Audio effects process the sound of a clip or track - to balance tone, control level, or clean up problems. They behave much like video effects: you stack them, reorder them, and can bypass or remove them at any time. The Audio layout puts the mixer, timeline, and effect settings together for sound work.
Adding audio effects
Apply an audio effect to a clip or a whole track. Choose the effect you want and it's added to that item's effect stack, ready to adjust in its settings. Effects are non-destructive - your original audio is never changed, and you can remove an effect to return to the untouched sound.
Two things worth knowing as you adjust:
- Audio preview loops the audio while you adjust parameters, so you can hear changes without restarting playback.
- Track effects process everything on the track - ideal for a dialogue chain that every clip on the track should pass through. An effect on a track shows a note that it applies to the whole track.
- With grouped tracks, Link Grouped Audio Effects keeps the effects on the group's tracks adjusted together.
Effect order
Effects process in order, top to bottom, and the order changes the result. As a rule:
- Clean up first - noise reduction and corrective EQ before anything else.
- Shape next - tonal EQ to taste.
- Control level last - compression and limiting to even out and set the final level.
Reorder effects in the stack to get the chain right.
The built-in audio effects
Lightworks ships with a suite of audio processors (availability depends on your licence tier):
- Graphic EQ - adjusts the balance of frequencies: reduce boom or rumble at the low end, add clarity or presence to a voice, or tame harshness. The everyday tool for making dialogue sit well.
- Compressor - evens out loud and quiet passages so a voice stays consistent.
- Limiter - stops peaks exceeding a ceiling, protecting against clipping on delivery.
- Noise Gate - silences a track when its level drops below a threshold, cutting background murmur between lines.
- Noise Reducer - reduces steady background noise such as hiss, hum, or air conditioning. Apply it gently - pushing too hard introduces artefacts.
- Reverb - adds space and ambience, from a subtle room to a hall.
Third-party audio plugins
Lightworks also hosts third-party audio plugins - VST, AU, and LADSPA formats, depending on platform - so tools from vendors such as Waves or Melda can sit in your effect stack like any built-in effect. Use Launch plugin editor to open a plugin's own interface for full control. Plugin support depends on your licence tier.
Copying and pasting audio effects
You can copy effects from one clip and paste them onto others, which is the quick way to apply the same treatment across a scene. When pasting you can choose which effects to copy and how to handle keyframes and existing effects (see Effects overview for the copy and paste options, which work for audio and video).
Removing and bypassing effects
- Bypass an effect to hear the sound with it temporarily switched off - the quickest way to check whether it's helping.
- Remove an effect to take it out of the stack entirely.
Tip: A or B every effect by bypassing it. If the bypassed version sounds just as good, you probably don't need the effect.