| name | resolve-audio |
| description | Audio and Fairlight work in the DaVinci Resolve MCP. Apply when setting audio properties, syncing audio, isolating voice, generating subtitles, planning Fairlight track/bus layouts, checking loudness, routing buses, or splitting/trimming/converting audio — live in a running Resolve OR offline. Routes to the live audio tools, the offline audio planning/bus-routing tools, and the Fairlight kernel. |
Resolve Audio / Fairlight — Claude Code Skill
Thin router; depth stays in the kernel.
- Live tool mechanics —
docs/kernels/audio-fairlight-kernel.md (the
timeline audio/Fairlight boundary).
- Offline planning + bus routing —
resolve-advanced/README.md →
audio_plan, fairlight, audio.
Two servers — plan/measure offline, apply live
| Job | Server | Tools |
|---|
| Audio on a running timeline | davinci-resolve (Python, live) | timeline (`probe_audio_item |
| Plan tracks / route buses / edit audio files with no Resolve open | davinci-resolve-advanced (Node) | audio_plan, fairlight, audio |
Offline
audio_plan (pure Node) — list_templates, select_template,
track_plan, analyze_coverage, check_loudness (R128 −23 / ATSC −24 /
streaming −14 targets). Plan the layout before building it live.fairlight — bus routing has no scripting API; it patches the
FLStudioModelBA blob. read_buses_from_blob (offline); read_buses_from_db,
expand_buses, export_template/import_template, backup, restore (DB
path — needs better-sqlite3; project CLOSED + quit/relaunch like other DB
patches).audio — offline ffmpeg: split (silence/TC/intervals), trim,
convert (needs ffmpeg on PATH — GPL, not bundled). Align/loudness-measure not
yet vendored.
Live: loudness contracts and the silence gate
- Named loudness standards live with the delivery targets, not here:
render(action='list_loudness_standards') → web, podcast, ebu_r128,
atsc_a85, ott_dialogue_gated. Attach one to a delivery target and hand the
emitted loudness_target.target to advanced loudness_qc. See the delivery
skill for why dialogue-gated standards assert true peak only.
plan_silence_ripple calibrates its own gate. Omit threshold_db and the
threshold is measured from that clip's own dynamics (astats trough vs peak),
per item, reported in calibrations[]. A fixed −30 dB under-detects on quiet
location sound and over-cuts a noisy room.- When trough and peak are not separated, no threshold distinguishes speech from
room: the item is kept whole and the reason surfaced, rather than stripped
against an unvalidated gate. A −30 dB default applied to a −33 dB programme
reads as silent end to end and would remove the entire clip.
- Pass
threshold_db explicitly to override; it is honoured untouched.
Gotchas
- Timeline audio
SetProperty (e.g. Volume) can return false for some
generated item types; AutoSyncAudio depends on media + Resolve's sync engine.
- The public API does not expose Fairlight mix automation curves or plugin graphs
— use
fairlight for bus structure, not automation.
- The whole-mix preset workaround is version-gated, and it is the only write
path there is. Per-parameter Fairlight control does not exist at any version;
what exists is
GetFairlightPresets + ApplyFairlightPresetToCurrentTimeline,
which apply a saved mix wholesale. Both require Resolve 20.2.2+ and are
absent on 19.1.3 (confirmed live). So on an older build the per-parameter gap
is the entire story and there is no workaround to offer — check with
resolve_control check_version_support before proposing one, and say the build
is too old rather than suggesting a call that will not be there.
- The AI Audio Assistant (one-click auto-mix) is not scriptable on any build
— no method exists on
Resolve, Project, Timeline or TimelineItem
(issue #128). Presets cover the repeatable-template case, never the
content-adaptive one.
Never modify/transcode/derive source media (AGENTS.md) — the offline audio ops
write NEW files to scratch, never over source.
