Now with 5.0.3 - stutter is back.  First thing I did was to reinstall avid audio drivers - \program files\avid\utilities\digiAudioDriverInstaller
 

Need to tone down or bring up a short area within a clip ?  Keyframes work from the timeline.  Make sure you turn on wave form and audio gain in the audio track's control panel. Best to have keyfame (FX tab on Command Palate) mapped (I use N key) and/or keyframe icon available.

If you are going to do the whole clip, set IN/Outs for the clip, go to the first frame of the clip and set 1 key frame (T, G N on my keyborad).  Grab the keyframe handle and pull it down or up - the whole clip will be adjusted.

f if you need only a portion, set 2 close keyframes at each end of the area you want to affect and  drag the audio envelope up or down.    Or use the Audio Mixer and do it live as you listen - see Link 69.
      Tutorials - Link41    Audio gain and Keyframes
                       Link68   Audio - 2 - Manually adjusting the Gain
                       Link69   Audio - 3 - Automatically adjusting the Gain
 

Or, if you have audio keyframes plotted in the timeline, marking a region of keyframes will allow adjusting the entire region up or down without changing any ratio relationships between keyframes within that region.  Larry Rubin

Or, you can use the hamburger menu in the Automation Gain Tool to adjust the levels between In-Out...

What you're observing with audio levels is exactly as it is designed to work. To change audio level in specific parts of an audio track you need to use audio gain automation

To view the audio level in the timeline, select Clip Gain in the Timeline fast menu (the hamburger button). If the audio track is too small to see use the CTRL + L key combination repeatedly (CTRL + K reduces size).

Key frames can now be added to allow manual adjustment of the volume. Move the timeline indicator to the start of the clip you want to adjust and press the 'N' on your keyboard. This will place a small pink marker to indicate a keyframe has been set. Moving the timeline indicator to the end of the clip and adding another keyframe will allow you to drag the audio level up and down for the entire clip. Placing further keyframes within the clip will then allow you to adjust the level around the position of the keyframe.

If you get the Sync Match warning it is because you have Sync Lock selected on your time line and what you're trying to do will mean the audio will be out of sync in relation to the original timeline clip and the clip you're overwriting with. If you really want to do this, and in many cases you would, switch-off the Sync Lock on the track you want to use. The Sync Lock is the button/icon to the left of the track selectors.

******  There is always more than one way to milk a goat. I don't use rubberbanding because I like to keep my tracks itty bitty and I like to utilize my ram for babying adrenaline. I just add edits and dissolves and use the mixer. Much much quicker and precise for me.

GOOD THREAD on AUDIO

At Audio Mixer if you select Clip (1) instead of Auto (by clicking at the button more),

you can change the Clip Level (3).

If you Gang (2) the channels, you force them to move together.

You can see the difference between the Auto Gain and Clip Gain from the 2 lines (3).

At the Audio Mixer you should be at Auto mode (1).

At the keyboard hit " (this is the default for keyframes -a pink triangle) (2).

A keyframe will be added at the audio clip(s) (3).

You can move it by the hand tool (3) or from the audio mixer (1).

Be sure the video is shown in the right viewer (Record viewer).

Because I don't want the original sound played when recording VO, I mute the VO by simple muting the Windows speaker. I have a key for this on my keyboard (mute button).

I open the Audio Punch-In tool from Tools. If not already done, click on the position cursor button in Punch-In tool, at the Mark In (again).

Adjust where the VO should go (correct Bin, Render drive f.i.) and the correct VO track, otherwise, you will get a new track added.

Click on the Red button and start recording your comment.

When finished, click on the blue Stop key in Punch-In and disable the Mute for sound.

While recording you should be able to see the video in the Record viewer.

Some use Soundbooth for audio editing, I especially, among all things, likes the possibility to lasso mobile phone beeps and lower just those.

