Final Cut audio levels

Recently I've noticed that when I import an audio file, it plays back considerably louder than the original file - to the point of clipping.
Any ideas why this is happening? I know that trashing the prefs might fix it, but I'd rather find the setting that's causing this. Or maybe it's just a mysterious glitch.

A great number of CDs are normalized so that the music peaks as close 0db as possible without clipping. Not all music is finalized this way. It may be that other sources you have used are not setup for these levels.
Why is there a distortion issue with the 0db stuff? Well, audio is additive. When you drop that material into a FCP timeline with other audio, the combination will drive things over the edge.
Have fun.
x

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