Davinci Resolve Day 4: Fairlight

Objectives

  • Fairlight Interface
  • Channels
  • Normalize
  • Keyframes
  • Noise Reduction

Practice Files: Davinci Day 4 Files

Outline

Audio in Edit Tab

  • Have students add the curiosity file to timeline in edit tab
  • Many simple audio edits can be done in the edit tab
  • Rubber band
    • White line in audio track
    • Drag to make adjustments
  • Select clip and adjust volume slider in Inspector
    • Double click to reset
    • Zero means unchanged not zero volume
  • Fade In/OutDrag white handles on corners, and then the White circle in the middle of the line- changes rate of fade

The Fairlight Tab

  • Fairlight is Davinci’s audio editor and will exclusively show the audio from your clips for more detailed audio editing
  • Open the background music file, and go to Fairlight tab
  • Navigation:
    • Timeline in center
    • Toolbar above timeline
    • Controls in mixer on right
    • Viewer in top right
    • Meters at top
    • Channels
      • Mono will play the same sound out of every speaker even if it is split (same sounds out of right and left headphone)
      • Stereo can play different sound from different speakers (mainly right and left)
      • Talk about when to use each one
      • Separate R and L tracks
        • right click audio track header> ‘convert to linked group’
      • Right click on clip> ‘clip attributes’> pop-up window> format: stereo, mono, and others
        • Change the clip to Mono, demonstrate how it sounds, then Cmd+z it back to Stereo
  • Timeline
    • Zoom in and out on toolbar- vertical and horizontal
    • Add track by right clicking on left
  • Modes https://youtu.be/59MCmmcWzFs?t=97
    • Selection mode (arrow)- works like edit tab
    • Range selection mode (plus sign)- selects one area
      • To clear the selection, use Alt+I to clear the In point and Alt+O to clear the out point)
    • Edit selection mode (timeline with cursor)- mix of the two
  • Alt+i and alt+o will undo any selection

Normalize

  • Audio normalizing: change its overall volume by a fixed amount to reach a target level. It is different from compression that changes volume over time in varying amounts. It does not affect dynamics like compression, and ideally does not change the sound in any way other than purely changing its volume.
  • Demonstrate/activity using the background music clip
  • Watch meters to avoid going into red is peak
  • Gain is input, volume is output
    • Generally, vocal / dialog level is within -15 db to -10 db.
    • Strong booming voice around -10 db.
    • Softer natured voice around -15 db.
    • Average voice level at around -12 db.
    • Whispering sound around -20 db.
    • Yelling sound around -3 db.
    • Background Music around -20db.
  • Right click clip> ‘normalize audio levels’
  • Set target level
    • Fairlight takes loudest point of clip and sets it at target level
  • Listen and re-adjust using rubber band or inspector
  • Can also use the Curiosity track to demonstrate, and/or put the music back behind it

Keyframes

  • Keyframe rubber band by holding alt/option and clicking the rubber band
  • Adjust between keyframes
  • OR
  • Open Inspector> select keyframe diamond> make changes
  • This is very helpful to change the volume of specific parts of your audio, to either take it down or make it louder

Noise Reduction

  • Mixer panel> Effects> + > noise reduction> fairlight fx
  • OR effect panel, drag onto the video
    • De-Esser
      • Takes out whistle-y S sounds
    • De-Hummer
      • Take out background humming sounds
      • Use the I Gotta Jar of Dirt video, it has a humming fan noise in the background
    • Noise Reduction
  • Select Noise reduction> pop-up window
    • Presets in top left, graph in center, settings below
    • Flip effect on and off in top left
  • Adjust settings and listen to clip until it sounds right
    • Use the Curiosity video, you can “learn” the sea and boat noises in the background @the beginning and then noise reduction will take them out
  • Manual> learn> automatically adds settings> re-adjust manually

Captions

– DaVinci doesn’t generate automatic subtitles, but you can either add them manually or use an SRT files to import subtitles

– Adding manually:

  • – Right click your tracks panel > add subtitle track > right click in the new subtitle track> add subtitle
  • – can edit attributes in the inspector (font, size, position etc)
  • – drag in the Subtitle track to change the length or position of subtitle
  • – Subtitle some of Curiosity (or I gotta jar of dirt)

– If you want to, you can find a automatic subtitle generator online to create an SRT file, then use File>import> subtitle

(Helpful video for lesson prep)