You use MI and MO on your sequense and go to the export dialog, have the use markers options selected, then export to a wav 48 / 16  , do your edits and save the file, then import the file back and with the markers still in the same place on your sequense you just set MI at the start of your imported clip when you have added it into your source viewer and press B, be sure to have only the tracks selected on the sequense that should be replaced with new audio

and, of course, after having had my morning coffee, if you want a direct workflow, that i use myself, a quicktime ref with auto opening of Soundbooth is what you want to use, you can look at your video in soundbooth whilst editing the audio

ake a look into your " send to " settings , there are buttons for auto loading and auto starting, what app to start and a " sava as template " into the bottom, just to do some experiments with and trash or change the templates if they don´t do what you want them to do

Added:  Not knowing how you plan on doing your narration you might want to look at this product; http://www.harlanhogan.com/portaboothArticle.shtml. I use it & loan it to others & it is simple to build if your on a budget.

There is the DINR plugin, of course.

Scerkalo -

This is a small quide about having your sound files on an external disk to keep your OS disk smaller.

Sonicfire Pro needs to see a folder named SmartSound Software Inc (4) with other 2 folders inside this.

The one named Libraries and the other Sound Files (4).

Every Smartsound CD has 2 folders. The one is Library Enablers and the other Sound Files.

We create the SmartSound Software Inc to an external disk (I have it on my RAID 0) and inside this one 2 others as Libraries and Sound Files (4).

We copy the Libary Enablers from CD to the Libraries inside SmartSound Software Inc (1) to (4).

We copy the Sound Files from CD to the Sound Files inside SmartSound Software Inc (2) to (4).

Then we open Sonicfire Pro and we go to Tools>Options>Folders (3).

We add the SmartSound Software Inc folder by browsing to it (after the one that is already there) (4) and we hit ok.

We open Express Track (5) and all the files are there. We don't need to do anything else.

Note:  Alt-matchframing prevents the software from doing that. (ie: no mark is added).

Mark clip in timeline. Go to head of clip as per Hans' post. Matchframe head of clip and an in point is automatically placed on source. In source window hit  go to outpoint on source.   This automatically goes to the outpoint (the magic of 3 point editing). Mark out and job is done.

Method 2 -

Sometimes, I'd like to 'matchframe' the whole clip on the timeline to the original master clip and keep the In and Out (and yes, I understand that matchFRAME a whole CLIP really is a paradox )

What I usually do in these cases, is mark clip on the timeline, go to the out point, alt-Matchframe, mark out on the master clip in the source monitor, then go back to timeline, go to In point, Matchframe. I end up with my master clip in the source monitor, marked with In and Out corresponding to my clip in the timeline.

I just wish there was a modifier to matchframe the whole clip quickly.

Method 3   

There is one way of adjusting audio track levels without playback stopping. With "auto gain" turned on in the timeline fast menu, click the "clip" box in the audio mixer tool so that it says "auto". You can now do live mixes with keyframes automatically plotted in the timeline as you make changes. Works a lot better when you have an outboard mixer or control surface that will interface with it.

If you need to use the more elaborate AudioSuite EQ's, you can choose Tools->AudioSuite, and apply any of the AudioSuite effects. You'll need to render them, though.

RTAS only works on entire tracks, not per clip.

Link68   Audio - 2 - Manually adjusting the Gain
Link69   Audio - 3 - Automatically adjusting the Gain

Adding Waveform to Audio Tracks  Link90   No Visible Waveform or Audio Levels

Real-Time AudioSuite (RTAS) Plug-Ins and Stereo Audio - Avid Media Composer 5 Overview
 

There are several tools available in the TOOLs menu.  RTAS  (Real Time Audio Suite) is new to MC5, as is the audio track's control panel:
  

You can nest up to five audio suite effects on a clip, and up to 5 RTAS effects to the entire track.
Real-Time AudioSuite (RTAS) Plug-Ins and Stereo Audio - Avid Media Composer 5 Overview

You can 'swap' the source and record monitors to the timeline. It's the little button that looks like two monitors side-by-side. I program that function to my TAB key and I can quickly toggle the source side to my timeline. Works great for displaying waveforms, and also for making selections from sub-sequences, etc., when you need to cut them into your current timeline.

