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216Final Cut Pro User Guide
Audio channels and components in Final Cut Pro
Audio files can contain a single audio channel or multiple audio channels. Channels usually
correspond to microphone inputs during recording or to speakers for multichannel output.
For example, a stereo audio file usually contains left and right channels that match what
you hear from the left and right speakers during playback.
Final Cut Pro automatically groups channels into audio components according to how
the channels are configured for the clip. You can expand the audio portion of clips to
view and edit audio components down to the individual channel level. You can then make
separate volume or pan adjustments or apply and keyframe different audio effects for each
component. See
Intro to audio editing in Final Cut Pro.
The number of audio components you see corresponds to the number of channels you’ve
configured in your source clip.
Note: Many popular digital audio file formats, such as AAC and MP3, use interleaved stereo
files, which do not contain separate left and right channels. A stereo clip with interleaved
left and right channels appears as a single audio component in the Audio inspector and
the timeline. If you change the clip’s channel configuration from Stereo to Dual Mono, the
channels appear as two separate audio components.
See Configure audio channels in Final Cut Pro.
Ways to view audio clips in Final Cut Pro
When you work with audio waveforms in the timeline, you can zoom in or out or change the
clip appearance to make the waveform taller or shorter.
Final Cut Pro also provides several ways to view and work with audio and video within clips.
You can:
• Expand a clip to view and edit audio components down to the individual channel level
• Expand a clip to see separate audio and video
• Detach audio from a video clip to work on the audio and video as separate, independent
clips
• Change the background appearance of a clip to show reference waveforms, which make
it easier to see audio waveforms when the volume is diminished