If you've just made the switch from FCP7 to Media Composer 7, than the last lesson in this five part tutorial series will help you make the transition as smooth as possible!

The purpose of Avid’s Get Started Fast tutorials series is, of course, to get you up and running with Media Composer 7 as quickly as possible.  Making the switch from one non-linear system to another is always difficult.  Many FCP7 editors have chosen Media Composer, not only because it is the favorite for Hollywood Film and Television Editors, but it's workflow is very similar to that of FCP7, so making the transition can be a smooth one.  Especially if you're following along with my five part tutorial series over at Avid Blogs.  In lesson five, we’re going to look at another process that can throw editors for a loop, and that is audio mixing.  Most editors think “Oh, we’ll just get an audio engineer to mix our show”, and in many cases, that is included in the budget, but what happens if you’re working on a smaller edit, and you need to do the mixing yourself.  Luckily, many of the mixing features in FCP7 were shaped from the audio mixing tools inside of Media Composer.  In our lesson, I’m going to show you two different techniques for mixing.  The first method is quick, simple and very visual.  The second method is using keyframes.  We’re also going to talk about what I think is the best way to lay out your audio in your timeline and why, and as an added bonus, I’m going to show you how to edit music montages faster than you ever have before.  Finishing up this lesson will give you the confidence to jump into Media Composer 7 and start editing – Fast!

Get Started Fast with Avid for Final Cut Pro 7 Editors first appeared on Avid Blogs!

Kevin P McAuliffe is a Senior Editor at DG MIJO, in Toronto.  You can send him an e-mail at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @kpmcauliffe.