What can I do during production to save money in post production?
What can I do to prepare the audio before giving the session to you?
What else is a good practice before exporting the audio OMF or AAF?
Why shouldn’t I use MP3 of AAC (ITunes) files as final music sources in my project?
How do I create an OMF or AAF file in Final Cut or Avid?
What is the best way to get picture to you?
What exactly makes an audio system 5.1 Surround?
I’ve heard of Foley for years. What is it?
What can I do during production to save money in post production?
The best way to both save money and get a better mix is to hire an experienced location sound recordist. The hours spent fixing and cleaning poorly recorded location audio can make up a significant portion of your audio post budget. Throw in the time spent adding sound design to support weak field audio and you begin to realize that you are paying for something that could have been captured originally by a qualified sound person.
That said, we realize that many independent productions operate on a shoe- string budget and are forced to rely on friends or themselves to record production audio. Please contact us to discuss affordable solutions and strategies.
I’ve locked my film in Final Cut or AVID. What can I do to prepare the audio before giving the session to you?
Since the mix stage is the greatest audio post expense, you do not want the re-recording mixer cleaning up bad edits instead of mixing. When we receive your audio, the first stop will be in a lower cost Pro Tools prep room. Here our engineers will split out tracks, clean-up bad edits, do basic voluming, and add roomtones.
You can save money by doing this yourself BEFORE you export your session as an OMF or AAF file. Track splitting simply means that you do not place different types of audio on the same track. For example: Voice-over should be on its own track. Background sync should not be on the same track as any FX you have put in. Music should have its own tracks and dialog as well. Roomtone refers to the sound of the room that an interview was recorded in. A good location sound recordist always records a minute of roomtone at the end of an interview. This allows the editor to fill in the gaps created by the editing of dialog.
What else is a good practice before exporting the audio OMF or AAF?
Always digitize (or capture) production audio digitally. Avoid running your audio analog out of a deck, into a cheap edit room mixer, and then back into your non-linear system. Besides the unnecessary analog conversion and re-conversion into digital, there are too many stops along the way where human error can occur. It is always best to digitize utilizing a Firewire connection. This way there will be no difference between the field tape and the audio that ends up in our suites.
Do not delete any location audio track. If a scene was recorded to two channels in the field and the editor thinks one is completely useless, please do not get rid of it. Provide all tracks to the sound house. You’d be surprised how those “useless” tracks can become important during a mix.
Do not render any audio effects that you might have experimented with during edit -- effects like equalization, reverb, noise reduction, or time stretching programs. Your edit room is not the ideal space to be making critical decisions such as these.
Another important step is to make sure that your session has no mixed samples rates. The standard for film and television audio acquisition is still16 bit / 48 Khz.
Music CDs are 16 bit / 44.1 Khz. And some DV formats support 32 Khz. It is essential that you make sure your project’s audio all conforms to 16/48.
Why shouldn’t I use MP3 of AAC (ITunes) files as final music sources in my project?
There has been much debate about whether people can really tell the difference between a bit reduced file versus a CD. No one disputes that an MP3 is a smaller file than its CD version. But does it sacrifice quality? In my experience unless you get into MP3s that are at a higher rate (320Kbit/s instead of the more common 128Kbit/s), one can hear the difference. Of course the program material greatly determines how easy it is to detect this difference.
The bottom line is that after all the “blind” listening tests, no one has argued that the CD sounds inferior to the smaller MP3 or AAC files. So spend a few extra bucks and get the music on the CD the way the artist intended it to be heard.
How do I create an OMF or AAF file?
EXPORTING AUDIO FROM FINAL CUT PRO
When editing is completed it will be necessary to export your project’s audio so that we can start to work with it. Final Cut Pro makes this relatively easy. You will choose OMF on export. Later versions of Final Cut, 6 and up, give you the option to choose AAF (a newer AVID format), but OMF works fine. We can take either OMF or AAF. There are a couple of choices you need to make when you select OMF. First: Consolidate your sequence with handles. 90 frames are what we like. Next, check the option to keep audio crossfades, and if you are on version six, select the option to keep volumes. Earlier versions of FCP did not let you export volumes. Finally, make sure that all your files are the same sample and bit depth (The standard is 48K and 16 bit.) You should keep in mind that OMFs cannot be larger than 2 gigs. If your project’s audio is larger than 2 gigs, make two (or three) OMFs. Please break the OMFs up by tracks -- that is, the first OMF might be tracks 1-6 and second 7-12. (This is preferable to giving all the tracks for the first half of the program.)
