Behind-the-Scenes Sound Management: Expert Insights Into Using Ducking Effects

What is Audio Ducking and How to Use it in Filmora: A Beginner-friendly Guide

Benjamin Arango

Mar 27, 2024• Proven solutions

If you are a content creator, you might already know the importance of having the right audio component in a video. For attaining a perfect balance between voiceovers and the background audio, the concept of “ducking” is implemented. I have come up with this post to help you know more about audio ducking and its importance. I will also include a detailed guide for implementing audio ducking on a video in a stepwise manner. Let’s begin!

• Part 1: What Is Audio Ducking?
• Part 2: When to Use Audio Ducking?
• Part 3: How to Use the Audio Ducking Feature in Filmora?

Audio Ducking: What Is It All About?

In nutshell, it is a process that “ducks” or lowers the background volume when a voiceover appears. For instance, let’s consider that we already have a background score in our video playing. When we would add a narrator’s voice or apply a voiceover, it would create a lot of confusion. Therefore, we implement the audio ducking process to lower the background audio and amplify the voiceover instead.

In most cases, it is achieved through a side-chain compression technique. A control channel is set up that enables the compression of one sound (the background) while amplifying another (the voiceover).

When Do You Need to Implement Audio Ducking?

Since the concept of audio ducking is pretty useful, it can be implemented in different ways during the video editing process. While you can apply the process to any video, here are some of the major instances where it is used.

Travel Vlogs

If you are a travel vlogger, you might already know how tough it can be to make yourself heard in a video. When there are too many background noises, your voice can be diminished. This is exactly where you can apply audio ducking to decrease the background noise and focus on your voice.

Make-up Tutorials

While creating make-up video tutorials, most of us use a background track to keep our viewers engaged. At the same time, you need to let them know about the process by speaking clearly. If you use audio ducking, then you can easily attain a perfect balance between both sounds.

Other Instances

Ideally, if you are creating any other tutorial video for your audience, then audio ducking can be useful. From making video game tutorials to coming up with video lectures on a crucial topic, the concept would come in handy time and time again.

How to Use the Audio Ducking Feature in Filmora?

To implement audio ducking in your videos, you can use a reliable editing tool like Wondershare Filmora . It is a user-friendly and powerful video editing application that lets you “duck” the background sound and easily amplify voiceovers.

• Without undergoing any complicated process, you can implement audio ducking and even scale it (from 1 to 100) to attain the right balance in your videos.
• Filmora also offers tons of powerful audio features for video editing. It has a dedicated audio mixer that would let you split, detach, split, or mute the audio.
• The application can also be used to add voiceovers to your video on its native interface. You can also use its inbuilt operations like noise remover, fade in/fade out, equalizer, etc. to make the needed changes.
• Besides audio ducking, you can also access tons of advanced editing features in Filmora like motion tracking, color grading, keyframing, and so much more.
• The application also offers a wide range of filters, presets, effects, stickers, and royalty-free music that you can easily use in your videos.

To learn how to implement audio ducking in your videos using Filmora, you can go through these basic steps:

Step 1. Import Your Videos on Filmora

To begin with, you have to install Wondershare Filmora on your computer and launch it. Now, go to the “Import” feature from the top, choose to add files, and browse and load your videos. After adding the video, you can drag it to the timeline below to start editing.

Step 2. Import An Audio or Record Voiceovers

Let’s suppose that your video already has an audio track in the background, and now you wish to add another audio component. Most of the people would like to record their voices in the video. For this, you can click on the voiceover (mic) icon at the bottom of the preview panel. This will open a dedicated window so that you can start recording your voice for the video.

Apart from that, you can also go to the “Import” feature to add any other audio component to the project. Besides that, Wondershare Filmora also has a wide range of royalty-free audio files that you can easily add to your projects.

Step 3. Apply Audio Ducking to Your Video

After adding the second audio component, you can view it under the video timeline on Filmora. Now, you need to select the audio track you wish to amplify (like your voiceover) and not the track that already has a prominent volume.

Once you have selected the audio you wish to amplify, right-click to get its context menu. Just select the “Adjust Audio” feature from all the available options.

This will launch a dedicated window on the screen with various audio options to apply. Go to the “Ducking” option here and enable the “Lower the volume of other clips” feature. You can also use a slider here to adjust how much you wish to lower the volume of other clips in the project.

That’s it! Once you have selected the value, click on the “OK” button. You can now preview the results on Filmora and check that the volume of other audio components has been ducked. You can later go to the “Export” option and save the project in the format of your choice.

After reading this post, I’m sure that you will know more about audio ducking and how we can implement it. Since many content creators encounter issues while working on their videos, audio ducking would certainly be a helpful feature. With an application like Wondershare Filmora, you can easily implement audio ducking on multiple files and further edit your videos like a pro!

Benjamin Arango

Benjamin Arango is a writer and a lover of all things video.

Follow @Benjamin Arango

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