demobook

DaVinci Resolve: Adjusting audio levels on the timeline

Demo summary

A demonstration of using the audio meters to identify clipping and dragging the white volume line on a clip to normalize audio levels.

Step-by-step

  1. Monitor the audio meters on the right-hand side of the interface.
  2. Identify clips where the waveform is significantly larger than surrounding audio.
  3. Locate the white volume line on the specific audio clip in the timeline.
  4. Click and drag the white line down to reduce the volume.
  5. Visually match the waveform size and shape to the adjacent normalized clips.
  6. Play back the audio to ensure levels are hitting around the -10 mark.

Watch out for

  • Audio going above -5 is likely too loud and risks clipping.
  • Do not let the audio stay consistently in the red zone on the meters.

Tips

  • Aim for audio levels to hit around the -10 mark on the meters for consistency.
  • Scan the timeline visually for large waveforms to quickly identify parts that need adjustment.
  • It is acceptable if the meter hits the red for a brief second, provided it is not constant.

Highlights

the way we fix audio levels... all I'm going to do is find this white line... and then drag it down

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