EXPORTING AUDIO FROM AVID
AVID created OMF. It was a straightforward way to move audio from the AVID timeline into many other manufacturers’ DAWs (Pro Tools, etc.) Although buggy in the early years, OMF has become a solid standard of the television and film communities. About five years ago AVID introduced AAF. It is available on all current AVID systems while OMF is sometimes not. AAF essentially allows the editor to export the audio to Pro Tools in very much the same manner as OMF. Some of the differences are that AAF allows for the export of video as well as audio… and it exports HD MXF media.
Go to "export your sequence" (either right-click>export, or file>export), and in
the “Export As…” window, go into ‘Options’ to access the export settings.
From the “Export As” drop down menu at the top, select OMF 2.0. (AVID allows for an older type of OMF… OMF 1.0, but it is non-embedded media and more prone to problems.)
You’ll want to check the “include all audio tracks in sequence” checkbox.
Depending on what version of Xpress you’re on, either: Select ‘Consolidate Media’ as the export method and make sure that you select ‘Embedded’.
Below ‘Export Method’ you can select handle length (we prefer 3 seconds or 90 frames) and you can choose to include your rendered audio effects or to render them right there for the export. (We generally do not want the rendered effects, but it is case by case.)
Just like FCP, you should make sure that all your files are the same bit and sample rate (16 bit, 48K) and that your OMF is not bigger than 2 gigs. If it is larger than 2 gigs, please split the project up by tracks (example: OMF 1 could be tracks 1-6, OMF 2 could be tracks 7-10.)
BOTTOM LINE: OMF works quite well generally and does NOT take a huge amount of time to create (15 to 20 minutes). If you are having problems, PLEASE don't hesitate to call us for tips and advice!
What is the best way to get picture to you?
The most common method is a Quick Time (.mov) file. Although we can handle uncompressed files, that is usually overkill. Most non-linear systems employ some amount of data compression (15:1 comes to mind). This is fine for off-line and an acceptable picture quality for the start of audio post. If possible we will want a second Quick Time file when you have finished color correction and your After Effect work. 720 x 480 pixels is a good size for us to work with. Since non-linear systems have the time consuming task of rendering before creating a video file, you might want to consider another option. We can also accept a playable DVD movie. These days one can buy a decent DVD recorder at box stores such as Best Buy for about $150. Just like VCRs of the past, you simply feed the DVD recorder with a video and audio out from your AVID or Final Cut Pro, press record and then stop when the sequence is finished. (You have to remember to “finalize” the DVD before ejecting the disc, but that doesn’t add much time to the process.)
Whether you send a Quick Time or playable DVD, it is always a good idea to have a head and tail “2 pop” on your project. A “2 pop” is a one frame visual cue (color bars for example) aligned with a frame of 1 KHz tone. It is placed exactly 2 seconds before first frame of picture and again 2 seconds after the last frame of picture.
What exactly makes an audio system 5.1 Surround?
Although a variety of surround systems exist today, 5.1 multi-channel surround sound is the most common. A 5.1 set-up produces five discreet channels of sound in the left, right, center, left surround and right surround positions. 5.1 systems also have one channel designated for LFE (low frequency effects) which is sent to a subwoofer.
Beside the obvious creative advantages of being able to circle your viewers with dynamic sound design and music, 5.1 systems put less demand on their individual speakers. In a more conventional stereo system there are only two speakers. This means every sound, from teeth rattling explosions to dense music scores and dialog, has to “fit” into these two speakers. To achieve this, mixers have used a combination of equalization, compression, and brick wall limiting. Since 5.1 has five discreet full frequency speakers, there is less crowding which results in less distortion and a reduced need for audio processing. And the LFE (or “boom” channel) takes a huge burden off the main speakers as the LFE sub-woofer is designed to handle only the low end frequencies.
I’ve heard of Foley for years. What is it?
Named after Hollywood legend, Jack Foley, Foley is the craft of re-creating production sound in a controlled acoustic environment. First a Foley artist assembles a wide variety of props (shoes, plates, straw, vegetables, liquids) on a soundstage that screens the film requiring Foley. The artist then literally copies the movements on the screen while being recorded by an audio engineer. Footsteps, keys jangling, drinks being poured, computer typing – whatever is required, the Foley artist must perform perfectly in sync with the production visuals.
