I admit I'm double-posting from the FCP forum, but I don't do it often and no one there has said anything....AND this is a very high PITA problem.
I recently completed a 1-hour video, heavy on interviews, and tried to be very careful about volume levels. I listened countless times with the monitor off and using a pair of very good headphones. Also with a pair of not-so-good self- powered speakers. Using what I heard and the level meter in FCP, I tried to set an equal volume for everything.
Now, I've watched/heard the DVD many times since I completed it, and nothing about the sound seemed particularly wrong.
So last night it had its "world premiere" at the small museum I did it for. A nice member-only event. They used cheap speakers and low-end amp and DVD player, and they'd done their own purchasing of DVD duplication. So it was their DVD, not one of mine.
What stood out for me was the huge range in volume from clip to clip. I'd say about 60% of the footage was fine, with 20% too low and 20% too high. This was the only time the differences were so striking.
I'm left wondering: WTF happened, and how do I prevent it w/o throwing a ton of $$ at the problem?
One thought: is there such a thing as listener fatigue, where you need to stop trying to match clip-to-clip volume and go away until you're sensitized again?
I recently completed a 1-hour video, heavy on interviews, and tried to be very careful about volume levels. I listened countless times with the monitor off and using a pair of very good headphones. Also with a pair of not-so-good self- powered speakers. Using what I heard and the level meter in FCP, I tried to set an equal volume for everything.
Now, I've watched/heard the DVD many times since I completed it, and nothing about the sound seemed particularly wrong.
So last night it had its "world premiere" at the small museum I did it for. A nice member-only event. They used cheap speakers and low-end amp and DVD player, and they'd done their own purchasing of DVD duplication. So it was their DVD, not one of mine.
What stood out for me was the huge range in volume from clip to clip. I'd say about 60% of the footage was fine, with 20% too low and 20% too high. This was the only time the differences were so striking.
I'm left wondering: WTF happened, and how do I prevent it w/o throwing a ton of $$ at the problem?
One thought: is there such a thing as listener fatigue, where you need to stop trying to match clip-to-clip volume and go away until you're sensitized again?