Learn This Basic but Important Editing Technique in Final Cut Pro

This one's pretty commonly known, but everyone's at a different point in their editing journey, so if you haven't nailed it yet, here we go. It's the J-cut, plus a couple of ways to make your audio transitions buttery smooth instead of jarring.

What's a J-cut

Say you've got a talking head shot and you cut to a zoomed-in shot. A J-cut is where the audio from that second clip starts playing before you actually see it, which is super popular to do on YouTube. It's named after the letter J because the audio on your timeline swings out to the left, just like the little tail on a J.

How to make one in Final Cut Pro

Select your clip and press Control S to expand the audio. Your audio's still attached to the video, but now you can adjust it separately. Go to the very start of that second clip, grab the first frame of the audio, and drag to trim. The video stays the same length and the audio starts early. That's your J.

Now drag out the little fade handle to add a fade. All that does is make sure your two audio clips blend well, because if you don't, you can sometimes hear a pop when the dialogue changes from clip one to clip two and it feels abrupt. You'll usually want a fade on the other clip too. If you need the change to be even smoother, press Control S again, extend the clip out, and add a longer fade. It totally depends on your audio.

The quick way to blend two clips

If you just want two clips' audio to blend together better, select them both and press Option T. Final Cut automatically extends the clips and drops in a crossfade for you. It won't be perfect every single time, but it works quite often.

To change how long that fade is, press Command + comma and adjust the duration. I've found .30 seconds to be great. So remember: select the clips, hit Option T, and your audio won't sound so jarring. It's a tiny thing, but it gives your dialogue that buttery smooth transition.