Another tip about audio waveform displays. You can resize your tracks vertically by using CTRL + L to enlarge and CTRL + K to reduce for better detail in waveforms. Alternately you can also hold down CTRL and float the cursor over the track indicator until it turns into a "doublemint double arrow" icon (for lack of a better term), then drag a track to a new height, either larger or smaller. Much faster than the keyboard commands.

NOW, if you use CTRL + ALT + L or K, you can enlarge and reduce only the size of the waveform without changing the size of the track itself.

Even if you enable sample plot at timeline Fast Menu, you won't see any waveforms if you don't unckeck the show marked waveforms box at the timeline settings, which you can bring up by right clicking at the timeline.

Only two tracks will play back during scrubbing.  To choose the tracks you want, you need to tell MC which ones, by using the ALT key and clicking on 

Note: This does the whole track

Tutorial Link 126  Audio Wave-form Height

So take a narrow-band Q (parametric EQ), turn it's volume way up, and sweep your lower-mid frequencies, between 150HZ and 1KHZ and find the most desireable band for the dialog, then reduce the narrowness of your Q, and just add a more modest boost in volume- just use your ears and check it on more than one playback! You may also want to sweep for room-boominess in the lows too and reduce it. Also, you might want to sweep the higher frequencies to find that range which helps boost intelligibility, between 1K and 10K.

This is SUCH an essential and required process in any audio work- but is made ABSOLUTELY MADDENINGLY LABORIOUS by Avid's insistence on AUTO-STOP with EVERY CLICK! Makes a simple process take 50 times longer. Makes it worth the time to export your audio to any decent audio app where it's just SO easy to sweep an eq IN PLAY and hone in on your ranges.

When will Avid make AUTO-STOP AT EVERY CLICK to be just an "option"?!!

There is a fantastic RTAS plug-in I use called SPL Deverb. It works wonders on VO and close miked dialogue that was recorded in less than perfectly damped environments. It's not very expensive either. But it will only go so far.

If you do manage to reduce this reverb component to your liking then you can play about with the EQ, reducing the bass and pushing the mid frequencies for clarity and follow the very good advice mentioned earlier.

Hey SussexJohn! Really, the only real way to learn the sound of various frequency ranges is to sweep through them and listen to them in real time. The best way to hear how different areas sound is to take a parametric eq, turn one band way up with a real narrow bandwidth (or "Q"), and sweep the center of that boost through a range of the audio spectrum. Every part of the audio spectrum has a memorable characteristic to it... often thought of like: low lows (100hz'ish) are thumpy, oomphy, punchy, woofy... lows (250hz'ish)- bassy, deep, warm... lower mids (300-450HZ) often round, warm, sometimes murky, cloudy, muddled- it's not an exact science. Sometimes upper mids (2K-4K) are harsh, sometimes bright... who knows?

Totally subjective- that's why you can't learn it from a book! One situation needs more "warmth", the other may need less "murk"! Same frequencies... you've just got to use your ears and good monitors! It helps a lot to just repeat a section of audio and hear how it sounds to work on it... if it's dull, remove some lows/add some highs... if it's thin, add some lows/cut some highs... that's the basic idea. And a parametric eq sweep can help you hone in on just the precise areas which are worst or best. It's just hard to listen to a sweep-through when your app AUTO-STOPS every time you touch it!

I recommend just listening and trying stuff- it's the best way to learn... wish I could help you more-

On the EQ tool there is an "audio loop play" button. On the Audio Suite tool, when you apply a parametric EQ effect, in the adjuster window there is a "preview" button. Both allow continuous uninterrupted playback during adjustments. The audio suite tool will update the playback in real time during adjustments faster than the EQ tool.