editing Questions - Social Sound Design

Separating Early reflections from Diffuse in an Impulse Response

2011-03-14T21:14:40Z

How would you separate the early reflections from the diffuse in an Impulse Response?

I'm talking about before you put it into a convolution plugin.

I'd like to use only the early responses of a file but IR-L is not built for that kind of massive processing.

The IR could be any type of sound really, how would you separate the early reflections from the diffuse?

What is your ideal EQ for editing dialogue?

2010-09-01T19:20:42Z

Just like the title, what is your Ideal EQ for editing dialogue? Q3? Rennaissance? Audio Track? Sonnox? Stock DAW?

It seems like sometimes you might want a transparent EQ.

How much should I charge to edit dialogue for a video game?

2010-05-05T23:18:22Z

I have an opportunity to do some editing (and possibly some mastering) of some lines for a video game. it's all broken down in such a way that it will all be cut into single line sound files. there will be a given number of lines, say in the thousands. I'm also sure that there will be very specific instructions involved. My question is, as I have never done this before, how much should I charge? For editing? For mastering? For both? Per line? Per hour? for the job? Any insight would be helpful, as I am just starting my career and this could be a great boost resume, demo reel and bank account. Cheers

Voiceover editing procedure - tips please.

2012-01-06T00:45:26Z

Hi folks - and Happy New Year!

I have been lurking around this fantastic site for a little while, but finally decided to ask a question.

I am gaining some freelance experience in the world of sound recording/dialogue editing, etc and have been working on some v/o's for a friend's web-based documentary.

My procedure has been this: in PT8 the mono files are first edited to fix mistakes, mispronunciations (where possible), sort timing and generally smooth out the talent's performance. Then I have been going into the volume track and adjusting the peak syllables/words to reduce the dynamic range somewhat. This part is pretty time-consuming, but it seems necessary to me. Using just the compressor would sound too heavy-handed and bring up the noise floor too much.

I can't remember the exact order just now, but my plug-ins are the 7-band eq, compressor, expander (as gate) and trim, with the Master meter to keep the peaks to around -8db.

Am I going about this in the most practical and efficient way, or are there some obvious improvements I can make?

Many thanks for any help!

Best use of ergonomics in an Pro Tools editing environment?

2010-03-16T06:29:16Z

If you're anything like me you spend up to 12 hours a day sitting at an audio workstation, toiling away at your craft. Very often these workstations are set up in an office-type setting, ie. desk, keyboard, monitor and mouse, which arguably is not the best setup for this sort of thing. I mean really, is the QWERTY keyboard the best input device for a sound designer?!

So, who has devised good ergonomic strategies? Who's using tablets or scroll wheels, control surfaces or touchscreens (including iPads)? How many video monitors is enough? Quickeys or other software automation packages?

Spotting to timeline with blank regions before recording/editing sfx

2011-12-06T17:13:01Z

Hi all

Do you spot what and where to record on the timeline with fake blank regions, and then replace those blank regions while recording (if your recording foley) and with your edited sfx? Or do you just spot with markers or on the paper?

I find that spotting (and create regions as marker-place) on the timeline take more time, but in the end the results are more precise and the time spent planning is well rewarded in the end.

What do you think? What's your workflow?

Best

Davide

Out of sync singer on a long take: how to save it?

2011-12-06T11:59:02Z

In the movie I just finished, I had to save a long (continuous) take where a popular singer (here in Italy) singed with playback but was out of sync (in a few spots more than half a second). Obviously the out-of sync is not constant, as the singer sometime was on the beat, sometime late, etc. This shot was edited without cuts, and the production guide track was obviously substituted with the studio recording (that was used for the playback during the shooting).

Recording the song again, with the tempo mapped to her singing, was out of the question (for budget and agreement problems).

I asked for the instrumental track and the voice track. Then I stretched, moved, edited every single line/ word trying to match the lip sync, but always paying attention to the musical rhythm. On two or three spots I had to slightly time stretch the music too. In the end, the resulting sequence is far from perfect, but much better then the original, and the production approved and signed the edits, everybody was happy. But...

But how would you have dealt this? Time stretched music and voice at the same time? (I tried, but to me the result was much worse and the flow of the song completely destroyed). Found the sync for the voice part, and then remap (with time-stretch) the instrumental track?

Network storage for SFX?

2011-11-19T20:17:15Z

Hi, here's the thing. We've got three editing stations(Mac Pro). At each of them there's a Soundminer V4Pro, we haven't got the server edition. Currenlty our database consists of over 1 TB SFX. They're all on a D-Link hard drive with LAN support. We are using samba to connect the drive to each of stations. It works, however we don't have much control of all the LAN traffic. Do You have a better solution? Our goal is to improve the download transfer from the LAN storage, and also to have a history of downloads for each station. Thanks for all answers! Regards

DIA Editing At Reel Breaks

2011-11-05T19:34:27Z

Hello everyone.

