Final Cut Pro 6 - Creating or Separating Stereo Pairs

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Creating or Separating Stereo Pairs

Although stereo pairs are meant to be used for intrinsically stereo audio like music or
stereo sound effects, any two clips of audio in the Timeline can be made into a stereo
pair or separated into two mono clips. This operation can only be performed in
the Timeline.

Note: Stereo pair linking is not the same as clip item linking. It is not necessary to break
the link between clips prior to disabling stereo pairing.

To create a stereo pair:

1

Select a pair of mono audio clip items in the Timeline. (Use the Command key to select
the second item, if necessary.) If you click one item of a linked pair, the other item is
also selected.

2

Choose Modify > Stereo Pair (or press Option-L).

The stereo pair indicators appear on the selected clip items in the Timeline.

Stereo pair. Green arrows
indicate stereo pair;
underlines indicate linking.

Mono clip items (linked).
Underlines indicate
linking.

Mono clip items
(unlinked)

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Chapter 17

Audio Editing Basics

307

II

If the clip items you want to make into a stereo pair have different durations, the clip
items are trimmed to the region where they both overlap. The levels, pan settings, and
filters that were applied to the top clip are applied to both, and the clip attributes from
the bottom clip are ignored.

To separate a stereo pair:

1

Select a stereo clip item.

2

Do one of the following:

 Choose Modify > Stereo Pair, so that the menu item is unchecked.
 Press Option-L.

Volume level overlays

Two clips that are not a

stereo pair; length and

volume levels differ.

Before

Stereo pair indicators

Volume level overlay (the

same on both tracks)

Only overlapping parts of

the clips remain, and the

volume is copied from the

top clip to the bottom clip.

After

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Part II

Rough Editing