We’ve been exploring DaVinci Resolve recently, an NLE with a few tricks up its sleeve. In this article we take a look at Fairlight and tell why our findings are so shocking.

Loudness

Loudness, there was once a time it wasn’t really talked about. It certainly wasn’t as standardised as it is now, with music streaming services, TV streaming platforms, broadcasters and movie makers expecting all content to be delivered to pre-determined standards.

To achieve those standards one needs to be able to measure the loudness, at programme level. This means that loudness isn’t just measured at a single point, but across the entire length of the programme.

Fairlight users are assisted in a number of ways. First, there built in loudness metering, offering numerous loudness standards.

Second, there’s the ability to see loudness history across a mix, see below.

Third, if you’re not sure if your mix is at target loudness there’s a feature to bounce your entire mix to new tracks. At which point you can then normalize the bounced track to a loudness standard with a target level.

Atmos

The integration of Atmos mixing directly within Fairlight is one of the standout features in the latest iteration of DaVinci Resolve, DaVinci Resolve Studio. This update provides comprehensive support for creating immersive Dolby Atmos productions from the ground up, encompassing playback, mixing, and rendering, all seamlessly integrated within the Fairlight environment.

One notable advantage of this integration is the ability to import Dolby Atmos Master files and play them natively within Fairlight. This eliminates the need for external tools and allows for a streamlined workflow. Additionally, the software offers the flexibility to downmix files within the DAW, making it possible to work without a complete Atmos monitoring system.

Fairlight in DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio caters to a wide range of audio formats, from mono and stereo to more complex configurations such as 5.1, 7.1, 22.2, and the latest 3D audio formats. This versatility enables creators to handle various project requirements within a single unified project space, enhancing efficiency and eliminating the need for multiple software solutions.

Expanding its Dolby Atmos deliverable toolset, DaVinci Resolve 18 Studio now supports rendering a binaural output from complex Dolby Atmos mixes. This means that a Dolby 7.1.4 mix, known for its immersive sound experience, can be adapted for playback on headphones, ensuring the audio is faithfully represented within the limitations of a two-channel system.

In summary, DaVinci Resolve Studio provides a comprehensive workflow for Dolby Atmos and other surround formats, from initial import to final output. This integration removes the need for additional software or hardware, simplifying the production process.

Audio Restoration

There’s been a big push in recent years to create audio restoration plugins to help post audio mixers dealing with noisy location recordings, unwanted reverb and reflections and other errant sound in audio.

Yes, you guessed it, Fairlight has a full compliment of plugins and other tools to cover the tasks, and if they can’t fix things, an extra trick up its sleeve.

Within the Studio version of Fairlight there’s Voice Isolation, an AI powered plugin that offers a simple one knob (more or less) solution to clean up noisy audio. You can check out our tests here to see how it compares to Waves Clarity VX on numerous examples.

If Voice Isolation doesn’t fix things then there’s more tools that include Noise Reduction and DeHummer, both of which work in a similar fashion to industry leading third party plugins.

But! If those options don’t work and you need to use one of your beloved favourites like iZotope RX or Acon Digital Acoustica you can either use them as AU/VST plugins or right within the timeline. Rather than employing ARA or another third party tool to keep the workflow smooth, Fairlight offers External Audio Process to any clip on the timelime. Click it and your favourite external tool opens, you can add more than one, you do the treatment and then save it back to the clip. It’s simple.

Clip Based Audio Treatment

Fairlight not only offers the conventional workflow of a DAW with channels and busses where effects can be applied to any track, it also offers non-destructive clip based audio treatment.

Clip based audio effects offer maximum flexibilty when mixing the audio, for example to treat a bad clip of audio on the timeline without having to affect the rest of the audio. Or perhaps to add an reverb effect to just a single cue in an FX mix.

So far we’ve mentioned external effects, but every clip has independent voice isolation, dialogue leveler, pitch, speed change, and EQ - again, all non-destructive.

What’s So Shocking?

In this article we’ve highlighted just some of the excellent audio features found in Fairlight. We haven’t mentioned dialogue leveller, ADR tools, foley tools, sound effects, track layers, channel mapping in audio clips… and more.

So what’s so shocking? You might be thinking ‘my DAW and many other professional DAWs do what you’ve outlined above.’ That’s true, there are professional DAWs that have these features, some don’t, for example the complete Dolby Atmos integration, enabling an Atmos workflow without the need for any third party tools or workarounds. And other professionals DAWs have similar tools for loudness, audio restoration and clip based audio treatment.

You are correct, other professional DAWs do have similar or comparable features, but the shock is this, Fairlight isn’t being sold as a DAW, it’s the audio section in a video editing application, in fact it’s just one part of five tools in DaVince Resolve offering a complete video creation workflow.

To put this in context, imagine if Avid Media Composer had Pro Tools built in, or Final Cut had Logic Pro built in, or Adobe Premiere… OK, we’re beaten on that one.

The point is, Fairlight offers a serious amount of audio fire power within an NLE. As a DAW it has some shortcomings, such as no MIDI or easy ways to sync with other third party applications, However, as the audio section of a video editor it’s a serious audio application that is comparable and in some ways better equipped than software that claims to be focussed on being a DAW.

Blackmagic Designs are one to watch, DaVinci Resolve is a serious professional software application that deserves the attention of professionals.

One last thing. If you’re wondering, Blackmagic don’t advertise with us or have had any input into this article. We’ve simply come to the DaVinci Resolve party late and think it’s worth talking about.