Work from the Fairlight signal path
DaVinci Resolve places detailed audio work on the Fairlight page. Identify whether the dialogue, music, or bus needs control, then open the Dynamics section for that channel. Compression on a bus affects every routed track, so routing is part of the decision.
Use the channel meter and gain-reduction display while playing a representative timeline range. Avoid copying a threshold from another project because clip gain, recording level, and track routing change what reaches the detector.
Dialogue workflow in Fairlight
- Correct obvious clip-gain jumps and edits before track compression.
- Set threshold from the actual dialogue level, then use a moderate ratio.
- Tune attack to keep consonants understandable and release to recover between phrases.
- Compare at similar loudness before adding makeup gain.
- Inspect downstream bus dynamics and limiter stages for stacked processing.
Fairlight compression versus Deliver settings
Fairlight compression shapes dynamics in the timeline. The Deliver page controls the rendered container, codec, channel layout, and available audio data-rate settings. For a video render, the video stream normally contributes most of the file size.
Render a short representative range when testing a delivery preset. Then probe the completed file or inspect its media information; do not treat a preset name as proof of the actual output parameters.
Resolve-specific troubleshooting
- No gain reduction: verify the channel, bus assignment, Dynamics enable state, and signal level.
- All tracks pump together: check whether compression was placed on a shared bus.
- Render differs from monitoring: review bus routing and Deliver audio output selection.
- File remains large: adjust Deliver encoding or duration rather than increasing Fairlight compression.