Audio
March 10, 2024
In this episode we show you how to automatically mix and post process the audio for your videos. We show you HOW to export the audio mix from DaVinci Resolve, then upload it to Auphonic to automatically clean, de-noise, level, and boost your sound levels. We then insert the new, clean, audio mix back into Fairlight within DaVinci Resolve and export your final video. This is a great way to save time!
If you’d like to learn how to make great dialogue audio for your film and video projects, please have a look at my courses including processing dialogue audio in Adobe Audition and DaVinci Resolve/Fairlight, recording sound, how to use the Zoom F4, F6, F8, and F8n, and how to get the most from the Sound Devices MixPre series of recorders. Our latest courses cover Sound for Live Streaming with the ATEM Mini and an Intro to Izotope RX. See https://school.learnlightandsound.com for more info!
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Gear used or mentioned in this episode. The links below are Amazon.com, B&H Photo, Sweetwater, or other affiliate links. As an affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases:
- Sennheiser MKH50 microphone — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon https://geni.us/iYb065
- Sound Devices MixPre audio recorder — B&H, Sweetwater, Amazon https://geni.us/O8e0
- Impact Turtle-Base C-Stands — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/8a8tt
- Aputure LS 600x Pro Bicolor LED Light — Aputure, B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/EreRQa
- Aputure Light Dome III Softbox — Aputure, B&H https://geni.us/AVHU1p
- Amaran 300c RGBWW Single-Point LED Light — https://geni.us/uGkDX
- Amaran Spotlight SE — Aputure, B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/4DuyTz
- Rosco Prismatic Glass Gobo in Cool Lavender — B&H https://geni.us/GWKt
- Canon C70 Cinema Camera — B&H https://geni.us/ABYB
- Canon RF 24-70 f/2.8 lens — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/qwsEs
- Panasonic GH5 camera — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/InspOl
- Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 II lens — B&H, Amazon https://geni.us/gr47
The intro and outro music for this episode is from Musicbed - “Dynamo” by Virgil Arles. Take your films to the next level with music from Musicbed. Sign up for a free account to listen for yourself: https://geni.us/G7by
Copyright 2024, Curtis Judd
How to automate audio post-production for videos using Auphonic, a service offering 2 free hours of audio processing per month (plenty for a weekly 10-15 minute video, with paid plans for higher volume). Demonstrated in DaVinci Resolve's Fairlight page starting with unbalanced music/dialogue levels, dialogue that's too quiet, prominent breaths, and some noise.
Workflow: use Timeline > Bounce Mix to Track to render the stereo mix bus onto a new track, mute the original tracks, then select and export just that bounced clip (right-click > Export Audio Files, Broadcast Wave, project sample rate, 24-bit interleaved, individual selected track, no normalization).
In Auphonic, upload the exported file to a "production," skip intro/outro and speech-recognition sections (paid-tier features), and set the output to a single WAV 24-bit PCM optimal-stereo file. Key settings: Adaptive Leveling at 100% strength with Default Leveler mode and Compressor set to Auto (this evens out music vs. dialogue and applies gentle compression so loudness can be boosted without clipping, which a straight normalize in Resolve can't achieve); Filtering set to Voice Auto EQ; Loudness Normalization for YouTube at -16 LUFS with -1.5 dB true peak max, Program Loudness selected (not Dialogue Loudness) since there's a music bed present, and Dual Mono unchecked since the music is stereo; Noise Reduction set to Dynamic (preserves speech and music, removes everything else) at a Reduction Amount of 12dB (Medium) rather than Auto, which sounded too aggressive/robotic; and Remove Breathing similarly set with a 12dB reduction amount rather than Auto, which cut breaths out entirely and sounded unnaturally fake. Automatic Cutting (removing silent gaps) should stay unchecked for video, since it would shorten the audio and break sync with picture — only use that for audio-only content like podcasts.
After starting the production (processing time scales with clip length; you get an email when done), the result sounds noticeably better balanced and leveled. Download the WAV (not MP3, which introduces more compression artifacts), re-import it into Resolve's media pool, drag it onto a new muted-adjacent track aligned to the start of the timeline to preserve sync, and verify the loudness landed at the target (-16 LUFS, about -1.4 dB true peak in this example) before exporting your video as usual. Get out there and make some great sound, and we will talk to you again soon.
