Adobe 2.0 audio should I upgrade??? or pass…..

[Tim Kolb]

OK…I think I see where you’re coming from, but I guess my take would be to use strictly split mono anyway… I’m not sure why any sound designer would even want to mess with mixed stereo tracks…it makes separating the tracks in Premiere Pro look like a walk in the park in comparison.

I think logistically, because of the huge impact that procedure would make on the entire timeline (adding tracks, etc), it’s unlikely you’ll be able to split audio of a clip on the timeline and preserve AV linking when switching from one track to two new tracks when those tracks will most likely have to appear in the timeline window and there may be stereo effects already on the clips, which would have to be jettisoned or replaced…etc, etc, etc.

I think we’ve all gotten to the point where we expect our editing application to compensate for everything including poorly lit scenes, shaky shots, bad audio, and worst of all, a lack of planning.

Most projects going forward (and quite frankly most projects past)need to have a logistic meeting of the minds beforehand with the workflow worked out… The audio guy knows what’s coming and has made his/her requests for file types and structure ahead of time…the shooter knows if the project will be 4:3, 16:9, HD or whatever…EVERYBODY knows if TC is non-drop or drop-frame (here in the states)…framerate, etc, etc.

When I started with NLEs, we had Media 100s and Pro Tools in the house. There was a list of files you could count on two fingers that those two systems would exchange and 48k vs 44.1k along with all the other minutiae had to be considered and compensated for…and for GFX, a 640×480 .pict was it. Nothing else Photoshop created would work at all.

Premiere Pro is one of the most flexible video editing applications there are out there and while it may have its foibles, it still can save your skin in a lot of situations, but it can’t plan your workflow for you.

I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I don’t know of an app that can do what you describe…(maybe *Edit could…I’ve never used *Edit, but every time something comes up that PPro doesn’t do, someone chimes in that *Edit did that…).

Selecting all the clips in the project window and selecting the track remap is so quick, I honestly don’t see how it could be much of an impediment to simply start the project in the manner that will work best throughout the process and have less headaches…

If I’m missing something, please explain more…I’ve missed things before.

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Dave Friend]

[Brett Nelson] “The fact that I have to make a distinction between stereo and mono up front is a challenge.”

A challenge? Sorry Brett old friend, but I feel you are making much ado about nothing. (That’s not meant to be as contentious as it probably sounds. So please don’t be offended.)

Suppose you had the option to choose stereo or mono during capture (ala edit). Is that not equally (if not more) challenging? Isn

[Mike Cohen]

what is stereo but two mono tracks panned two ways. Essentially, if all you had were a bunch of mono tracks, you could keep the project mono by panning everything to center, or make it stereo by panning various tracks one way or the other.

That is not really a question, more of a comment.

[Tim Kolb]

[Dave Friend] “I also found what I consider a bug. The situation is this; on location only one channel of audio (the talent

[Brett Nelson]

Tim,
Thanks for the thoughtful reply! I agree with you. Probably most of my frustrations are solved by setting my clips to dual mono at the start. I also just figured out a workaround to clips I’ve already placed in a timeline that I later figure out I want to remap a different way…I simply subclip that clip and the new subclip now allows me to remap. I probably won’t need it often, but it’s a nice fallback.

[Tim Kolb] “I think we’ve all gotten to the point where we expect our editing application to compensate for everything including poorly lit scenes, shaky shots, bad audio, and worst of all, a lack of planning.”

Painful but true. I’ll cop to the last one in particular. Large and portable hard drives make file management an even bigger problem than in the past. It’s very easy to hurry and create a temp folder or let something render to a scratch disk and then spend a lot of time hunting it down. A good April Fool’s Day resolution for me…review and write down my media workflow procedure.

Brett

[Dave Friend]

[Tim Kolb] “I don’t mean to sound harsh, but I don’t know of an app that can do what you describe…(“

Well…. Probably the most versatile NLE in this regard is the Avid Liquid line. It uses an interesting approach where the video and audio from a clip occupy the same track. But you can patch it any way you like to change this default behaviour. Also, once it is on the timeline you can move the audio out to it’s own stereo and/or mono tracks. This can be reversed too as the tracks can be collapsed backward in any fashion you like. This separation of A from V does not affect linking – unless you want it to. Too bad that much of the rest of the UI is so wierd.

[Tim Kolb] “maybe *Edit could…”
Edit does not have stereo tracks on the timeline. If you want to cut a stereo source to the timeline you have to target two tracks. They will be panned appropriately once on the timeline. A two-channel mono clip will, if targeted to two tracks, lay both channels on the timeline with each track center panned. IOW, edit knows what the source is (stereo or mono) and treats the clip accordingly.

So, I guess this is a situation where edit can’t. Then again, because of the way it is structured there is no need.

Didn’t want dissapoint you and not mention edit. 🙂

Dave

[Tim Kolb]

[Brett Nelson] “Painful but true. I’ll cop to the last one in particular. Large and portable hard drives make file management an even bigger problem than in the past. It’s very easy to hurry and create a temp folder or let something render to a scratch disk and then spend a lot of time hunting it down. A good April Fool’s Day resolution for me…review and write down my media workflow procedure.”

Hey…I didn’t disqualify myself from being one of the guys committing the offense…I’m not the guy to put anyone “in their place” around here.

It just felt like good food for thought for all of us…

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Tim Kolb]

[Dave Friend] “Didn’t want dissapoint you and not mention edit. :)”

🙂 I was counting on you Dave…and you came through.

…I would agree though that editing mono tracks and mastering them by mixing them to stereo is the most fundamentally sound way to edit audio in a video project…my opinion.

TimK,

Kolb Productions,
Creative Cow Host,
Author/Trainer
http://www.focalpress.com
http://www.classondemand.net

[Brett Nelson]

[Dave Friend] “Sorry Brett old friend, but I feel you are making much ado about nothing.”

Okay, okay…you’re probably right. But one of the great things about learning/using a new NLE is that I can blame all my idiosyncracies on the new system. 😉

Brett

[Rzr219]

Well thanks so much for more info than I will use in the next 2 months, but at least I see how others do this, at times I feel like I’m the only one out there having problems (not with shooting) editing video and doing it in a timely manner. One last thought, if I have a 3.2 P4 HT, 1GB ram, 80GB SATA, 200GB SATA, PCI-E 256RAM Decited on board XP Pro. Will that handel ppo 2, I do about 10 projects a year 2 big ones, and the rest little ones, its a hobbie for me, and I just bought my Camera stuff (no lenses yet ran out of money, cost as much as the cam), and computer this year. Also do I need to buy 6.5 quick time, or just the free downloadeable version? Sorry to ask so many questions, just nice to people that really do this and know what they are talking about.

Regards,
Robert

Thanks for the info…..