This is the first time that I'm cutting sound on a feature film in a major way, so this the first time I'm really dealing with reel breaks.

Generally when I'm cutting DIA, I leave a one frame fade on either side of a scene transition. But at the head and tail of a reel, that's not possible because no audio can play before the FFOA and after the LFOA.

What do you do for reel breaks? Do you cut really short fade from the beginning of the FFOA frame?

Questions about Ringtones in film and television

2011-09-29T06:21:53Z

Using the correct ringtone to the correct type of phone (esp. Cellphones) gives credibility. But is it allowed truly? What about copyright and clearance?

Next question, I struggle to use the modern style musical ringtones as they often sound just plain wrong in context. What is your experience?

Do you make your own "film ringtones"?

Dialogue editing a scene without dialogue

2011-09-24T07:25:25Z

hello all

the film im working on at the moment is a real 'show don't tell' sorta deal.

my question is: in a scene without dialogue, would you still go through the dialogue editing process? ie getting smooth transitions between clips or filling problems with room tone? even know your just essentially editing room tone. or would you wipe the sound and start from scratch.

i know theres no real rule to this and i guess there will be less problems if i just wipe the audio. but what do you then do about the sound of the room? do i artificially create a blanket of room tone to fill the dead air?

im just worried if i take out all the sound and replace all the sound effects it will just sound dead and there will be nothing to fill between SFX clips.

oh yea there isn't really music either.

if it helps the room is an old blue stone stable turned bunker.

cheers Jamie

What is expected from a sound effects editor?

2010-04-12T16:04:50Z

What are the exact tasks that a sound effects editor is expected to fulfill? Apart from choosing the effect and editing it, are we expected to also mix, place the SFX in a space, EQ to context, etc.? I'm in a smaller team so I do a lot more than just edit, but it's sometimes had for me to know the expected boundaries from one team member to the next.

Thanks.

Some tips to soften wind noise.

2011-09-15T18:10:24Z

I am editing a documentary where some of the interviews were done outside without any wind protection and of course its hitting the diaphragm pretty hard.

I am trying to just soften the effect of it, I know it cannot be removed. I have read about using some possible multiband compression automated with the hits to help, can anyone elaborate on this technique?

SoundCloud Link to the audio clip

What five plugins are the most essential for your sound editing?

2011-02-16T00:49:41Z

This is obviously hypothetical, but if you were doing all the sound editing for a short film and were only allowed five plugins, which five would you choose? This isn't about mixing or music - you would be editing & preparing elements for a film mix:

production sound/dialogue and ADR
ambiences
sound effects
foley

Presume there are no built in plug ins so eg if you want to use the PT AudioSuite Gain plug in, then you'd have to list it as one of your five....

Miniminer workflow?

2011-07-28T17:52:16Z

After using SoundMiner v4pro for years, I have put miniminer on my machine at home. I had been in the habit of keeping a hand on the fader for the SM Engine aux track in Pro Tools. This way I can keep my monitoring levels constant without blasting myself when auditioning things like crashes and explosions.

Miniminer does not go "through" Pro Tools the way v4pro does. Therefore, the only level adjustment I have is mousing over to Miniminers Volume fader or adjusting my interface (which I don't want to do).

I haven't found anyway to assign a controller to Miniminer itself. Am I just out of luck here? Any suggestions?

Thanks, Chris

Exported Region Groups or Sound Packs for TV Sound Designing?

2010-09-16T06:10:42Z

I was sitting in on an ADR session for a television show at an ADR stage the other day and I was talking to the ADR mixer about how Sound Design is different for TV than it is for Movies.

He told me one of the main differences was that sound designers usually use pre-made scene effects, for example, a crime scene.

For a crime scene, you've got a police-car walkie talkie going, an ambulance siren, people murmering (detectives), some ADR callouts from the forensic team, city ambience or rural ambience, etc. etc. etc.

He said what they do is keep a pre-made pack of sounds like this and then just plop them in on the scene and move the individual sounds around so they fit.

Does anyone else do this?

I personally like to be original and re-create a scene from scratch as I see fit for each project, but do you think it has some benefit to create pre-made scenes to have in your library for some type of project you work on a lot? Especially when you've got a tight deadline like on a TV show or series?

How do I prepare my sound files professionally to share with others?

2010-07-17T09:11:20Z

Hello. I have a question about embedding the correct sort of metadata and general professional preparation for my sound files so I can pass to others and it'll be appropriate for their professional uses. I have read this thread where other threads (especially on the subject of metadata) are linked, and they're not really appropriate to what I need.

