Getting Assets into Your Media Composer Project

How to do it...
This method is a fast and simple way to adjust one or more clips in a bin:

1. Import or capture clips into a bin.

2. Select the clip(s) you want to adjust.
3. Clip menu | Apply Gain.
4. The Apply Clip Gain window opens.
5. Enter the value that you want to be applied.
6. Click on OK.

There's more...
The following are two additional methods to adjust audio levels before editing clips
into the sequence:

Using Import settings

This is particularly helpful when importing music and sound effects, as they generally
come in very loud. I find that adjusting to a level of -14 is a good starting point, as it
can always be adjusted later:

1. Open the Import settings: Project Window | Settings tab | double-click on Import.
2. Select the Audio tab.
3. Enable/check the setting that says Apply attenuation/gain effect on Import.
4. In the entry box, type in the level value that you want to be applied.
5. If you want this setting to be applied only to audio coming from a CD rather than
from all the audio files, check the box that says CD Only. Since I organize my files as
discussed in the recipe titled A strategy for project organization at the desktop level, I
leave this selection disabled/unchecked.
6. Now, when you import an audio file (or a video file containing audio), this level setting
will automatically be applied.

Using the Audio Mix tool

This method only affects one clip at a time:

1. Open the Audio Mixer tool from the Tools menu.

2. Set the Audio Mixer to Clip Volume and Pan mode, which is abbreviated simply as
Clip. This is done by clicking on the Audio Mixer Mode button in the upper right-hand
corner of the Audio Mixer tool.

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