Monitoring Audio During Capture

[This article was first published in the January, 2008, issue of
Larry’s Final Cut Pro Newsletter. Click here to subscribe.]

Emily Rumsey, from Madison, Wisconsin, writes:

I’m logging and capturing on a laptop with no external monitor, using a DVCAM deck. The log & capture window registers sound on the meters but I can’t hear it. Once out of the L&C window you can hear clips fine.

 

Where can I set the L&C to hear audio while logging?

Larry replies: Emily, monitoring during capture showed up with Final Cut Pro 5.

Open the Log & Capture window and make sure Preview is checked in the Clip Settings window. This turns on audio play-through during capture.

UPDATE – Jan. 27

Michael Grenadier sent in the following caution:

I think this is a dangerous recommendation to make without the following caveat: Monitoring the audio during capture adds to system overhead. Occasionally this will create problems in the captured file usually manifested as random clicking. I saw this way back in fcp1. Since in my opinion, a good fcp system includes an audio patchbay, it should be possible to monitor your audio directly of the camera or deck. So I haven’t left myself vulnerable to this problem in a long time. I figured this wouldn’t be a problem with faster mac’s and newer software, however recently someone recently posted on the Apple FCP forum a problem with random clicking in captured media that was not there in the original material. Sure enough this was the cause of the problem.