I don't use ProTools, Basehead or Soundminer... though I do use Apple's Logic, Audiofile Engineering's Wave Editor and Ice Audio's AudioFinder. I'm currently recording a lot of sounds which I will be passing on to various professional sound editors/designers and I want to make sure they're are prepared and tagged correctly for their use.

Firstly, I'm looking into the different formats of which to save these files. They have all been originally recorded at 96khz 24bit and are sitting on my hard drive ready for editing, preparing, tagging and exporting... But this is where I need help.

I'm guessing 100% that these should be saved in .WAV format, and not .AIFF (I'm on a Mac). Say I wanting to narrow my sound export options to three... What would these be? (After doing research on this, it seems 96khz 24bit, 48khz 24bit and 44.1khz 16bit are the best) ...but are they? Are these the optimum outputs? Say I was giving these files to you, and you wanted the choice, what would you prefer (and possibly why? So I can get a better understanding?)

...and then there's meta data. Seeing I don't have the professional software (mentioned previously) is there still a way I can embed the appropriate meta data into these files? After looking at my software, especially Wave Editor, it has a Properties window, and under this WAVE Extensions properties, where I can seem to set such things as Archival Location, Comments, Copyright, Cropped, Engineers, Genre, Keywords, Original Artist, Name, Product, Software Package, Source Supplier, Subject... Are these the standard things that get stored in WAV files and which would show up in Pro Tools, Soundminer, Basehead etc? I also own Ice Audio's AudioFinder which allows for meta tag editing.

Basically, will I have a problem with not owning Protools, Soundminer, Basehead when it comes to preparing my metadata for these people? Do I need to own those mentioned software just to be able to prepare the metadata appropriately? All the sounds I'm preparing are the usual stuff you may find under the categories of sound libraries (ambience, foley, nature, machines etc)

Sorry if this question is a little confusing... I've had a long night!

How to make Dialogue present and full with joystick noise?

2011-06-09T17:25:56Z

I'm working on a short and the opening scene is of 3 teenagers playing Nintendo. The dialogue track is relatively clean (already removed clicks/pops w/Izotope RX) save for the constant clicking of the game controllers. The track was recorded with a Boom in a medium sized room. I'm not really sure how to bring the voices up and out front while not losing too much of the production sound of the game controllers. Also, there is some broadband noise on the track. Any recommendations on which to tackle first?

Editing a guide track

2011-01-27T05:41:11Z

Hi,

Does anyone have any good source information on editing a guide track from location audio on FCP and/or Avid? I am specifically looking for tips on dialogue editing for picture editors when they are creating a guide track for the post sound process.

Thanks

zoom h4n multi track recording

2011-03-22T13:16:58Z

The zoom h4n is a brilliant set recorder! Now after I have recorded a session using all the channels (the xlr inputs and onboard mics) when I take the SD card or usb and put into in a computer will there be files for each channel's recordings?

Cloth Foley Off Screen?

2011-03-03T02:28:50Z

Generally when I'm cutting Foley, if someone walks off screen or out of a room I'll cut at least a handful of footsteps to follow them out - their sudden absence would certainly be missed.

I'm feeling a little more iffy when it comes to cloth Foley though. Cloth is far less a discrete sound than footsteps and in my mind is thus harder to place when not keyed to a specific visible action.

My question to you all - do you let cloth movement continue for off screen action or does your cloth Foley go away once a character has left the screen?

When to cut a region, before or after the picture and how many frames?

2011-02-27T23:10:48Z

I'm editing dialogue and I'm not sure if I should make cuts for each shot six frames before the shot or not. Or should I after. Does anybody have an opinion on when to cut? Specifically for Dialogue.

Vocal clipping restoration

2011-02-05T09:54:44Z

My question is: has anybody tried to restore clipped audio successfully? Is there a method behind this, or processing tool to help restore this that i'm unaware?

I have tried using compressor tools to minimize this, but never truly restores it somewhat...

Backgrounds for a dead city?

2010-08-31T20:06:12Z

Hi guys

(my English is failing me big time today for some reason! so please forgive me and bear with me if possible)

I just started working on a short (30 min) settled in a (present) post apocalyptic, abandoned city.

It is not clear why the city is deserted, but you can tell it was a recent event. The characters are army girls scouting the city, no dialogue at all. Music is sparse and when present can't let it ride the story.

All the shots are either still shots or very steady travelings (seems to be inspired by Andrey Tarkovsky's Stalker, unfortunately i don't have the DVD on me) The picture very often cuts between very wide shots and close up shots, of wither the characters or the houses.

