mastering Questions - Social Sound Design

Loop Group - Caveats?

2011-08-24T20:16:33Z

I've always been under the understanding that Loop Group is SAG/AFTRA jurisdiction, and since these actors make royalties, that any recorded group ADR cannot be custom-library-mastered (no licensing, just in-house use) for future usage in effects editorial. Is this actually the hard and fast rule, or is there more to this that I may not be familiar with? Because I have heard pre-recorded group ADR in custom libraries before but I've always thought that you're not supposed to.

Ultimately, how is the line drawn on this issue of "mastering up" group ADR for future personal usage? I personally haven't chosen to do so because of what I currently understand about the politics and legalities. I'd love to hear some thoughts on this though, especially from the veterans who have spent a lot of time working group ADR (since it probably won't apply to smaller films). Thanks!

sound optimization for web/online

2011-06-03T08:18:48Z

hi, i've been wondering about this issue (sound optimization for web/online) for some time now... i completed sound design for two short films. the design work was mainly about creating space and overall atmospheric tone. both soundtracks consist mostly of soft ambience sounds, room tones, delicate drones, mild nature sounds, etc. the mix sounds very well when played through standard monitors / loudspeakers, however the entire soundtrack disappears almost utterly when played via average laptop speakers. i'd like to add selected parts of the movies to my online portfolio. therefore, i want to find a strategy to track those elements (or frequency bands) that are currently not audible and try boost them a bit or improve their resolution, with the aim of bringing the soundtrack to sound reasonable on laptop speakers as well. how would you recommend going about doing that? ... so far i've played around with the Waves MaxxBass plugin an used it to enhance some of the low end that looses much of its presence when played via laptop speakers... yet i reckon there's a lot more work to be done.

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

What does mastered mean on a commercial library?

2010-12-10T02:13:08Z

All the libraries I have bought/seen advertised say mastered at 24/96. Is this meaning simply that the audio was cleaned up, metadata was added and its ready for drag and drop use? Or is there something more?

Steps to sound effects editing and mastering? Sounds you recorded.

2010-12-04T19:41:07Z

So far what I do is

Take the sound effect I recorded
Drop it in pro tools Cut up The audio so I have pieces of sounds I will keep Then I name the sound
Fade the sound on the back end
Add a compressor to the track Do gating and EQing if needed
Then I put a limiter on the main output track and thats it.

Is this the same process for you? Am I missing any thing? Is that the process you use to get the sound ready for your library?

Mastering sound effects and impulse responses

2010-07-18T17:38:04Z

Hi! I'm hoping to produce both an impulse response library and a sound effects library for commercial distribution. I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to master sound effects and impulse responses.

Mastering music is surely easier because you just have to make the music sound the best it can and the loudest it can in as many possible environments. Plus with mastering an album you're trying to make the album fit together as a whole. With sound effects it's surely a different kettle of fish because only one sound effect from the entire library might be used in a given project and you've no notion how it's going to be used, what other sounds it will be interacting with, particularly if your sound is used in a game. Plus if you're recording real sounds, you want them to be as true to life as possible don't you, so surely the less post-production tinkering you do the better.

I guess I'm having a hard time distinguishing between the editing and mastering stage. In the editing stage you reduce the dynamic range, remove extraneous noise with eq etc, normalize, bring out frequency ranges that are a little lacking and then aren't you pretty much done?

Surely mastering impulse responses, particularly unconventional ones, is even harder because you've no idea what they're going to be convolved with. Any thoughts or tips would be much appreciated!

Mastering a demo reel

2010-07-29T03:17:35Z

So, I'm finally getting around to putting my demo reel together (I know, I know... Shoulda done that a long time ago), and I was wondering something...

Is it okay to have someone that's not me do the final master? If so, should I mention that? Or should I just do the best I can, since it's MY reel to start with?

Do you do any mastering to your film mixes?

2010-07-15T00:03:15Z

I "grew up" under the wing of a Music Mixer, and got my start doing music related audio work, and I am very familiar in the mastering techniques for Music albums and the like.

I am now working almost exclusively in ADR, Dialogue, VO and Final Mixing for films.

I am curious if you do any mastering to your films. Do you add compression? Do you do overall EQ? By stems? Overall 5.1 bus?

And how about for DVD? Does it get mastered and tightened before being released on DVD?

I get to watch "for your consideration" DVDs from the Academy and these always sound better and more dynamic than a DVD. I suppose it's been mastered for the DVD release?

In all the mixing I have done I have not used compression or EQ on my final mix. But, am I doing something wrong?

I'm very curious about this point.

Making your track "sparkle"

2010-04-21T06:32:03Z

Have you been in this situation? You spend days (and possibly weeks) creating your sound design masterpiece but find that it lacks that certain…something. It's hard to put your finger on it. The best way I can describe it is "sparkle" - it just has that magic quality about it, it leaps off the screen and becomes real. It has an "air" about it.

Some recent examples of film sound design sequences that have this "sparkle", in my opinion:

District 9 • Saving Private Ryan • The Matrix • Wall•E

It is that artful combining of frequencies and dynamics that make it sound so cool. Sometimes it is a certain processing chain or piece of outboard gear. Who's got magic tricks they want to share?