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The great science fiction master Robert Heinlein once said, "Specialization is for insects." :-) But clearly there are pros and cons to specialization and generalism alike, and I for one don't believe the two are completely mutually exclusive.
Generalism tends to be part of how many schools train you, since it's pretty much up to the student where their own ...
6
I heart soundminer.
My general sm workflows:
create an "import" database that you use for tagging sounds with metadata before adding them to your libraries. Quarantining new sounds and manipulating them outside of your massive databases is quicker and cleaner than putting them into your big database and adding metadata there. The reason is because ...
6
Noise Reduction always makes things sound different, not necessarily better. Not everything needs to be pristine.
5
Yes, this is my experience in LA too - we're all "guns for hire" and W2/1099s are a way of life in my experience and of those around me. Sometimes it can be complex when loan-outs are involved, where you're contracting for one studio but loaned out to a larger studio to work under their contract (while the studio whose doing the loaning is the only actually ...
5
Here in Dallas its exactly the same way.
I asked a similar question about a year ago and got some interesting responses
For my gig I've had to learn:
sfx editing and sound design,
adr spotting cutting and editing,
dialogue edit and cleanup,
mixing,
field recording,
foley cutting and performance,
vo cutting and editing,
databasing and cataloguing
etc
...
5
My approach is that on my main FX tracks, there's never an RTAS running at all. Stages don't take well to this stuff usually., especially when they realize a bunch of your plugins won't necessarily load or load correctly.
That said, I build in layers (where appropriate, of course) and try my best to region group parts of a sound catorgically (e.g. for a ...
5
how about: don't use bright mics on bright sources
also, headphone gain affects an actor's read.
edited to add: don't eq things when they're soloed out - eq relies on context
5
I've seen people use Live in so many different ways. That's one of my favourite things about it, it allows you approach things in new ways. I used to use session view mainly when I started out with it, but these days I use the arrangement window more. It really depends on what I'm trying to achieve. I've found the session view useful for a number of things, ...
4
I actually often design sounds in 5 channels, in rare cases 5.1, but you must be absolutely positively certain why when doing it. Most sounds I actually do in mono, and others in stereo, always adapted to what works best for the project, both in style and, for exaple if there are to be any reverb or general processing.
How I do it depends on the sound. Say ...
4
A gem from Randy Thom: An omnidirectional mic placed close enough to a sound source becomes effectively directional. It's all about S:N! :-)
4
Spend more time watching the video and less time with your eyes glued to Pro Tools. This is something I try to keep in mind because it can be so easy to get sucked into the computer screen.
Automation Preview mode is also a god send.
4
When designing a layered effect, mute layers/regions once in a while-
What can't be heard/felt is only clogging up your signal path
Low frequency energy adds up really quickly
3
OMF comes in two flavours, Embedded and External Referenced; Embedded OMF creates copies of all the media files and keeps it contained within the file, Referenced (what you've been given) contains only metadata.
You could just ask for the media files and then relink all the data.
Embedded OMF has a limitation that no file within it can be over 2GB, ...
3
sounds like you need to ask for the omf to have "embeded audio." it still wants to link to the original audio currently. the omf settings should included "embeded audio" and "linked video". OMF 2.0
also, ask for long handles on the audio. when making the omf, they have options regarding embedding media and creating handles.
3
use the signal generator plug-in to create a one frame tone pop, duplicate it twice and place each one at 1/2/3 second intervals prior to the start of the line you are replacing...preferrably on a different track as well. note, your insertion point (recording start) should actually start at the "1" count. better to record silence than miss a syllable if the ...
3
"i'm afraid i could confuse a low amplitude region with an empty one"
Hiya, if you delete the "Audio Files" folder after spotting all offline clips will be greyed out. The recordings have a colour, so you will easily be able to tell what's a spot clip and what's a recording.
3
I do spot with blank regions, though I don't eschew markers. Here's the upside to groups:
edicue We use edicue for our ADR, foley and sfx cueing, and the workflow requires region groups. Edicue is great for spotting other things as well though, and has department note functionality built in. The program takes the region groups and outputs nice pretty ...
3
Some of these are more relevant if you're regularly involved with a show and not so much if you're a contracted remote studio, but here goes:
Consider the nature of the show and decide whether a round-table approach is better than one actor at a time. It presents greater technical problems but can lead to more natural dialogue and some great moments of ...
3
you can do basic bookkeeping in excel, if you already have ms office. just a matter of cashflow layout
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If the recordings need EQ, dynamics, and noise reduction, then I apply it. I'm not afraid to process my stuff. I want the sounds in my library mastered and ready to go. Guns are pretty much the only thing I treat differently, based on the way I work with gun sounds, I prefer the source completely raw.
3
I agree with Christian too. As a short and direct answer, I may work in a stero or 5.1 environment, but I always cut my elements as mono or stereo and give them a virtual premix (e.g. leveling, panning). Let the stage care of the rest.
If I have to crash down my edits for certain technical reasons, I'll crash them down strategically for what's intended to ...
3
The way i work usually is that i open the OMF in a new session based on the template in pro tools. I separate and clean the OMF like sending all you sfx to your template sfx tracks or taking two mono tracks of the same thing and putting them on a stereo track etc... Afterwards i delete all unused tracks and i do a "save copy in" and rename the project ...
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