My question is about keeping ambiances/bgs interesting, while not being able to use (due to director's request) nothing that is alive (no birds etc), since you guys always come up with really cool stuff.

Any insight? Thanks everybody

Simple Audio-editor for PC

2011-01-31T17:34:34Z

A friend of mine wants to learn basic audio editing, 2 or more tracks and asked me what kind of (free) program would be best to use on PC platform... Any idea's?

Workflow question: editing a panel discussion

2011-01-26T01:36:37Z

I'm in the midst of some dialog editing for a panel discussion that I recorded for a ministry at church. I've edited a couple panel discussions so far, with varying degrees of success. There are going to be more to come over the next year, so I would like to get a solid workflow down so that I am able to have a faster turnaround.

I just thought I'd ask what process everyone goes through when beginning a dialog edit. My situation with this edit and future ones will be slightly different than editing for a tv show or film, but any wisdom I can glean from you all would be great!

How to widen a sound effects dynamics? Uncompression?

2010-05-06T21:11:22Z

Hey guys,

I have done a lot of sound design using some punches, body falls, kicks, etc. that were mashed and mastered and normalized and compressed and every-which-way processed.

Does anyone have a trick to make them sound less compressed and mashed?

Is it pretty much hopeless?

They're pretty good sounds.. I'd hate to not be able to use them. But, I think wherever they came from went a little too happy on the processing side of things. There's just no dynamics at all.

Thanks - Ryan

Loneliness Lies in Twos - Looking for Feedback

2010-04-12T09:32:51Z

Hi,

I recently worked on a self-funded (no budget) project and I am looking for feedback on my work. A questionnaire is online for you to fill in. Below, you can find three links; a link to the finished movie (1), a link to the picture edit before any audio post work was carried out (2) and a link to a questionnaire I would ask you to fill in (3).

For reasons you will understand, the director does not want the movie to be openly distributed. Both videos are password protected and you will therefore need to send me a private message before I can send you the password to watch the video.

However, I am monitoring my emails most of the day and am quite responsive (within 10 minutes in average) so please ask for access! Thanks in advance for your time and comments.

(1) Final Version (after postproduction)

(2) Picture Edit and OMF (before postproduction)

(3) Feedback Sheet (questionnaire)

Any comment is appreciated!

In defense of ADR editors...

2010-09-19T05:20:15Z

Ok, we've all heard jokes and stabs at "how bad the ADR was" in some movies,

but, I want to get to the bottom and real cause of ADR dialogue being off and low-quality.

I honestly don't believe some of the edits I see/hear in some movies, and I think something else is to blame.

Maybe the audio is off a bit throughout the whole movie?

Maybe someone was using a wrong frame-rate session?

Maybe someone wasn't locked to Video Ref while running it off, thereby getting to hour 3 it's off by a couple frames.

Maybe the picture editor failed to give the information on those last-minute time changes and edit clean-ups/tightenings.

Maybe after the final listen-back after everyone leaves the producer takes matters into his own hands and tries to "fix" something in SHUFFLE MODE and throws the ADR track out of whack.

What really is the cause of bad ADR in some movies? Is it really the Audio Editor at fault? Or can there be other factors involved?

Sometimes it's the actor... I've had actors come in who are so disinterested to be there working on a movie they've since forgotten and not getting paid for a session of ADR that they just put half the effort in it and the ADR turns out hopeless and useless.

What are your thoughts?

Just a thought I had tonight ;)

Residuals for Sound Effects?

2010-07-27T06:18:29Z

Hey guys,

So I have done quite a bit of recording of voice talents. Many of them for sound effects I call "Vocal Effects" where they do anything vocal - walla, screams, laughs, breaths, etc.

I have a friend who is an actor and he went in to record a newscaster voice for one film, but gets residual checks from another film entirely separate to the one he originally recorded it for because they used his vocal effects in that other film.

Who keeps track of this?

Do I need to keep track of every effect and who it was that did it if I want to use those effects from my library from the talents?

I am fascinated by the fact that they can keep track of residual checks to actors in movies, which is great and all, but for audio? It seems extremely complicated and time consuming.

The reason I ask is that I have all this great material that I am afraid to use if I will get in trouble for it.

That brings up another question: I heard you need to pay the library creators every time you use a sound effect from them if what you are working on is meant for commercial use. Sound Ideas, Hollywood Edge, etc. If this is true, I have never seen anyone keep track of this or do this. Do you know of anyone or do you yourself keep track of this and do this?

Does anyone know the protocol for this type of thing? If they ever do find out who did the Wilhelm Scream, will that guy have a massive check in the mail?

Thanks in advance!

Ryan