Creative Media Room – ‘Quick Tips’ Guide This document contains hints and tips on the key software contained on the Mac inside the Creative Media Room. The official, comprehensive user manuals are located inside the User Manuals folder on the desktop. Contents Audacity – The Basics ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Compressor – The Basics ................................................................................................................................................................................. 4 Final Cut Pro – The Basics ............................................................................................................................................................................... 7 GarageBand – The Basics .............................................................................................................................................................................. 12 iMovie – The Basics ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 15 Soundtrack Pro – The Basics ......................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Audacity – The Basics Zoom Fit to Selection Introduction to the Workspace In/Out Editing Tools Trim Fit to Project Playback Controls Audio Tracks Project Audio Waveforms Playback Head Space 1 Hints and Tips Importing • You can use the Mic inside the Creative Media Room to record speech for use in your projects. Firstly, make sure that the audio mixer has the cable labelled ‘Audio to iMac’ inserted into the ‘Aux Send’ output. Next, press the record button, and speak directly into the microphone. Audacity will automatically create a new track and start recording. Every time you press the record button, a new track is created so you can easily edit the audio. All of the Recording levels have been set up, so do not adjust anything on the sound mixer. • Audacity will let you edit pre-recorded audio, such as an MP3 file by using File>Import. Editing • The Selection Tool is the main tool that allows you to select areas of audio for editing. • The Time Shift Tool is used for dragging tracks backwards and forwards along the project space; this is useful if you want to change the order of audio in your project. • The Envelope Tool allows you to adjust the audio levels in your project. You can select the blue line at the top of the track and raise or lower it to change the sound levels of the whole track. Alternatively, you can just edit the audio level of a particular point on your track. Click on the blue line along the track and this will insert a white control point, you can then adjust the levels between control points on the track. This could be used to create a fade on a track. To delete a control point, drag it above the track until it disappears. • Fades can quickly be created by selecting the area of audio which is to be faded (in or out) using the selection tool. Select Effects>Fade In or Fade Out and Audacity will create the fade for you. • The audio waves are displayed visually, which allows for precise editing. Zooming in on the project space (Zoom Tool or cmd+1) allows you to see the individual waveforms, which can be very useful when trying to edit out unwanted sounds, like a cough or sneeze. When using the zoom tool, right clicking (or cmd+3) allows you to zoom back out. • Zooming in and out can get very repetitive; using the Fit to Selection in Window Tool (i.e. an area of audio that has been highlighted with the selection tool) and Fit to Project in Window Tool (whole audio track) can help speed things up. 2 • The cut, copy and paste tools are in the Edit Menu Bar, and they work the exact same way that you would expect them too. The split new, trim and silence tools which are also in the Edit menu can be useful. The Silence tool removes the selected audio, and inserts silence in the selected area. This maintains the original duration of the track. The Trim tool deletes everything but the selected area; use the Trim icon as a shortcut. The Split New command (as shown on the screenshot) moves the selected audio on to a new track, and deletes the audio from the original track. Exporting • To make your audio playable outside of Audacity, it has to be exported using File>Export. Files can be exported as an uncompressed lossless format, such as a WAV file, or a compressed lossy format such as an MP3 file. MP3 files usually give a good mix between file size, compatibility and quality. The MP3 format is required if you are producing audio for a podcast. If you only want to export part of your project, you can select an area of audio and use the File>Export Selection menu. • When exporting as an MP3, you will be given the option to input metadata about your track. This is for Album and Artist data for programs like iTunes and Windows Media Player to use, but can just skip this step if you want. 3 Compressor – The Basics Introduction to the Workspace Add File Icon Original Video Transcoded Quality Placeholder Destinations Tab Summary Pane Encoder Pane Geometry Pane Preview Window Settings Tab Settings Options Inspector 4 Hints and Tips Importing • When opening Compressor, you are presented with a screen which shows the Batch Template window and the main interface. Choose a suitable preset template for your project; if none of the presets are suitable then you can cancel the Batch Template, and provide the settings manually. The next step is to load your source media into Compressor. You can add a video by selecting the Add File icon. • If you have sent your sequence to Compressor from Final Cut Pro, Compressor will open up automatically and load your sequence (source video) into the Placeholder. Converting / Transcoding • If you are using a Batch Template, Compressor will assign the transcoding settings for you, so nothing needs to be adjusted in the settings tab. • If none of the Batch Templates are suitable, then you will need to choose the transcoding settings manually. Settings are selected from the settings tab. Drag on to the Placeholder to apply them. Some of the settings are optimised for small file size, whilst some offer better quality. Using the Quicktime H.264 setting gives a good mix between file size and quality. However, if you wanted the finished video to be played back on a mobile phone, then the mobile presets will be more suitable. • Compressor allows you to preview the difference between your source footage and the converted (transcoded) video. The Preview window shows the original video on the left, and the transcoded version on the right. This is very useful to see how experimenting with different settings can change the quality of the video, and allows you to make sure the quality doesn’t fall unacceptably low. • Compressor will also assign a default output location (Destination) for you; this will need to be changed to make sure your work is being saved in your user projects folder. To change the Destination select the Destination tab and select the ‘add’ button on the top right of the tab. To choose the (local) destination, select your User Project folder from the pop up window. Your folder will then appear as a Custom Destination, which you need to drag on to the placeholder. • All of the elements ( Source Media, Settings, Destination) are in place to create the transcoded video. These 3 elements combined are known as a Batch, and to create the video the Batch needs to be ‘submitted’ for transcoding. Select the 5 Submit button to begin the transcoding sequence. Before the transcoding starts, you are given the option to rename the outputted file, by default this is the name of the source media. Noting else needs to be changed in this dialogue box. • The Inspector is a useful tool which allows you to change and monitor some transcoding settings. The Summary Pane allows you to see the estimated output file size, and other information about the finished video (Compressor cannot estimate the file size for all video settings). The Encoder Pane allows you to change options within the transcoding settings, such as quality and frame rate. To change the resolution of the video, use the Geometry Pane. Selecting a ‘Custom’ setting allows you to specify the resolution of the transcoded video. Most changes you make can be viewed in the Preview window. • Compressor allows you to submit multiple Batches at once, so you could have various source files and settings being transcoded at the same time. To add another Batch, select the + icon in the Placeholder. • Be patient! Transcoding operations can take a long time; there is an indication of how long the transcoding will take but this is not always 100% accurate. As a rule of thumb, the transcoding will take around twice the duration of your source video. This will be longer if transcoding multiple Batches. 6 Final Cut Pro – The Basics Introduction to the Workspace Browser Viewer Canvas Bins Playback Controls In Point Marker Out Point Marker Video & Audio Tracks Playback Head Timeline Padlock Zoom Control Tool Palette 7 Hints and Tips Importing • Final Cut Pro (FCP) has a few different ways of importing video for your project. If your footage is from a tape based camcorder, you should use File>Log and Capture.