In this tutorial, I show you the proper way to import and interact with audio in After Effects. I show you how to convert your MP3s into AIFF files using Quicktime. I also, show you the proper way to do fades and cross dissolves using Plugins.
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THANKS been waiting for this insight
Great post as always, Nick!
One more thing you can do that I find helpful is to hold down the command key (on a Mac) while scrubbing back and forth in the timeline. Doing this you´ll hear the sound as well.
Thats an invaluable tip Daniel, work with synching to audio all the time. Not watched the vid yet as I’m doing some AE animation myself so this may be covered… you can add layer markers with asterisk key on the num pad while previewing audio which is handy for timing animation with key sounds. Again, probably covered.
Hey Nick you heard about C4D r11.5 and mograph2? http://mograph.net/board/index.php?showtopic=20493
Nice dynamics video on maxons site…
http://www.maxon.net/en/home/quicklinks/aixsponza-no-keyframes.html
I think r11 users get a free upgrade, still on r10
Great tip Daniel! I totally forgot about that. Cheers!
Cheers Nick, On the videogame animation that i did i had that awfulfull glitch spent hours trying to resolve it, not realising that the mp3 was the problem.
Dont feel an idiot know and a bit more confident,
Thanks for sharing,
Rich
Nice little tidbit. But what about the new Quicktime X? Since They killed quicktime pro in Snow Leopard, the export options are for apple TV, iphone, and youtube. Kinda disappointed in that.
Quicktime 7 is still there. It’s hidden in /Applications/Utilities.
Yeah I found that out after i posted in a MacWorld Article. Thanks.
Good tips! thanks a lot. I was using the audio levels and always wondered why the fades were so fast.
Quick side note: if you don’t have quicktime pro which I think is required to export AIFF. You can do it directly from itunes by rightclicking any song and selecting ‘create AIFF’ version. If the option is not available you can fix that by going to itunes>preferences>import settings.
Great tip Nick.
Yeah – you’ll run into these same problems if you use MP3s in Final Cut Pro and other NLEs.
P.S. – Lowering/raising audio by 6 dBs (not 3dB) will lower or raise the volume by half (or double).
Daum, it was 6. Yeah, I should have known that. hehe. Thanks
sry guys but i jest read this and i had to correct u…it’s every 10 dB that the volume (loudness) is doubled
(but every 6 dB the sound level is dobled)
=)
Pop, click… problem solved! Thanks again man.
I was hoping that you would get into scrubbing and time marking/syncing. But, based on the other posts, maybe I’m already doing this right. ;P
Thank you very much for this useful meaningful blog….
Awesome! Always had trouble with sound in AE. But not anymore! What is the name of the song you used during the video? Sounded prety sweet.
Great tip !
It seems the audio comes about 10s late when you do the previews in the tutorial, your voice is always flowing but the music from the file in AE comes about 10s after you press the button to preview it.
Shit, Your right. I am re rendering to try and fix that. Thanks!
Ah, you caught me red-handed. I’m guilty of using the levels that way… though I do do a prior edit in soundtrack pro first.
Thanks for the lesson.
random; have you covered a lesson about using the masks in after effects?
Check out this tutorial on using masks. It’s pretty basic, but it will get you started. Cheers! http://greyscalegorilla.com/blog/2009/06/16/how-to-use-simple-shapes-and-masks-to-make-an-entire-animation/
Great job nick. Just wanted to point out. if you have i-tunes setup to use aiff as exports you can right click and “create AIFF” and then show in finder…..Workflow thing! saves me time.
Great idea. Thanks!
hi nick!!
thanx i didnt know it!
im pretty new round here but have made me a cinema 4d user, before i was a maya user but i think cinema 4d is more my style, so thank you for your amazing lessons.
there is something i was wondering, if you check my site you will se that im very into retro graphics and i use a lot of wireframe objects in after effects, but how i can do that in cinema 4d?
this is my site http://www.myspace.com/shapelessportrait
would be cool to have a tutorial about it
and check this video, im sure taht is all made with cinema 4d, reminds me your lessons about sexy textures and cs tools
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWw9b-BNPE0
enjoy it
I used to use mp3s in commercials all the time (that’s how the vo’s came) but I’ve only had click and pops once or twice. Other than that they worked fine. Can you tell us why we shouldn’t use them?
It may be less noticable with voice overs, but you WILL get pops when using MP3s. It’s just not good practice in AE.
Thanks! I’ve never been an audio guy, this helps a lot.
What about wav?
Anything’s basically better than mp3 but I’ve heard many people saying that wav is the best.
WAV is fine too. I use AIFF because I’m on a mac.
hi pal,
I have a issue with audio in aftereffects CS3
I used a widescreen square pixel comp(PAL) setting. And just dragged a audio(mp3) to comp window and set up a small animation with text then pressed ’0′ for RAM preview. it works perfect. But when I see the movie in final render the audio doesn’t sync with the animation.
after saw this tip, I extracted the audio to aiff format from the .mov file(it was actually a show reel downloaded from internet) but I face the same problem
help me on this, my personal showreel is struck up with this damn issue.
PS : will offer gorilla a banana if it’s fixed
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Nick (or anyone)
Good idea or bad idea to use unlicensed movie for a demo reel?
Let me rephrase this…what is commonly done?
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Great post, really helpfull.
Also I see you have quite a bit of the Roots in your music collection… Big fan?
Probably one of the best live shows on the planet.
Thanks for the tips! My problems with aifs is getting them to preview before putting them in a comp – instead of opening in a qt-esque player just to listen to a file it keeps opening in a footage viewer window, which is no use. Anyone else had this and found a work around?
damn, i had no idea mp3′s did that. thanks so much for the insight. *gonna go convert all of my projects sound files to AIFF now*
from student in training
You mentioned the lack of resolution in Ae for aligning an audio file, but how are you supposed to get precise placement. Are you suggesting using dynamic link to Soundbooth, if thats possible, or are you talking about trimming off fractions of a second in the front of an audio file and re-importing it into AE, back and forth until the alignment is right????????? That could be a lot of work.
If your trying to match the beat, Just match the video as close as you can. Even if you fix one beat to be exact, chances are that the next one will be off. Just edit your track it a “real” audio program and bring it in AE for animation.
thanks. I think you might check your Screencap app’s audio settings or something, the music is delayed heavily. I don’t need to explain, I bet you know already.
helpful stuff!
Thank you very much, Nick! It help e very very much!
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Hey nice job on the tut.
I have to jump in and make a suggestion though. Using AIFF’s is REALLY bad. There are lots of known problems with AE and aiffs, even in AE 5. I work in television and avoid AIFF’s like the plague. They nearly always cause synch problems
I’d always recommend using WAV (16 or 24 bit) for audio, either OSX or Windows. Use Audacity to convert your audio. It’s free: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Anyway, great site keep it up.
thanks for the tutorial– it really helped me.. i was lost –a mute button who would know? also correct formats use did the trick.
Thanks again.
A.D.