It is worth noting that Q is not the bandwidth itself but it is related to it. when the bandwidth goes up, Q goes down by a proportional amount). There are numerous articles about it on the internet that get quite technical but all you need to know is that it's the relationship between the center frequency and the bandwidth (f/b) so Q is inversely proportional to the bandwidth (i.e. Q stands for Quality Factor and is a different way of representing the bandwidth. This is identical to the AUBandpass filter (in the Apple folder) except that instead of the bandwidth parameter, it has a mysterious one called Q.
This will allow a range of frequencies on either side of the center frequency to pass through and reduce (attenuate) frequencies outside this range. This is useful when you need to boost the bass of a voice or improve a flat-sounding voice. I personally prefer AUFilter (in the Apple folder) because it gives you a bit more control and allows you to adjust 5 bands. This allows you to take three separate bands (low, med and high) and adjust the gain up and down individually. I would generally advise you to pick the built-in filters over the Audio Units whenever possible, as they tend to use up fewer system resources. So which should you use? Well, for a start, bear in mind that some of those filters have the same function but different parameters. Now, one thing you may have noticed is that there are often duplicate filters such as AUBandpass (an Audio Unit) and the built-in Band Pass Filter.
This guide is intended to inform Final Cut Pro users of the options available to them for fixing bad sound. This part will cover the audio filters that ship as part of Final Cut Pro.
#Final cut pro filters mac os x#
Part 1 covered the Audio Units that ship with Mac OS X and if you haven't read it, it's available here. This is the second part of the Final Cut Pro Audio Filter Guide. The second part of his two part guide after the break. We're deeply indebted to FCP guru Jon Chappell for sitting down and going through the audio filters one by one to see what each one does.