Audio Levels for Voice, Music and Effects in Your Edit

Audio levels decide what the viewer hears first. One rule covers most videos: speech on top, music underneath, effects as accents. The steps below build that balance in the DepCut timeline.

Set the voice first

Start with the clip that carries speech, because every other sound is judged against it.

1. Select the video clip and open the Volume tab on the right.
2. Drag the Clip volume slider. It runs from 0 to 150 percent, and 100 percent leaves the clip unchanged.
3. Play a stretch of speech on headphones and settle on a level where every word is comfortable to follow.

Use the same level for speech across clips. Play across a join between two recordings. If one is louder, lower it to match the other. The Mute audio switch in the same tab silences a clip's own sound.

Place music underneath

Open AI Gen in the left panel, switch to Audio and choose Music. The Sample library holds bundled tracks. Hover a card and click the plus button, titled Add at the playhead, to drop it on the soundtrack. The same view has a generator for new music, and generation spends account credits.

The track lands as a green clip with a waveform. Select it, open its Volume tab and lower the slider until the music supports the speech without competing with it. A bed that is easy to forget is usually at the right level.

Duck music under speech

Ducking lowers everything else while one clip plays, so you can leave the music louder in the gaps.

1. Select the soundtrack clip that carries the speech. If the speech lives inside a video clip, open that clip's Clip options menu and choose Detach audio first.
2. Open the Duck tab.
3. Drag Duck others down. While this clip plays, every other sound drops to that percentage. At 100 percent the setting reads Off.

Fade the edges and add accents

Music that starts or stops without warning pulls attention away from the picture. Select the green clip and use the Fade in and Fade out tabs. A fade can take up to half of the clip, so the two never overlap. Fade out the last piece of music so the video ends cleanly.

The Sound FX tab has a Library of bundled sounds and a Generate view for new ones, which spends account credits. Each sound drops onto the soundtrack at the playhead. Keep effects below speech so they punctuate the moment without covering a word.

Check the whole mix

Play the video from the start and listen for three things: any word you have to strain to hear, any moment where music competes with speech, and any jump in loudness at a cut. Check on the kind of speaker your viewers will use, such as a phone or laptop, as well as headphones. When a problem hides in the mix, use a clip's Mute audio switch to silence one layer at a time until you find the cause.

Hear the difference

Add a music track to a talking clip in DepCut, then set Duck others on the speech and listen to how the music sits.