML carries it as the clip's audio angle. DaVinci Resolve FCPXML from the export menu carries it as a connected audio clip of the chosen file.
• Premiere XML, the Premiere project, the DaVinci Resolve project (.drp), EDL and OTIO do not carry it. They give each multicam clip the group's audio. The export notes name each clip that did not get its chosen sound, so you can switch it in your editor.

Related: Music, voice-over and audio, Export to Premiere, Final Cut, Resolve, Avid & OTIO.